Lions and Tigers and Bears: The Zanesville Exotic Animal Massacre

True Crime Campfire

True Crime, History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Legendary Conservationist Steve Irwin said, “We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.” It’s such a lovely sentiment. We have a responsibility to protect and care for creatures that can’t protect themselves. It’s something that almost every person on earth would agree with. But what happens when someone loves something so much they throttle the life out of it? What if one man’s selfish wants pushed him to sacrifice over 50 animals that he claimed to love? Heads-up: If you're really sensitive about harm to animals, you might want to skip this one. Tickets are on sale now for the CrimeWave 2.0 TRUE CRIME CRUISE, Feb. 8-12, 2027! Visit crimewaveatsea.com/CAMPFIRE to get your discount code for $100 off your cabin and a private meet-and-greet with us! Sources:https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/animals/mammals/coyotehttp://esquire.com/news-politics/a12653/zanesville-0312/https://www.gq.com/story/terry-thompson-ohio-zoo-massacre-chris-heath-gq-february-2012?fbclid=IwY2xjawP13ERleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe-ekW_BZLa5McRg9DVSSyZ50zqxDkImS9jTLlx2kUqFNq_T7WJKZCyW69A6I_aem_jr-yYesRIf0kgn0-znd8Xghttps://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2021/10/18/zanesville-ohio-animal-tragedy-captivates-inspires-change-10-years-later/5823607001/https://agri.ohio.gov/divisions/animal-health/resources/dangerous-wild-animals https://my.onecause.com/fundraiser/organizations/sf-001C0000016d5QlIAI/fundraisers/fundraiser:29043b3c-9361-435d-8d91-198913babca0/closed https://www.thewilds.org/about-wilds https://vetmedbiosci.colostate.edu/directory/member/?id=barb-wolfe-40668Follow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enTwitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.comMERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire.
0:04.8	We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney.
0:08.1	And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction.
0:12.0	We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire.
0:20.3	Legendary conservationist Steve Irwin said,
0:23.5	We don't own the planet Earth.
0:25.4	We belong to it, and we must share it with our wildlife.
0:29.0	It's such a lovely sentiment.
0:31.2	We have a responsibility to protect and care for creatures that can't protect themselves.
0:36.4	It's something that almost every person on earth would agree with,
0:39.8	but what happens when someone loves something so much they throttle the life out of it?
0:45.3	What if one man's selfish wants pushed him to sacrifice over 50 animals that he claimed to love?
0:52.4	This is Lions and Tigers and Bears, the Zanesville exotic animal massacre.
1:06.3	So, campers, for this one, we're in Zanesville, Ohio on October 18, 2011. At 5 o'clock p.m., the
1:13.8	Zanesville Sheriff's Department Dispatch got a bizarre 911 call. The woman on the other end spoke
1:19.7	calmly and clearly. She said, yes, this is Mrs. Copchak on Copchak Road. We live next to Terry
1:26.7	Thompson, and there's a bear and a lion out.
1:30.5	Terry Thompson was a known entity to the authorities in Zanesville. He was an eccentric man who kept
1:36.4	dozens of exotic animals on his 73-acre farm, which he called Tees Wild Kingdom. They included tigers, lions, bears, oh my, monkeys, cougars, wolves,
1:49.7	leopards, as well as more domestic animals like horses, cows, buffalo, and chickens.
1:55.3	Because he didn't charge admission to view the animals, he wasn't technically doing anything
1:59.5	against Ohio law, which is crazy to me,
	...

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