Report: Owner of exotic animals bought 2K pounds of chicken weekly

Associated Press

ZANESVILLE, Ohio

A caretaker had been buying 2,000 pounds of chicken weekly for exotic animals later set free by their eastern Ohio owner who killed himself, according to reports released Thursday.

In documents posted online by the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office, an investigator writes that the caretaker said “those cats were not starved” when interviewed about two months after owner Terry Thompson opened their cages and shot himself.

Police killed 48 of Thompson’s 56 animals, including Bengal tigers, lions and bears, as they spread into the community outside Zanesville on Oct. 18-19.

Thompson, 62, had been home only a few weeks after spending a year in prison on a gun conviction and was described by a probation officer as being overwhelmed by the farm’s condition.

The cage’s doors had been opened, and holes were cut in their walls.

Thompson was found near a pair of bolt cutters and a revolver from which one round had been fired.