ZANESVILLE --The size and scope of the effort to bring down dozens of escaped wild animals from a private animal preserve in Zanesville was revealed at a late afternoon news conference.

Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz says the number of escaped animals officers were dealing with was 56. Of that number, 48 have been put down.

The breakdown of the animals put down included:

  • 2 grizzly bears
  • 6 black bears
  • 17 lions (9 male/8 female)
  • 18 tigers
  • 3 mountain lions
  • 1 wolf
  • 1 baboon

Six animals were captured and taken to the Columbus Zoo including:

  • 1 grizzly bear
  • 3 leopards
  • 2 monkeys

Two animals remain on the loose including a gray wolf and a monkey.

Sheriff Lutz said the Columbus Zoo has recommended that the monkey be put down when located because it is believed to be carrying a Herpes-B virus. The virus can be dangerous to humans if bitten by the animal.

World renowned wild animal expert, Jack Hanna, reiterated his support for the actions taken by law enforcement officers despite the number of animals that had to be killed. Among the animals, the Bengal tiger is critically endangered, but still Hanna says the right call was made to put down the animals because of the potential for loss of life in the community if theyremained loose.

Speaking to the media when informed of the number of animals involved, Hanna said what was done had to be done.

"My heart aches for these animals. A lot of people could have lost their lives if it hadn't been for these guys," said Hanna. He serves as the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo.

Townspeople hid indoors Wednesday as deputies with high-powered rifles hunted down and killed lions, bears, tigers and dozens of other exoticanimals that escaped from a wild-animal park after the owner threw their cages open and committed suicide.


"It's like Noah's Ark, like, wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," said Jack Hanna, TV personality and former director of the Columbus Zoo. "Noah's Ark filled with tigers and lions and all leopards and a few monkeys and whatever, and it crashes here, and all of a sudden they're out there."


The owner of the privately run Muskingum County Animal Farm, Terry Thompson, left the cages open and the fences unsecured before committing suicide, Sheriff Matt Lutz said.




John Ellenberger, a neighbor of Thompson's, speculated he freed the animals to get back at neighbors and police.

"Nobody much cared for him," Ellenberger said.

Neighbor Danielle White, whose father's property abuts the 40-acre animal park, said she didn't see loose animals this time but did in 2006, when a lion escaped.


The sheriff said his office started getting calls Tuesday evening that wild animals were loose just west of Zanesville on a road that runs under Interstate 70. He said deputies with rifles went to the animal preserve, where they found Thompson dead and all the cages open. Several aggressive animals were near his body and had to be shot, the sheriff said.

Lutz said his main concern was protecting the public in the area, where homes sit on large lots of sometimes 10 acres. Nearby Zanesville has a population of about 25,000.



Hanna told ABC's "Good Morning America" that if an officer shot a bear, a leopard or a tiger with a tranquilizer at night, "the animal gets very excited, it goes and hides, and then we have his officer in danger of losing their life, and other people."

The preserve in Zanesville also had cheetahs, giraffes and camels. Lutz called the animals very big and aggressive but said a caretaker told authorities they had been fed on Monday.
White, the preserve's neighbor, said Thompson had repeatedly been in legal trouble.



Bailey Hartman, a night manager at a McDonald's, also said it saddened her that the animals were shot. But she said, "I was kind of scared coming in to work."

Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets and among the highest number of injuries and deaths caused by them. In 2010, an animal caretaker was killed by a bear at a property in Cleveland.

On Wednesday, the Humane Society of the United States criticized Gov. John Kasich for allowing a statewide ban on the buying and selling of exotic pets to expire in April. The organization urged the state to immediately issue emergency restrictions.

"How many incidents must we catalog before the state takes action to crack down on private ownership of dangerous exotic animals?" Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO, said in a statement.