Zanesville Animal Massacre

Subject: Zanesville Animal Massacre Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:53 pm

Okay. So I watched this show last night.
And what it said, I actually thought for a while it was made up. But it wasn't. And I'm just gonna quote from an article first, and then get into why I bothered to make this rant.

Quote :: Zanesville Animal Massacre Included 18 Rare Bengal Tigers

The massacre began Tuesday evening when sheriff deputies arrived at a notorious wild animal preserve in Zanesville, Ohio, to see Bengal tigers, lions, bears and other ferocious animals wandering away, some headed for the highway.
Fearing the animals would scatter and terrorize the town, officers began dispatching the wildlife with their pistols.
"These animals were on the move and were showing aggressive behavior," said Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz.
"There were some very close calls," the sheriff said. At times it was "almost hand to hand" combat with the animals, Lutz said.
"These are 300 pound Bengal tigers that we had to put down," he said.
During the night of chaos, an escaped lion killed a monkey, and bears and lions were charging at horses kept at the preserve, he said.
When the carnage was over, 49 animals were slaughtered, including 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, a pair of grizzlies, three mountain lions, two wolves and a baboon.
The animals had been released by Terry Thompson, the owner of the preserve, who then killed himself, Lutz said.
"These killings were senseless. For our guys to have to do this, it was nonsense, it was crazy," the sheriff said.
ABC News' wildlife expert Jack Hanna, who advised Lutz during the crisis, said it was especially heartbreaking to see so many Bengal tigers killed when they are on the verge of distinction. But the actions by the police saved a catastrophe, he said.
A vet shot one tiger with a tranquilizer from 15 yards away and Lutz said it "just went crazy," and started to run, so officers were forced to shoot it with lethal ammunition. Another animal that got away, described as a big cat, was hit by a car on a highway some distance away, he said.
One animal, a macaque monkey, is still missing and Lutz said it is "highly likely" that it is infected with herpes B virus. Herpes B isn't dangerous to monkeys, but "it's very dangerous for humans," said Dr. Barb Wolfe, Director of Conservation Medicine at Ohio wildlife conservatory The Wilds.
When passed to humans the rare disease can lead to deadly brain infections, according to the National Primate Research Center in Wisconsin.
Wolfe urged the public not to approach the monkey and to call 911 if it's spotted.
During the chaos, several individuals were arrested for attempting to steal the carcass of a lion that had been killed.
Six animals were still in their cages on the 73-acre spread, and Thompson's wife returned to find at least 30 of her animals lying dead on the ground.
"She's in a state of shock right now obviously," Hanna said. "She cried on my shoulder and said please don't take my family."
The remaining living animals -- a grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys -- are being taken to the Columbus Zoo.
"We'll be passing a law here very shortly that she'll have to adhere to as well as the other people in Ohio," Hanna said. "It sometimes takes things like this to make things better."
Thompson, 61, was recently released from prison after serving one year on federal weapons charges. According to investigators he has been cited in the past for animal abuse and neglect.
Lutz described Thompson as "a guy who kind of kept to himself, was always willing to push the envelope a little bit."
"We feel that Mr. Thompson died from a self-inflicted wound. We also feel he had released these animals at some point. Not only were the gates open but some of the pens were open," Lutz said.
Zanesville Animal Massacre
Hanna said he "can see this happening," based on his knowledge about the animal world.
"The guy was depressed and he loved the animals that much, maybe," Hanna said.
Lutz said the Sheriff's department has been aware of animal farm for several years, and that it "has been a huge problem."
Hanna described the conditions as "abominable," saying the animals were living in "filth."
During the hunt to find all 56 animals, the Ohio State Highway Patrol has cordoned off seven square miles near Interstate 70 and officers are using infrared devices during the night to find the animals.
On "Good Morning America" today Hanna said that in controlling this situation human life and animal life must both be considered, as does timing of capture.
"Human life has to come first but that's what we have to look for. We have to take care of our animal life. You cannot tranquilize an animal at night. It's hard enough during the daytime," Hanna said.
Danielle White, one of Thompson's neighbors, said that she saw a lion in the area in 2006.
"It's always been a fear of mine knowing [the preserve's owner] had all those animals," she said. "I have kids. I've heard a male lion roar all night."
Thompson has been warned repeatedly over the last decade to get his animals under control – and no less than 30 times in the past year. He was arrested in April of 2005 for cruelty and torture of cattle and bison he had on his property, according to the website pet-abuse.com.
He was charged with one count of having an animal at large, two counts of rendering animal waste and one count of cruelty to animals.

Okay. So that was the article.

But the fact that really got me?

