Comments on: Exotic Animal Escapees Terrorize Central Ohio

By: coelacanth1938

coelacanth1938 — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:40:31 +0000

At last count, only a grizzly bear, three leopards, and two monkeys survived this mess. 18 Bengal tigers had to be put down. They think the one missing monkey with the hep c was eaten by another animal.

Apparently the dead man had shot himself after letting his animals loose.

By: recurve

recurve — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:34:59 +0000

@Richard888
The animal pictured is an african lion several species of large carnivores were released by the owner of the “preserve” including African lions, tigers, mountain lions, cheetahs, wolves ,grizzly and black bears. After releasing the animals he took his life leaving law enforcement in a tough spot. Most of the animals were destroyed by sheriffs deputies but some were captured and taken by the columbus zoo. All the animals have now been accounted for except one monkey so they say.

By: Richard888

Richard888 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:52:34 +0000

@ recurve
The dead animal in the picture looks more like an African lion than a mountain lion.

By: Hapa

Hapa — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:04:31 +0000

I hope at least that there was someone or a few people taking blood, semen and other DNA samples from the dead exotics: Tigers, Lions, and others are incredibly threatened in the wild. According to Peter Ward in his book evolution, by the time mankind reaches 9 billion souls many megafauna will be wiped out due to competition for water resources with a ever growing humanity (he named elephants, Hippos (the latter are not even endangered!) and several others as examples of what will be lost

Zoos, legit wildlife preserves and Circuses may be the last stands of animals like elephants and Tigers. Therefore we need every single resource available to keep these animal existant, and both advanced cloning and artificial insemination from dead animals should be on the table (prefer the latter to the former, but we are in a struggle here).

By: recurve

recurve — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:48:33 +0000

The latest press release says that all but a grizzly, mountain lion and a monkey have been captured or killed I live in Columbus and it’s raining like crazy should make tracking these animals down interesting. They are also saying they are not 100% sure on the invoice of animals but all the large primates were still caged in the house. This guy let his animals loose and then offed himself.

By: Evo Schandor

Evo Schandor — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:09:49 +0000

Having spent some time in Muskingum and the county just north of it, Coshocton, I can say that there are a lot of very wild, very remote areas there and to the immediate south and east. If these animals, especially the wolves and bears, get into that area fairly quickly, they may never be caught or killed. Look for a lot of sightings for a lot of years. Also – there have been quite a few Bigfoot sightings in this area over the years (my main reason for spending time in these counties)

By: jayman

jayman — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:47:49 +0000

Sad. Just sad. Especially if critically endangered species like tigers are involved. I don’t blame the cops – I know they have to protect the public – but it’s good to know the Columbus Zoo has people on the scene. I hope at least some animals can be saved.

I live in Columbus and my first fear was that The Wilds was involved – it’s in the same county – but this was evidently some private thing I was unaware of.

Now it’s soapbox time. I know some will criticize me on “constitutional” grounds, but we really have to take a hard look at private ownership of exotic animals by untrained people. It usually ends in tragedy for people and animals alike.

By: coelacanth1938

coelacanth1938 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:16:05 +0000

This is one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen.
I’ve been online collecting information about this incident all night. To me at least, the sheriff appears to have had a grudge against the dead man, and I don’t think they really know how many animals were up there.
At one time according to witnesses, there was over twenty tigers being kept on that farm.

By: flame821

flame821 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 05:38:45 +0000

According to the Gawker article they have the SWAT team mobilized to deal with any aggressive animals. And he supposedly had 25+ primates in his house along with a fair amount of assault weapons. Yikes.

Do have to wonder how he died though. Heart attack versus animal attack. So glad I don’t live anywhere near this area, I can’t imagine having to worry about African Lions crossing my backyard.