ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Ohio goes wild – and it’s no movie. Motorists are being warned to stay in their vehicles and schools have been cancelled in rural eastern Ohio because dozens of animals have escaped from a wild-animal preserve. The Muskingum County Sheriff’s Department told ABC that deputies responded to reports of bears, big cats and other beasts running around loose near Zanesville, Ohio. The found the farm’s owner dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot Tuesday. The owner apparently opened the farm’s fences and the animals’ cages before he killed himself, Sheriff Matt Lutz said. About 48 animals got loose and were roaming the Ohio countryside and people were calling in sightings. Lutz said officers were stationed along I-70, which runs through the county, to keep the animals from crossing the highway and getting into residential subdivisions. About 30 of the animals had been shot and killed. Among the animals still at large, a mountain lion and grizzly bear.
Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2 p.m.
