Terry Thompson, Ohio Exotic Animal Owner, Wasn't Drunk Or On Drugs

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A final coroner's report shows an Ohio man who released dozens of wild animals and then killed himself had no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system.

The Columbus Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/saaXlR ) that the findings released Wednesday also confirm that 62-year-old Terry Thompson died after he put a gun to the roof of his mouth and fired. And the report indicates he was bitten and clawed by large cats immediately after his Oct. 18 death on his property near Zanesville in eastern Ohio.

Sheriff's deputies were forced to kill 48 loose exotic animals, including bears, lions and endangered Bengal tigers.

Three leopards, two primates and a grizzly bear survived the big-game hunt and are now in the care of the Columbus zoo.

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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

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Comments

[seepositives]

08:58 AM on 12/31/2011

i think theres more to this than is being told. why honor police chief who ordered rare exotic animals shot.

[Neil20]

10:06 AM on 12/25/2011

Ohio is listed as one of the worst states where animal welfare in concerned. In my opinion I think the entire nation needs to revamp its animal welfare laws and place an immediate ban on certain things such as the ownership of private zoos where self-interested, ignorant and super-rich Americans try to keep animals, especially exotic ones, without knowing even a bit about their behavior, food habitats and their climatic needs; ban on hunting especially bears, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, caribou and other rare species; put an end to puppy mills and factory farms. Also, American police must be trained to tackle animal problems in a manner distinctive from humans. Criminal could be shot without much thinking because they are criminals and have committed crimes knowingly. But animals are not criminals. American police are too trigger -happy and will pull the gun on defenseless creatures. I hope the Ohio legislators pass laws that will prevent people from owning exotic animals and laws that will safeguard the welfare of animals in factory farms, puppy mills, zoos and private homes. Wake up Americans, where have you lost your humanity and your conscience?

[Ona Lei]

11:55 AM on 12/24/2011

Wonder why tranquilizer guns weren't used? Not enough time to get them from the zoo, local vets? If some of these animals were endangered species, seems that we could had save some of the wildlife.

[BerlinSignal]

06:52 AM on 12/25/2011

To me it seemed like a classic case of brutal, bumbling, small-minded cops shooting before thinking. It was clear that at least some - if not all - of animals could have been saved.

[Bascoda]

07:12 PM on 12/25/2011

I sympathize with the officers on the scene. They made what they thought was the best possible decision based upon minimal information in a no-win situation. Setting aside the fact that this man (or anyone else, for that matter) should never have been allowed to establish his private zoo in the first place, the sheriff's department is at fault for not having a contingency plan in place to deal with a known potential hazard.
This is risk management 101! It isn't as though the place sprang up overnight and caught everyone by surprise, it had been there for a decade, and this wasn't the first time an escape had occurred.
If you want to assign blame for this, start with the State of Ohio for the lack of regulations governing the ownership of exotic animals.

[atexasdem]

11:20 AM on 12/24/2011

Fresh meat.

[Stephen Thorpe]

05:33 PM on 12/23/2011

He had a migrane. At some point. ;-)

[JBS]

02:56 PM on 12/23/2011

Wasn't drunk. Wasn't on drugs. I guess that only leaves nuckin' futz as an explanation.

I disagree with the "were forced to kill" assertion. They didn't even bother to assess the situation or consider possible alternatives before opening fire. Maybe there weren't any alternatives; maybe there were.

Bottom line though is they didn't even think about it for one second.

[Sam D man]

01:00 PM on 12/23/2011

They can run toxicology test on his remains for the next 30 years but they can never tell what his Psychological state of being was at the time. But just to take a glimpse at his financial and marrital
troubles mounting on him.There is no need for further explanation.It's a pandemic that has been plaguing our society now a days and there have been many reports of individuals recurring to such tragic conclucions

[Dolmance]

12:06 PM on 12/23/2011

Now I'm wondering if I dropped dead for whatever reason, my fur kids would bite and claw me.

[JBS]

03:03 PM on 12/23/2011

Sometimes people drop dead in their homes and go undiscovered for long enough that their pets become desperate for food and will start to eat the body.

It seems to take dogs longer to get to that point of desperation than it does cats.

[cuoi]

05:02 PM on 12/23/2011

Lizards wait maybe an hour out of respect then go chomping...

[lizsandyotto]

03:30 PM on 12/24/2011

Maybe cats know they will die of liver failure after 4 days without food.

[atexasdem]

11:21 AM on 12/24/2011

Most likely, especially if they were locked up in the house with you. Then again you wouldn't need your body anymore and they would.

[Zephyra]

11:04 PM on 12/22/2011

This still makes me physically sick. Ohio needs to tighten up their laws and keep this insanity from occurring again. Oh, that's right. Ohio depends on their puppy mills, often Amish owned, for funding.

[Chad Wheeler]

02:43 PM on 12/23/2011

The last I read, Ohio has 160 registered kennels. Realistically, do you really think those 160 USDA kennels are keeping the state of Ohio afloat? And if you are talking about kennels that are not registered with UDSA, they do not pay taxes, so they aren't enriching Ohio either.

[Genders]

10:49 PM on 12/22/2011

Really? That's the final report?

What lead him to this act of desperation?

Was he backed into a corner?

Dig a little more, please.

[jad84]

03:09 PM on 12/23/2011

It's not the job of the coroner to determine his mental state at the time, but to determine cause of death. That has been done. Just how do you expect someone to be able to figure out what went through this guy's mind? He didn't tell anyone, and now he is dead.

[Genders]

04:12 PM on 12/23/2011

True. Good point. ;)

[Cheyla]

10:31 AM on 12/22/2011

A very troubled, cruel and sick man that ultimately was responsible for the murder of many innocent animals.