ZANESVILLE, Ohio In a last-ditch attempt to save just one of the wild animals running free on Wednesday, Barb Wolfe crept up to a Bengal tiger partially concealed in brush.
From 15 feet, Wolfe, director of conservation and medicine at the Columbus Zoo, shot the tiger with a tranquilizer. She and several Muskingum County sheriff's deputies flanking her with drawn guns waited.
Ten seconds later, the frightened tiger "sort of exploded," Wolfe said.
"He roared, he got up, and he came straight for me," Wolfe said. "The deputies had to shoot it."
Of 56 animals that Terry Thompson kept on a 73-acre farm, deputies shot and killed 48 after the owner opened cages and fences and committed suicide. The dead included 18 Bengal tigers, nine lions, eight lionesses, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzly bears and two wolves, officials said.
The animals' release brought warnings from authorities as they tried to hunt them down before any deadly encounters with humans, then sadness as advocates came to grips with the carnage.
"It's unbelievable," said a tearful Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo. "I am so sorry for what happened to the animals. My heart aches for these animals."
Investigators would not speculate on why Thompson, 62, released the animals and killed himself. He got out of a federal prison Sept. 30 after serving a year for possessing unregistered guns.
John Ellenberger, a neighbor, speculated that Thompson freed the animals to get back at neighbors and police. "Nobody much cared for him," Ellenberger said.
A local animal welfare advocate said Thompson was convicted of animal cruelty in 2007, when it was revealed that he kept the animals in poor conditions and fed his lions meat from malnourished horses at the property he called Muskingum County Animal Farm.
"It's amazing that he was allowed to go on this many years and never was shut down," said Larry Hostetler, executive director of the Animal Shelter Society of Muskingum County.
"I knew something horrible would happen there someday, but I never expected him to do something like this," Hostetler said, adding that he had accompanied authorities to the farm in 2008 and found underfed animals with open sores.
Deputies still were searching last night for a monkey likely carrying the herpes virus. They planned to kill it because of its disease.
Three leopards, two monkeys and a grizzly cub did not leave their enclosures and were not killed. Authorities took them to the Columbus Zoo to be checked by veterinarians. A baboon found dead on the farm showed signs that a large cat had killed it, authorities said. They were trying to determine whether one of the animals killed the missing monkey.
Deputies responded to 911 calls on Tuesday reporting loose animals on Kopchak Road, where they found bears and lions charging horses and dozens of exotic animals trying to escape from the property.
"There were some very close encounters," said county Sheriff Matt Lutz. "Basically hand-to-hand in some cases."
Lutz asked nearby schools to close for the day, posted warning signs on Interstate 70 and ordered his deputies to "shoot to kill" loose animals in the community just outside Zanesville, a city of about 25,000 people about 55 miles east of Columbus.
"He had no other choice," Wolfe said. "These animals are unpredictable, and they were afraid. To allow them to get off the property was completely insane."
Hanna said he once witnessed a Bengal tiger take down a 2,000-pound rhinoceros in 15 seconds in the wild.
"If you had 18 Bengalese tigers running around this neighborhood, you wouldn't have wanted to see what happened," Hanna said. "This was a tragedy for the animal world. It could have been a bigger tragedy for the human world."
Authorities buried the dead animals on the property, Lutz said. Deputies arrested people on Tuesday night when they tried to steal one of the dead tigers. Lutz did not identify the suspects.
The farthest any of the animals strayed from the property was 500 yards. Authorities killed some on I-70, which runs past the property.
Deputies found Thompson's body in the driveway, Lutz said.
Thompson had had repeated run-ins with the law, Lutz said. The sheriff's office received numerous complaints since 2004 about loose animals on the property and animal neglect.
"He was always willing to push the envelope a little bit," Lutz said.
