Zoo History: The Zanesville Massacre

"The thing that caught me is how many times the sheriff's deputies apologized to me for killing the animals.  They did exactly what they needed to do.  Those guys got put in a terrible position and saved the day."

- Dan Beetem, Director of Animal Management, The Wilds

It is a fact that many Americans do not realize, that the vast majority of exotic wild animals in the United States aren't in accredited zoos - they are in private hands.  Some of those are private zoos, open to the public and regulated by the USDA, while others are personal pets.  The exact number of these unregulated animals is uncertain - reporting requirements vary from state to state - but it is certainly known that there are a lot of them.  Up until ten years ago - October 18, 2011 - one such collection was the Muskingum County Animal Farm, in Zanesville, Ohio.

Despite the name, the MCAF wasn't as much a farm as it was a private collection of wild animals kept by Vietnam War veteran Terry Thompson.  Mr. Thompson had been having a bad time of it the past few years.  He'd gone to jail.  He owed a lot of money.  His wife had left him.  Eventually, the depression overcame him and he ended his life.  Before he did, though, he decided to open up the cages that housed his exotic pets.

Soon, police received reports that dozens of wild animals were roaming the area.

What ensued was a tragic event as police, fearing for public safety, hunted down and killed the escapees.  The death toll consisted of eighteen tigers, seventeen lions, three pumas, two wolves, six American black bears, two brown bears, a macaque, and a baboon.  As gruesome as it was, the killings were almost certainly necessary.  The situation was not conducive to tranquilizer darts, which I'm afraid many members of the public have a poor understanding of.  Contrary to movies, they can be unreliable in the field and take time to take effect.  It was getting dark, and no one wanted any of the animals to escape into the night.  Six animals - three leopards, two monkeys, and a bear - were not released by Mr. Thompson prior to his suicide.  Authorities found them on site when inspecting the scene and transferred them to the nearby Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, it was as if the various states were suddenly jarred awake to the fact that there were, in fact, a lot of potentially dangerous animals floating around the place.  Ohio, which previously had some of the laxer laws in the country concerning the ownership of exotic wildlife, clamped up, banning the sale and ownership of big cats, bears, hyenas, wolves, and a host of other potentially dangerous species.  Many other states followed their example.

It would be fair, perhaps, to say that Zanesville represented a turning point in the debate over the private ownership of dangerous exotic animals, especially big cats.  Right now, efforts to regulate the situation are still on a very piecemeal basis, with laws varying dramatically from state to state.  There is currently an attempt to impose more universal control on the federal level via H.R. 263, the Big Cat Public Safety Act.