Ohio Animal Farm Owner Set Wild Animals Free to Roam and Kills Himself

An animal farm owner killed himself on Tuesday but not before setting free his exotic animals to roam the streets of Zanesville, Ohio. The rural town was put on lock down as armed police went on a hunt for 48 animals including wolves, bears, lions and monkeys.

31 of the 48 animals have been shot and killed  :'( .

"We can't have bears and tigers and leopards running around in Muskingum County here, so they had to make the decision to obviously put the animals down because you cannot tranquilize an animal at night," Hanna said by phone.

"I know people are upset over it, obviously human life comes first, I'm upset about it too but you can't blame the sheriff, he did what he needed to do so people don't lose their lives."

The monkey, bear and mountain lion are still at large.......run babies run far far away.

Do you think they made the right decision in killing these animals or could they have waited til day break to tranquilize them?

If they could see to shoot and kill them then why couldn't they shoot a tranquilizer at them? I saw this on TV and it made me sick. I don't get it.

I did hear earlier that they are not positive that the man killed himself. How else would all the animals get loose unless someone else was involved? Did they confirm that he committed suicide?

Froggy, that was my first question too... If they could shoot them, why could they not tranquilize them??!! 

katt

THEY COULD OF WAITED!!!!!

The town was on lock down already, they only thing in danger were the animals, these animals are dying not because of something they did, but because of what a human did, i bet not one of them tried to attack anything.. to me this is completely horrible the way it is handled, it's atrocious, inhumane, demeaning.. their answer.. yeah..just hunt them down and kill them, grab your guns boys..oh my god.. :'(

        I agree, Imagin,  I think they (pardon the pun) jumped the gun on this one.  Hell it's not the animals fault, the humans are the true wild beasts IMO.  Anyhow,  very sad but predictable end to this story.  I don't know why they couldn't have used tranq's.  I think they just used the easiest method they could.

the tranqs don't always take effect right away. The animal could have run off into the night, not been found and woke from the medicine to roam again and then not be found to be tranqed again until after they did something to someone or someone pet or property.

thank you so much wmmeden... as upsetting as this is to me for the animals sake, I do see what you are saying and it makes sense, it is just so sad because of course the animals had no fault in the situation.... it was just us humans wreaking havoc again...

katt

How did Noah do it, and get them all on the Ark? I heard part of this in the other room, but didn't want to watch. I knew it was gonna be too sad. I cry for cats and dogs,squirrels and birds, possums and sometimes even rats, that get run over. I feel bad when I kill ants and flies and black widows.I try to take other spiders out of the house. I don't like the flies barfing and defacating on food and I don't want to get bit by a poisonous spider.

You can't tranquilize them by night? Really? I think that the sheriff was just a bit scared...

sheriff was scared? tranquilzer?? these were wild animals, not some fuzzy kitty wanting to sit on your lap. had there been a bear or tiger staring at anyone, waiting to attack, you can bet your last dollar you'd be wishing that the sherif or anyone with a gun would be there to save you. no one should own wild animals in their backyard...ohio has some of the most jacked-up laws in the country regarding this, but people do own them, and when they get loose, the need to be killed before any human is harmed.
I'm sure that had a baby or anyone was attacked, the outcry would have been "where's the police to protect us?"

and yes, it was confirmed he killed himself, and then one of his cute lovable animals started chewing on his head.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/10/ohio_farm_owner_killed_self_wa.html

It's a pitiful situation and basically a no win one either. These wild animals don't deserve to die no more then a human being needs to.

You look at these beautiful creatures dead like that gorgeous lion that was placed where he should not be. I get the utmost importance is protecting the public and they did all they could to protect the citizens.

We can look at both sides and find reasons on both sides of the fence but one thing that is unanimous is that it's a tragic situation.

Lips

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/jack-hanna-on-ohio-exotic-animal-tragedy/2011/10/20/gIQAUgAX0L_video.html

A very tragic story indeed.  If one of the lions had injured or killed a human, I guess we would all be saying why didn't they kill them.  I think the swift action "probably" saved human life but could more effort have been made to tranquilise and save these rare animals?

blue

watch the video...

30 to 40 wild animals all coming from the same area and only 4 tranquilzer guns.

i think not letting people own them would be a good start.

Hey max1mike i just watched the video. This dude was professional with wild life. How come there was only 4 tranquilizer guns for 40 something animals? If the town was quarantined and it took a few minutes for the drug to kick no one should be hanging around to begin with. See what im saying? 

the dude was a professional nut-job. nobody needs to own wild freaking animals. he went and released wild animals into a city, and then KILLED HIMSELF. local law enforcement only had 4 tranquilzer guns, not the guy who owned them, and he was dead PETA and anyone else who thinks the "poor innocent babies" should have been tranquilized is insane.

While I understand many who say "They shouldn't have killed them" please remember this person LET THEM GO knowing full well what terror he was unleashing in the town and that others could have been killed by this action.

He knew very well what could happen and did this. Had he called agencies (Zoos and such) none of these animals would have been killed.

This man was mentally sick.

Any animal rights activist who criticized the mass killing of the wild animals should read the autopsy report on Brent Kandra. He was just 24 when he was mauled to death last year by a "pet" bear on an exotic animal farm.

Kandra had worked at Sam Mazzola's World Animal Studios in Columbia Station for six years. On that fatal day in August, Kandra went to feed a black bear when the animal grabbed him and threw him around like a rag doll.

The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria said the Cuyahoga County coroner's report showed the bear left 600 separate wounds on Kandra's body.

600.

The newspaper said Kandra had "fractured ribs, a puncture wound to his heart and lacerations to his spleen, left kidney and left lung." Kandra was 6-foot-2 and 263 pounds but no match for a bear.

Imagine a child in Zanesville running into one of Thompson's bears.