Dangerous exotic animals deliberately freed in Ohio
October 20th, 2011 - 1:21 am ICT by IANSLos Angeles, Oct 19 (IANS) The owner of an exotic animal farm in Ohio deliberately released the animals and then killed himself, Muskingum county Sheriff Matt Lutz said Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
There have been numerous complaints about the operation of Muskingum County Animal Farm in recent years and that officials have undertaken repeated visits to the facility. The 40-acre farm was home to about 50 big-game animals, including Royal Bengal tigers, lions, cheetahs, wolves, giraffes, camels and grizzly bears, said Lutz while speaking at a televised news conference.
The facility was owned and operated by Terry Thompson. His body was found at the farm Tuesday evening, with some of the fierce animals prowling nearby.
“We’ve gotten about 35 calls since ‘04, ‘05 with complaints the animals were running at large and not being treated properly,” Lutz told reporters.
“We’ve handled numerous complaints here, we’ve done numerous inspections here. So this has been a huge problem for us for a number of years.”
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Tags: acre farm, animal farm, big game, camels, cheetahs, county sheriff, exotic animal, exotic animals, game animals, grizzly bears, lions, los angeles times, matt lutz, news conference, royal bengal tigers, terry thompson, tuesday evening, wolves