police and sheriff s officials in ohio after the owner of a preserve, game preserve, killed himself and let them loose on the town. the one monkey they couldn t find, police say the t cheetah, ate that monkey. authorities defending the decision to take those animals down. saying it was us or them. ja jason carol. reporter: so many questions this morning. why terry thompson the man that owned all the animals, why he opened the cages and set those animals free. knowing that many of them would most likely be killed. this is a manna by all accounts loved these animals. that s one of the major questions that investigators will be looking at this morning. in all, 49 animals killed. the pictures really tell the whole story. we see those pictures of those animals, wild exotic animals, killed out here. sheriff s deputies telling me they were sickened to have to do what they did to put the animals down but simply felt as though they had no choice. the story actually started to unfo
all the animals that have been released from an exotic animal farm have been accounted for. unfortunately with nearly all having been shot dead by authorities. now that the hunt is over officials can focus on why the owner freed the animals then took his own life. nbc s andy roachen reports. reporter: 48 animals were doomed when they were set free. as frantic calls started coming in there are. there is a lion on mt. perry road. they were on the move. they were showing aggressive behavior. reporter: the animals includes wolves, bears, monkeys, leopards and what hurt the most for famed zookeeper jack hanna, 18 bengal tigers. 18 bengal tigers running around the neighborhoods, you