police in ohio are on the hunt for a mountain lion, a grizzly bear and a monkey. still on the loose about 50 miles east of columbus. the animals were set free from an exotic animal preserve. by their owner shortly before he committed suicide. law enforcement spent last night hunting down or killing nearly 30 wild animals, including tigers, wolves and leopards. schools in four districts are now closed and residents are being told to stay inside as authorities hunt for the wild animals that the sheriff calls very large and aggressive. the concern, of course, is public safety, in that area. their concern is where are these animals now and how might they be able to find them if they do? here is a shot of the area where
let loose from an animal preserve. investigators are waiting on the autopsy results for terry thompson, the owner of that preserve. police say he opened the animals cages before dying in what appears to be a self-inflicted wound. earlier ethis morning police described a run-in with a bengal tiger. we just had a huge tiger, estimated 300 pounds. we did get one of the vets close enough, unbelievably so within 10 to 15 yards, got a tranquilizer in it, and this thing just went crazy. it started to take off. it headed away from us to the wooded area and our officers put it down. we did not think we could take a chance of whether we got the dart in it and did not want to take a chance the thing would get out into the neighborhood. scary stuff. jeff corwin joins me now from san diego. jeff, you know, people here hear this story and hear there are wild animals on the loose,
dozens of animals basically at their home. a big problem across the country. particularly in ohio. the laws are very l.a. hopefully this brings attention to the legislators and makes ridiculous that people keep these animals. what is the law now? there isn t much of a law. they don t require any type of experience. here s a guy who just got released from prison on arms and guns charges. he is allowed to keep animals that are as dangerous as the guns. do we see these same kind of lax laws in other states? do i believe they occur in other states. i think texas is another state they occur in. several states within the country. the bottom line is there needs to be a uniform wildlife law across the country. it needs to be enforced. these animals are dangerous no matter what state they re in. it is something that has to be addressed on a federal level. i ve smaerd reports call this an animal preserve.
wednesday, october 19th. this is your a.m. wake-up call. i m christine romans joining you live from new york. all right. the presidential candidates, the republican hopefuls declaring victory or licking their wounds this morning. all except jon huntsman took the gloves off last night at the debate in las vegas hosted by cnn. this was perhaps the most heated of the five debates held in the past six weeks. much of the focus on the three front-runners, romney, perry and cain. a heated exchange between romney and a very assertive perry. they re coming here because there s a magnet, and the magnet is called jobs. and those people that hire illegals ought to be penalized. and mitt, you lose all of your standing from my perspective because you hired illegals in your home, and you knew about it for a year. and the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you re strong on immigration is on its face the height of hypocrisy. governor romney? rick, i don t think i v
deluge of mud. we re going to be here digging our hearts out today. reporter: in northern california, storms turned deadly. at an exotic animal preserve, near santa rosa, high winds and rain toppled a tree onto a cabin, killing an alabama woman. north of san francisco, residents are preparing for possible flooding and blackouts. it s truly dangerous, this is scary. reporter: near sacramento, deer creek overflowed its banks. filled by rain, now turning the golden state green. in jackson hole, wyoming, a plane rolled past the end of a snowy runway. there were no injuries. at that point, snow came over the wing. i was sitting on the window seat. and we came to a stop very soon thereafter. reporter: the search goes on for a 25-year-old snowboarder in sierra nevada who went missing from his friends at the alpine meadow ski resort. that search is being hampered by blizzard conditions. john hendren, abc news. here s a look at today s weather. that fierce western storm system