Wild Animals Loose in Ohio
COOPER: Well, the terror is now over in rural Ohio, but the sad news, the shock, and in some cases the outrage are just sinking in. Dozens of wild animals, dangerous predators, endangered species kept in a private collection then apparently loose by their suicidal owner. A man named Terry Thompson. Fifty-six animals in all have been roaming the central Ohio country side -- excuse, this is how most of them ended up. Now if you love and respect animals, this is simply heartbreaking. Lions, leopard, grizzly bears, 18 Bengal tigers, most of them hunted down and killed in the name of public safety. Only a few of them saved, captured and being cared for tonight at the Columbus Zoo. Just one animal, a monkey, may be unaccounted for, although, as you'll hear tonight, it may also have already died. There's so many questions. Why did so many have to be killed? Why would any private citizen keep such a collection? Why was he allowed to do it at all? In a moment you'll hear from the local sheriff who led the fateful hunt today. Also we'll talk to wild animal expert Jack Hanna who arrived on the scene. First though, the very latest from Jason Carroll in Zanesville, Ohio. Jason, you spoke to someone working with the sheriff's office who confronted a Bengal tiger. She got within feet of it, right?</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes, Anderson. It was really sad. I mean that is the way that Barbara Wolfe -- she's director of wildlife with the Columbus Zoo, described it this morning. It was one of the last animals that was actually out on the loose. Bengal tiger. There's been so much debate, Anderson, as you know, going back and forth about whether you tranquilize these animals, or whether or not you try and take them down. And she has a perfect example. She told me -- again she came within feet of this Bengal tiger and she actually tried to tranquilize it, hoping that it would -- that it would take the drugs and that it would roll over. But unfortunately what happened, Anderson, is as with this case with so many wild animals, they -- the dart went into the animal, the animal reacted, then lunched at her and then sheriffs deputies had no choice but to take the animal down. I think a lot of people think it's like in a movie where you shoot an animal with a dart and it immediately collapses. But with a wild animal, depending upon its size, how much it weighs, it could take a while for that drug to take effect, and that's just one of the -- one of the things that folks out here had to deal with in trying to take down all of this wild animals out on the loose.</s>COOPER: And Jason, you've obtained some of the 911 calls. What can you tell us about it?</s>CARROLL: Yes. Well, 911 calls started coming in about 5:00 yesterday to the sheriff's department. People calling in and saying, I see a bear on my property, I see a lion on my property, I see a wolf. Everyone in the area, very familiar with Terry Thompson and his reserve of the animals that he had. So sheriffs deputies knew exactly where to go. Take a listen.</s>DISPATCHER: 911, where is your emergency?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There's a lion on Mount Perry Road in</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so, we got one of those lions that are missing out of Muskingum County.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. And you just saw it on Mount Perry Road?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. How far off of 40?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About half a mile. It was going west.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's going west?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was heading west in a hurry. Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. We'll get somebody out in that area. Don't -- if you see it again, don't approach it, OK?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm far from there. I was driving.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wildlife.</s>CARROLL: And, obviously, Anderson, that lion had to be taken down a short time later. The big question now for investigators is why Terry Thompson, a man who by all accounts from everyone that I have spoken to out here loved these animals, why he opened the cages and set them free, and then took his own life.</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>CARROLL: Anderson.</s>COOPER: Jason, thanks very much for that. A short time ago I spoke with the local sheriff, Matthew Lutz.</s>COOPER: Mr. Sheriff, what's the latest on the status of the animals?</s>MATTHEW LUTZ, MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO, SHERIFF: Right now we have one animal that we believe is unaccounted for. That animal could be missing. However it could have been -- it could have perished in the -- in this incident with one of the lion eating it.</s>COOPER: That's the monkey you're talking about?</s>LUTZ: Yes, I'm sorry, the monkey.</s>COOPER: So there was also a wolf earlier today that was still on the loose. Was that wolf put down?</s>LUTZ: Yes. It was actually shot last night. And everything that was going on here it was actually -- had crossed a road from the property that it came from. Deputy Mary was able to shoot that wolf last night. However, we just did not get it recovered in time today to add it into the count.