On Oct. 19, authorities near Zanesville, Ohio, shot and killed 18 tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, two grizzly bears, three mountain lions, two wolves and a baboon.
Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz gave his men the order to kill the animals because he believed they posed a serious threat to the community, and with darkness falling, tranquilizing them was not an option.
Sam Kopchak, Terry Thompson’s neighbor, said he saw lions and bears running free, and a tiger chasing horses. Kopchak was able to get his horse to safety inside his nearby barn, and he remained there until authorities swarmed his property. “It was like a war zone,” Kopchak said, of law enforcement’s efforts to kill the beasts.
Renowned conservationist Jack Hanna, who is the director of the Columbus Zoo, was in the area and arrived on the scene in time to witness the bloody aftermath. He said of the incident, “I’ve seen a lot of things happen in my career, but nothing like this have I ever witnessed. It’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life,” Hanna said. “What happened here last night had to be done or else we would have had some major losses of human life here this morning. And I won’t forget what happened here today as long as I ever live.”
Critics of the decision to kill the animals say an effort should have been made to tranquilize and capture them, but Hanna said tranquilizing wild animals is highly risky. He believes Sheriff Lutz’s decision probably saved human lives.
“I’m sorry to say, but what the sheriff did had to be done,” Hanna said. “Otherwise, we would have had carnage out here in Zanesville, Ohio… I’ve been out all over the world tranquilizing animals,” he said. “Can you imagine trying to tranquilize an animal in the dark? Fine, we have a spotlight. We hit it. You don’t know exactly: Did you hit a muscle? Did you hit a bone? If you hit the bone, the plunger might not work and put the medicine in … Then we send a veterinarian or the sheriff up there to see if the animal is down, right? What’s gonna happen if the animal is just sitting there not even asleep? You’re dead.”
Terry Thompson’s estranged wife arrived on the scene to find her husband had killed himself, and the animals she referred to as her “babies” were slaughtered. She was described by witnesses as “shaking and angry.”
“She said she was coming to rip me apart because I was taking her animals,” said Hanna. “When she came in there, she was totally not – just nothing was left. Her husband had just committed suicide … She has 30-something animals laying there in her driveway that are gone. … She was shivering. I hugged her. I started crying with her.
“I could have yelled at her — you know … to lose 18 Bengal tigers in the world today is beyond a tragic loss,” Hanna said. “I can’t describe what that does to me, along with all the other creatures. But when you see a woman that’s lost everything, what do you do? Do I sit there and yell at her? … I sit there and console her. …That’s all I could do.”
Authorities believe all of the animals have been accounted for, including a monkey that was initially reported missing, but is believed to have been eaten by one of the other animals.
