Wild Animals, Zanesville, and PETA

On October 18th, 2011 Terry Thompson released over 50 wild animals from his compound on his farm and then commited suicide. The media called them exotic, which included lions, bears, wolves, tigers, and monkeys. Mr. Thompsom did this just as it was starting to turn dark.

This became very dangerous, very quickly because the compound was in horrible condition and most of the animals were starving. Many people know what was reported in the news. As, soon as the animals left the compound, a 911 call came in and the police thought perhaps it was a prank call. Then another 911 call came in, and another. What the police did then was to try to find out what was happening. That did not take very long.

The sheriff , from Zanesville called in state troopers from surrounding counties, because he knew Mr. Thompson and how many animals had been on his farm. This gave the sheriff an estimate of how many animals were out that night.

As soon as the police started to look for the animals, they started to find them. The first thing they did was try to tranquilize an animal. That did not work very well. The office shot a bear running towards him twice with a tranquilzer. This did not even touch the bear. Another officer had to shoot the bear, to save the first officer's life. Tranquizers take time. Unfortunately, the county only had four tranquilizers.

Still many of the animals were out and at different places. People were bringing their horses in from their fields and were able to see the animals. Most of them let the horses go, and ran inside the house. One put his horse in his barn, then called 911. Some of the people were cooking dinner and looked outside and saw a lion and called the police. Even one little girl came inside and told her mother that she saw a lion outside, but her mother thought she was making it up. She is probably never going to do that again. some of the animals were shot and killed by people in their own yard, but this was not on the news.

What was on the news, is that the police and state troopers killed most of the animals that night. Also, former Columbus, Ohio zoo keeper Jack Hannah was on the side of the police. Even though he felt a lot of sorry, he understood. Jack Hannah loves animals, but loves his children more and said people should protect their children first.

There were a few famous celebraties who criticized the state troopers who killed the animals that night, like Carrie Ann Inaba who tweeted " They could have tried harder to save the animals, it wasn't their fault:(" And Samantha Robinson who tweeted " Did they really have to kill them?" And then Slash, the guitar player who said " I understand the situation, but there is no way to exterminate 49 loose in Ohio"

What surprized me the most was PETA. Some of my friends told me PETA had written to the sheriff from Zanesville and told him he was horrible for killing the animals. This is not true. PETA did write letters, but they were to Ohio Govenor John Kasich, who earlier this year refused to extend an emergency ban on keeping exotic animals. That ban had been in place before Kasich took office. now in Ohio, there are several places that have "exotic" animals. Some have a lot and some have a few. One even has two wolves that act like dogs, they like to have someone pet them. But, they are still exotic animals.

A lot of things happend that night. The thing that surprized me the most after everything was over, was PETA. They did not send threatening letters to the sheriff of Zanesville. This is pretty much the only time I am going to say thank you to them. But, I am. Thank you PETA.