</s>COOPER: Do you know in total how many animals were killed?</s>LUTZ: We had a total of 56 animals. We have one missing which took us down to 55. We had six that were transported to the Columbus Zoo and we have 49 that were killed and buried today.</s>COOPER: Obviously, you know, there are people who are going to question, could darts have been used, could tranquilizers have been used? It seems to me you didn't have much time. I mean your deputies obviously aren't normally carrying around animal tranquilizers.</s>LUTZ: We don't carry tranquilizers in our cruisers. If this had been a 9:00 or 10:00 incident in the middle of the day, odds are high that we may have been able to surround the area and keep everything contained but our biggest problem we had in this whole thing was nightfall. Now we had about an hour to hour and a half of good light. And you know we had several animals roaming free on this property going in the darkness and we just couldn't take that chance.</s>COOPER: What do you know about this guy, Terry Thompson? I understand he was well known to -- I don't know to you personally or to law enforcement authorities in the region who had visited him before.</s>LUTZ: Yes, we're very familiar with Terry. I was very familiar with him personally. We've been at his house numerous occasions on investigations. Terry has done some local jail time in our jail for animal violations. And you know we knew of him and knew of his situation.</s>COOPER: So authorities had been out to check his permits and to monitor him as best they could over the years?</s>LUTZ: Yes. The moderation of this complex, basically, you know, he was not using it as an attraction, to show people or to take for pay. So the bottom line was, you know, we had had several different agencies out there, seven different officials out there to inspect them and all those kinds of things, and you know nobody could ever order us to shut him down.</s>COOPER: Sheriff, I know it's been a long 24-hour period for you. I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.</s>LUTZ: Thank you.</s>COOPER: Well, we frequently talk to Jack Hanna when the subject is wild animals. Sometimes, the stories deal with people who don't understand that caring about such animals is one thing and actually taking care of them something else entirely. But never in our experience or his we've seen anything quite like this. Jack Hanna is director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and host of "Jack Hanna's Into the Wild," He arrived on the scene early this morning to try to help out. I spoke to him earlier tonight.</s>COOPER: So, Jack, have you ever seen anything like this?</s>HANNA: You know, Anderson, I won't forget this for the rest of my life. I'm trying to picture what this is like. All I told somebody was, Columbus Zoo one of the finest zoos right down there, 50 miles. The Wilds is 10,000 acres behind me, 10 miles. And in between here, Noah's Ark crashes, you know, and the result of it, we have 30 something, maybe 42 animals, I can't -- exact number, dead now. Thank goodness no human life was lost. I can tell you this, Anderson, if these animals hadn't been put down last night, this would have been a sight that you would -- you wouldn't have seen this morning. Eighteen Bengal tigers, says the sheriff, coming down the road, all of them spread out. Grizzly bears, wolves, leopards. Can you imagine this? Probably the largest escape in the history of this country. This afternoon about 3:00 we found the tiger laying in the grass over there. You know just crouched down. The veterinarian got within 20 feet -- our veterinarian has an excellent shot. Shot the animal, what did the animal do? Come exploding right towards the veterinarian. What would anybody have done?</s>COOPER: So even though -- even though this tiger --</s>COOPER: That was just today. Even though this tiger had been hit by a dart, it still lounged for the veterinarian?</s>HANNA: Yes. Anderson, it takes anywhere from three to six minutes for a tranquilizer even begin to take effect. Begin to take effect. Nothing happens to that animal -- that animal is full blown for three to six minutes until it goes effects and it goes to sleep. And plus, Anderson, you don't hit him in the muscle, did it hit the bone part, did the plunger go in? These are all -- you know, you tranquilize animals, that's pretty good today. We have the great medicine, we have the great rifles, all that stuff, but they're not 100 percent.</s>COOPER: So even today --</s>COOPER: That guy within 20 feet shot the animal with the dart but immediately the animal leapt and so what the deputies -- put the animal down?</s>HANNA: Exactly. But last night, can you imagine, Anderson? We only have four tranquilizer guns. I mean who would ever thought that 40 something animals would be running around, tigers and lions -- 18 tigers with four tranquilizer guns and the dark? I mean darkness was coming within 30 minutes to an hour.</s>COOPER: Basically, you had deputies having to respond to this immediately trying to stop these animals from spreading out further. They are not armed with tranquilizers because under normal circumstances, why would normal sheriff deputies be armed with tranquilizers? You're saying they had to do what they had to do.