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>> when i got close to the house, there were just animals just all around. there were tigers, there were bears, there were lions. i mean, just everywhere. i could see the doors on the cages were open. this can't be happening.
>> ohio was one of seven states in america with few, if any, restrictions on the ownership of exotic pets. terry thompson was allowed to collect as many dangerous animals as he wanted. >> one lion, the next thing you know, there's five, then there was ten. i don't know where he found them all. i have no idea. >> as you can see in this bizarre online photograph, terry would sometimes ride with his creatures uncaged. >> i know his whole personality drew him to those things, because he had to prove he had more guts than anybody else. who else had large cats and bears? who else raised them in thei...
Lions, tigers, bears, i told terry and mary more than once that i really thought something bad was going to happen out there. [ tires screech ] ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪ waiting for your wrinkle cream to work? clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. it targets fine lines and wrinkles with the fastest retinol formula available.
>> terry thompson got bears and lions out, now it's all snowballed into hell. >> for me, i knew we had a serious issue, because if these animals were out, they were out of control, because all terry had to control them were the pens. >> all his animals, to my knowledge, are inside this large fence, however, the large fence i'm calling large is a four-foot exterior fence, which for a tiger is nothing. >> i told my partners, we have got to call the wild. >> hi, this is dr. wolf from the wild. >> with a potential 56 animals now free, officers turn to vets from the local zoo for advice and counsel...
That night, it was designated for it. >> it's still complete chaos out there. we've got officers going in heavily armed. >> we have a crew of four going in to check on the owner of the property. >> if the special response team could reach thompson's body, then maybe they could determine what had happened to him and how this dangerous horde of pets got loose. at the time of the emergency, terry and marian owned 17 lions, 18 tigers, eight bears, three mountain lions, two wolves, and three leopards. in all, 51 major carnivores. >> the last three years, it just became too overwhelming, i think, fi...