This is about 50 miles southeast of where I now live. My entire Facebook feed has been lighting up with people variously expressing disgust and/or hilarity at the situation. There are rumors that they have armed the fire department and that there are animal-control professionals out there with guns and night-vision goggles.
It sounds sort of like Jurassic Park. I kind of wish I could watch, if that didn’t mean potentially getting eaten by a lion.
Animal Farm 2. This time, it’s exotic.
Scarey for the people, but I’m also sorry for the animals. Its a bad situation all around. Stay inside and post on the Dope tonight!
Here’s what’s going on just west of me. (Warning - cat pictures)
http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2011/1018/20111018__lion05~p1.jpg
http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2011/10/mountain-lion-checks-out-cat/#name here
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=8397210
I wonder if 12 monkeys are among them… :eek:
Kidding aside, it does look like a scene from the movie “12 monkeys” minus the time traveler and deadly virus, could this be the work of radical animal activists?
Already posted here by MsWhatsit.
I’ve merged the two threads (and that’s no lion).
Glad they mentioned the really deadly animals.
Unlikely. It sounds like the owner just got out of prison and his wife left him. It sounds like he opened up all the cages and then shot himself.
Sad deal for the freed animals: this morning’s news reported that a couple dozen had been shot dead by the authorities. I’m sure that many more will be killed before this is all over… 
I, too, am in Central Ohio and this whole situation is off the hook. Jungle Jack Hannah is on the scene and he said, as of about 7:30 this morning, that 31 of the 48 animals have been killed. Columbus Zoo employees are helping to track down the rest and tranqualize them, if possible. What a mess.
I was wondering why they couldn’t just tranquilize them, but a zoo official on the Today Show this morning said it takes at least two minutes for the dart to take effect, by which time several policemen could be chowed-down upon. So they were going to take them alive if possible, but that didn’t look likely.
I was impressed that he told Ann Curry that “lions and tigers and bears” were loose, and the usually “take the low road” Ann did not respond with an “oh, my!”
Outrageous, truly sickening and frightening.
So they do have a definate count as to how many animals of each species escaped? I’d hate for them to think they’ve got them all and then, “Hey, has anyone seen Bill?”
Seems like it should be possible to have one guy with the tranq gun who takes first shot - backed up by several guys with real guns ready to take the animal down if the animal threatens anyone on scene.
However, there are probably many teams of armed officers/hunters looking for animals, trying to take care of this whole thing before any people get killed - and I imagine it’s difficult to scrounge up more than a couple of tranquilizer guns.
People are assholes, animals suffer. I hope no one gets hurt.
What a mess. This is all over my local news and I’m in California.
Those of you near, please stay safe.
Why on earth would this guy loose these animals before killing himself? I just don’t understand.
Well I guess it’s one way for him to get his suicide in the paper and make his wife sorry for leaving him.
Asshole. I hope she realizes this means she’s done the right thing.
From the article
I doubt they’ve trained for this one before.
Must be a bummer for kids though. School was cancelled but they can’t go outside to see the animals!
This makes me very sad & angry.
As usual, the animals lose.