It was this. These cops, they gave the order to shoot any animals that looked like they were going to get out onto the highway.
And that, importunately, was okay in my head. Never okay, okay, but they could justify the killing of a bear, a lioness, and so many other animals just a little. But then, when it looked like the wilds wouldn't be able to tranquilize the animals, they sent in four special units to see if they could find Terry Thompson.
And did they? Yes. They found him when they went to investigate the cages and how all his 56 animals had gotten loose.
He was dead, and he had opened all of the cages to let the animals out. But when they saw that some animals were still in their cages, the special units shut them, thinking that they could save some animals.

They were wrong. Terry had cut holes in EVERY cage. So no matter what they did, they had animals on the loose.
And that was when the sheriff gave the order to shoot. All of them. To shoot whenever they saw an animal.
And that's what got me. The fact that, sure, I understand the animals were unpredictable. But when most of them were staying in the fence, and basically just sitting there, they couldv'e waited for like a minute longer. That stupid freakin order, to shoot every animal seen, well that made me cry.

At the end, the people had shot approxminatly 1% of India's Tiger population. Nearly every animal had been killed, with only six saved.

So yeah. I was pretty cut up about it. Yeah, it happened years ago.

But all the animals slaughtered were buried in a mass grave at the farm where they died.

It just bothered me, cause you know, they weren't gonna NOT attack, I know that. But there was a chance they would've saved one tiger at the very least. But they gave the order to kill, instead of wait and see.

Yeah. So that's my rant. I suppose it doesn't really make sense, but Terry let those animals out, and then he didn't deal with what he knew would happen. It all happened because Ohio back then had little or no laws against the keeping of wild and dangerous animals, and they care that they should have been in. If they had made laws against it, this hoarder wouldn't have been able to have as many animals as he did, or even none at all, and these poor animals wouldn't have had to die. Even if he had NOT let the animals out.

I just really like tigers XD Their graceful, and majestic, and beautiful. I've always loved them. And the fact I was born in the Year of the Tiger, well that always made me love them even more. The fact their nearly extinct, well it just makes me feel sad anyone would want to hurt them. So when I saw the fact they killed 18 tigers, it really made me think about the whole thing. I might be the only one who feels that the whole thing was wrong and sick, but I needed to get this off my chest.

- Vina

Subject: Re: Zanesville Animal Massacre Sat Aug 11, 2012 12:12 am

Well. Animal cruelty that is.

Instead of shooting them, why not just plant trees and try to make up the animals' lost habitat? It was endangered, the heck! This infuriated me as well.

GRRRRRR.

Subject: Re: Zanesville Animal Massacre Sat Aug 11, 2012 7:52 pm

I'm with you Vina! I love animals, and those IDIOTS had to give the order to shoot! They could've just tranquilized them, But NO! they had to shoot them with those FREAKING WEAPONS IN THEIR HANDS! and I like Tigers, especially the White ones. They are FREAKING endangered, and those officers don't FREAKING care about endangered species, i'm not insulting them, and I know that they're just trying to protect people, BUT THIS IS JUST WRONG!

i say FREAKING so much in this post XD

Subject: Re: Zanesville Animal Massacre Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:56 am

The world is a cruel, hard place.

To bring the animals near an urbanized environment damned them all already.

You can't just rebuild a habitat with trees, or wouldn't we have done it? There is a food web so complex one would have to devote their entire life to study to scratch the surface of the complexity.

You're blaming the police. Don't. You think they're cruel, think they're idiots? They're compassionate, feeling human beings just like you and I, following orders. They did what was necessary in the end, because these natural predators unleashed on a city wouldn't mean survival, just a matter of how many humans were injured or killed before the inevitable death of the animals. They were carrying lethal diseases.

And tranquilizer was apparently ineffective, so lethal force now is better than lethal force later.

The fact the animals were shot and dumped into a grave isn't the wrong in this tale. The fact that the animals have been trapped in a 'preserve' is the part that is wrong, by a man known to practice animal cruelty no less. That's where you really should be directing your anger, at the dumbass who fences in animals, even endangered, for his personal pleasure, not at the police.

And tigers who have been captive so long lose their natural instincts, their skills and reflexes. They can't be repatriated to nature, so unfortunately, their demise is unavoidable.

Tigers need space to hunt, territory to establish dominance over, and to be the highest in the food chain. Their majestic power and beauty should give them reign over nature in the zone. But these places don't exist any more, and the time of the tiger is long over, especially in modernized America of all places.

So, really, don't blame the police. I know a fair many police officers, and they have the biggest hearts you would find in anyone for miles around. It just isn't fair to them, you know? In the end, it's just a job they need to feed their family, and just orders being followed. They're not idiots, they feel the same guilt and pain we would too in their situation.

» PLOT OF THE GIANT MASSACRE
» Catatonic Olivia [p r i v a t e--To Rachie and the people of the massacre plot]