Ohio police armed first with just handguns and later with assault rifles shot dead dozens of lions, tigers, bears and wolves after the owner of an exotic farm freed the dangerous animals and then killed himself.
They were still hunting for a gray wolf and a monkey believed to be infected with Herpes which remained on the loose near Zanesville, Ohio on Wednesday evening, nearly 24 hours after the hunt began.
Of the 56 animals released, 48 were killed as officials fought to keep the beasts away from nearby homes and businesses.
Sheriff Matt Lutz defended his shoot-to-kill order, telling reporters that officers were in a race against the oncoming darkness when they arrived at the farm around 5:30 pm (2130 GMT) Tuesday and saw the animals running free.
"I had deputies that had to shoot animals with their side arms at close range," Lutz told reporters.
"We are not talking about your normal, everyday house cat or dog. These are 300-pound Bengal tigers we've had to put down."
Game wardens, SWAT teams, and experts from the nearby Columbus Zoo were called in to assist with the hunt as darkness fell and residents were warned to stay in their homes.
Attempts were made to capture the animals with tranquilizer darts once the sun rose in the morning, but Lutz said public safety remained the top priority.
One "very aggressive" tiger was shot dead when it went "crazy" and started to run towards nearby woods after it was shot with a tranquilizer.
"We could not take a chance that we got the dart in it," Lutz said. "We could not have animals running loose in this county. We were not going to have that."
Schools near Zanesville were closed Wednesday and parents were warned to keep their children inside while officials continued to hunt for the remaining animals.
It is a "tragedy" that 18 endangered Bengal tigers were among those slain but officials had no other choice, said Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, who helped to organize the hunt.
"I'm sorry that this had to be done but if you had 18 Bengal tigers running around in these neighborhoods, you folks would not have wanted to see what happened," he told reporters.
The other slain animals included one wolf, six black bears, two grizzly bears, nine male lions, eight lionesses, one mountain bear and a baboon. They were buried on the 73-acre farm Wednesday.
A grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys were taken to the zoo but were expected to eventually be returned to the estranged wife of Terry Thompson, 62, who was found dead in the driveway.
Ohio has few laws governing the ownership of exotic animals, but Hanna said he was working with the governor's office to quickly get strict regulations in place to make sure a similar tragedy does not happen again.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich issued a statement urging swift passage of a bill restricting the ownership of exotic animals, noting that there have been 22 incidents in the state involving such animals since 2003 including the death of a man last year while feeding a pet bear.
"The deaths of the escaped animals from Terry Thompson's property after he released them last night were preventable," he said. "By enacting more stringent restrictions on owning exotic pets in Ohio, tragedies like this one can be avoided in the future."
Local news reports said federal agents raided the farm in June 2008, seizing more than 100 guns, and that Thompson had previously been fined for letting his animals wander.
Lutz said his office had fielded around 35 calls about the farm in the past six years, including reports of animals running loose and being mistreated.
"With the law enforcement side he was always willing to push the envelope a bit," he told reporters.
Kate Riley, 20, whose family owns a nearby cattle farm, said the animals' owner would sometimes come and take their dead cows to feed his lions.
"He'd have claw marks all over him," she told the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.
