Scary safari in Ohio ends with carnage, questions

Sh­eriff's deputies shot nearly 50 li­ons, tigers and oth­er wild ani­mals and say they've accounted for all but one mon­key af­ter the owner of a private farm re­leased dozens of ani­mals from their cages then shot and killed him­self.

Of­ficials con­tinued to search for a macaque mon­key still roam­ing the area on Wednesday af­ter shooting 49 ani­mals and taking an­oth­er six to the zoo. Among the ani­mals killed: 18 Ben­gal tigers, 17 li­ons, six black bears, one baboon, two grizzly bears, three mountain li­ons and two wolves. Ohio has some of the most lax reg­u­lations of exot­ic ani­mals in the country.
The tragedy, which resulted in photographs of groups of dead bears and large cats stream­ing across televi­sion news and the Inter­net, could       

have been avoided with stronger laws, which should be en­acted now, said Adam Roberts, exec­utive vice pres­ident of Born Free USA.

Ohio "leg­is­lators didn't crack down when they had the opportunity," Roberts told CNN. "Ohio is one of the worst states in terms of lax leg­is­lations. We're hop­ing this will at least be the trig­ger for some kind of leg­is­lation."
The bizarre scene unfold­ed Tuesday when Muskingum County Sh­eriff Matt Lutz said his office started getting phone calls at about 5:30 p.m. that wild ani­mals were loose just west of Zanesville on a road that runs under Inter­state 70.
As day­light came to the rural area 55 miles east of Columbus, people were told to stay in­side. Offi­cers with as­sault rifles were comb­ing the area for ani­mals in pour­ing rain.

"It's like Noah's Ark wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," said Jack Hanna, celebrity zookeeper and di­rector emeritus of the Columbus Zoo who at­tended a morning press confer­ence with of­ficials.
Lutz said late Wednesday that all but a mon­key had been cap­tured or killed. One mon­key that has not been accounted for may have been eat­en, he told CNN by large cats on the owner's prop­erty, he said.
Zanesville Mayor Howard Zwelling said he got a call from the city's safety di­rector around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday that Terry Thomp­son, 62, the owner of the farm near downtown, had set the ani­mals free and then shot him­self.
Thomp­son's body was found in the driveway. No sui­cide note was found. Of­ficials said Thomp­son cut the gates on the pens so the               

ani­mals could not be put back in­side their cages.

Sh­eriff Lutz painted a terrifying scene of ani­mals running wild when au­thor­ities arrived at the preserve Tuesday night.
Many had gotten out­side the fenced area around the prop­erty.