I didn't do it.
Posted on 10/18/2011 8:36:54 PM PDT by quantim
ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Dozens of animals escaped Tuesday from a wild-animal preserve that houses bears, big cats and other beasts, and the owner later was found dead there, said police, who shot several of the animals and urged nearby residents to stay indoors.
The fences had been left unsecured at the Muskingum County Animal Farm in Zanesville, in east-central Ohio, and the animals' cages were open, police said. They wouldn't say what animals escaped but said the preserve had lions, wolves, tigers, giraffes, camels and bears. They said bears and wolves were among 25 animals that had been shot and killed and there were multiple sightings of exotic animals along a nearby highway.
"These are wild animals that you would see on TV in Africa," Sheriff Matt Lutz warned at a press conference.
He called the escaped animals "mature, very big, aggressive" but said a caretaker told authorities the preserve's 48 animals had been fed on Monday. He said police were patrolling the 40-acre farm and the surrounding areas in cars, not on foot, and were concerned about big cats and bears hiding in the dark and in trees.
"This is a bad situation," Lutz said. "It's been a situation for a long time."
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
On a waterbed.
Wearing a mask and with his arms and legs restrained says the article.
“four legs good, two legs bad!”
Insert FarSide cartoon here ( )
sounds like ALF to me. Leaving all the doors open.
Holy cats, Batman!
PLEASANT GROVE, Ohio (AP) — Beady eyes and dealy-bopper ears greeted Matilda Berkschneider this morning as she awoke in her upper floor bedroom this morning. A girraffe from the nearby Zanesville animal farm was wolfing down leaves from the tree outside . . .
Alas, I’ll never make it with the AP.
Our local news has been on this all night. So far 25 of the escaped animals have been shot...no information on the types, but they’ve closed the schools in that area for tomorrow.
Sounds like the 1965 movie “Zebra in the Kitchen” but much more serious.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059944/
I agree. Sounds like the M.O. of the animal rights whack-job crowd.
That’s gonna be a story for the kids to tell their grandkids. Shoot, there may even be a few folk tunes come out of it. “The Night They Shot Ol’ Curious George.”
Once it got dark the orders were to shoot to kill. Lots of livestock in that area and with the possibility of humans being attacked in the dark, they didn’t want to take any chances. Several lions, tigers, cougars and leopards were among the escapees.
Thompson, 62, was released from federal prison just three weeks ago, after serving a one-year term.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had raided Thompson’s Kopchak Road property in June 2008, seizing more than 100 guns.
In April 2010, Thompson pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus to two federal charges: possession of a machine gun and possession of short firearms without serial numbers.
Under the terms of his release, Thompson was on home confinement for a year.
Thompson also was convicted in Muskingum County Municipal Court in 2005 of cruelty to animals, having an animal at large and two counts of rendering animal waste without a license. The charges stemmed from allegations that three cows and a bison had died on another property he owned, on Boggs Road in Perry Township, east of Zanesville.
Neighbors there had lodged numerous complaints about him letting his animals wander from that property.
Thompson was put on house arrest for six months and paid a $2,870 fine in that case. He also was ordered to move his animals to his Kopchak Road land.
I didn't do it.
I know this guy. I live close by. He was just released from prison. He let all of his animals go and then shot himself. The local schools are all closed. There are said to be over 40 animals lose.
He didn’t release the primates that were in the house, though.
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