</s>HANNA: Very good point, Anderson. You're the first one to bring it up. These animals -- these deputies aren't trained -- some of these animals, Anderson, were coming for the -- they had to use their weapons, their pistols. You know can you imagine sitting right there in front of them? These deputies hadn't been trained in this. You know?</s>COOPER: I heard --</s>HANNA: Those officers saved some human lives.</s>COOPER: I heard from one person, one report of a farmer who saw, I think it was a lion, going after one of their horses on his farm.</s>HANNA: I have heard that. Right now one bear was found right next to Interstate 70 here -- 70 right here next to me. And right here is a property. Can you imagine that bear was getting ready to go across Interstate 70. And that bear -- by the way one cat was hit by a car, one cougar or a lion. I'm not sure what it was that hit by a car out there. That's why the interstates have these big, red signs, you know, exotic animals loose, call 911. But right now, Anderson, it looks like everything is taken care of. There was one monkey left. And right now then we found a carcass of a monkey that looks like one -- you're one of the first people I told this. Looks like we found the carcass of the money. We don't know if it was eaten and that might be the monkey we're looking for. We don't know. And by the way, right now, we took four leopards, I think, to the Columbia Zoo, a grizzly bear and three primates right up there right now that was just left there, and that was all, and we toll those to zoo right now until we can check them out, and make sure they're happy and everything and all cared for, and legally figure out what to do.</s>COOPER: What are you hearing about the man at the center of all this, this man who killed himself but not before opening up these gates, un- securing his gates?</s>HANNA: Well, this man was a pilot. This man I guess made motorcycles. This man loved to collect exotic animals but the condition up there which is uncalled for from what I understand from my people that went up there. I think, Anderson, what happened, he just got out of prison for some kind of firearms charge several weeks ago. His wife, I understand, left him. That's what I understand. So, therefore, here's a guy coming back depressed, sees his animals in filth or whatever, says, that's it. He cuts all the cage wires, opens all the doors, goes down there, lays down and shoots himself, and all of a sudden, to his life, that's great. But to us out here, 18 Bengal tigers lost their lives, Anderson. I will never forget this as long as I live. You've covered animals and you know what the Bengal tigers about 1400 left in the world. Can you imagine 18 of them had to give their lives today? Lions, bears -- if you saw this carnage laid out up there, you wouldn't want -- that's why they're buried right now. We buried them about an hour ago. They took them up -- dug a big hole and they're now buried up there.</s>COOPER: I mean, what's that like for -- for someone who's obviously spent your entire life, you know, focused on saving animals and teaching other people about animals, to see the bodies of all these animals laid up -- laid up out like that?</s>HANNA: I'm a pretty grown person, Anderson, but what really got me was the wife came in back, all right, when she heard about all of this. And she said, because right now nothing is left, all right, except the little primates and a few cats. She said, my husband is dead, you've killed my family and she was shaking so violently. And finally, I looked at her, Anderson, I saw a defeated person. It was wrong what happened, no doubt about it. But what was I to do? I really wanted to -- they said she was mad at me so I was getting ready to have a -- maybe a confrontation. You know what I did? I started crying. That may sound corny to you. But I can understand her love for animals. But she -- there's a love that people have, they don't understand what they're doing kind of. And no, she had this great love. I said, we're going to take -- well, I'm not taking your children. She said you're taking my children. I'm not taking your children. I'm taking them to the Columbia Zoo to give them a proper home now. And that's what I'm trying to do for you. I don't know what's going to happen to her. She's lost everything now. But you can see the carnage left over after this terrible mess right now. Yes, I cried when I was with her.</s>COOPER: A lot of people love animals but loving an animal, that doesn't mean you can care for an animal nor does that mean you should buy and house an animal.</s>HANNA: You're right.</s>COOPER: That should not be in someone's private home.</s>HANNA: You're right, Anderson. What you're doing is you're buying a bunch of loaded guns, is what you're doing. You should buy a bunch of loaded guns, you're waiting for them to go off. And that's what happened up here today.</s>COOPER: Jack Hanna, I know it's been a long -- long day and night for you. Thank you. Appreciate you joining us.</s>HANNA: Thanks, Anderson.</s>COOPER: It's very sad. Up next, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a stop in Afghanistan -- why she's there and what she hopes to accomplish. And the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor resuming today -- will a controversial video played in court hurt the doctor's defense? See for yourself when we continue.