Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Where the wild things are

Lately that would be in and around the Ohio city of Zanesville.
The mayor of the Ohio town where several wild animals are still on the loose said on Wednesday that their owner had set them free before killing himself on Tuesday evening.

In a phone interview on CNN, the mayor of Zanesville, Butch Zwelling, said that the animals included lions, tigers, bears and wolves. He identified the owner as Terry Thompson.

Large animals were running free outside of their cages when the police arrived as night fell on Tuesday, the local sheriff, Matt Lutz of Muskingum County, said during a Wednesday morning news conference. “We had animals outside that fenced area on the road,” Sheriff Lutz said, and officers shot them “at close range” with their sidearms. “We cannot have animals running loose in this county,” he said.

As darkness fell, the police were concerned that the animals would disperse, and Sheriff Lutz said he made the call to shoot them with live ammunition. “We did not have any tranquilizer darts with us; we don’t carry them,” he said, adding that they later received darts for use around residential subdivisions.

Sheriff Lutz said that the authorities had killed 43 or 44 animals of roughly 50 believed to be on the loose. One cat was hit on the interstate, he said.
Keep the pets in and the doors locked when the zoo comes to you.

Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]