Monkey Island’s owner says Ohio authorities made the right call when they killed 49 exotic animals
- Photo by Chris Mullins
- Dana Savorelli says Ohio authorities did the right thing.
Dana Savorelli knows exotic animals. The owner of the nonprofit Monkey Island Rescue and Zoological Sanctuary keeps a variety of monkeys, ostriches, llamas and lemurs, and more than 20 venomous snakes on his 10-acre farm in Greenwood.
Savorelli, whom The Pitch profiled in July, took particular interest in the story of the Ohio animal-sanctuary owner who released 56 exotic animals from cages and then committed suicide. Ohio authorities say they had little option but to kill the animals released from the property of 62-year-old Terry Thompson.
“Public safety was my No. 1 concern,” Sheriff Matt Lutz told The Columbus Dispatch. “I gave the order that if the animals looked like they were going to get out, they were going down.”
Forty-nine animals — 18 rare Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzly bears, two wolves and a baboon — were shot and killed. Six animals — a grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys — were spared. Missing were a herpes-infected monkey, which authorities speculate may have been eaten by a big cat, and a wolf.
Savorelli tells The Pitch that local authorities made the right call.
