Beautiful Zanesville, Ohio

Too painful to put up photos of the dead.

Anybody there?  Is this thing still working?   1,2,3,1,2,3.

Having several briefs due in the last month and the stuff going on around here that I feel that I should write about, but it is too painful so I haven't written.

I had met Terry Thompson, but I didn't know him.  However, I did know several people who did know him.  Many years ago (well over the statute of limitations, thank you) friends of mine and I were into the consumption of various pharmaceuticals.  They seriously considered going into distribution.  So they went to talk.  They came back and made what was perhaps the most intelligent decision of their lives and decided not to go into distribution.  Mostly because the female friend told me that she realized that her boyfriend of the time would have gotten them either killed on in prison for a very long time within six months.  However, she remained friends.  Whenever there were busts around town, busts that made the front pages and busts that allowed the cops to puff out their chests, flying squads from the state.  They never reached him for serious stuff.

Many other friends knew Terry in other ways and knew that he and his wife cared for and loved all the animals out there.  She was heard screaming: "They're killing my babies" when the killing went down.  Yes I know that he was charged with animal cruelty, but he did not (from what I saw of the court records) and speaking with people involved in the case, ever think he did anything wrong and he certainly did not harm the big cats.  There was both less and more there then most people cared to find out after the holocaust.   I was told that he raised his own cattle to feed the cats.

I need to add something right here.  The allegations concerned whether or not there was enough water let out for horses and dogs.  His defense was that he put food and water out in the morning and it was gone by the time the animal control people came by in the afternoon.  Whatever the truth was the judge allowed him to serve his time on house arrest so he could take care of his animals.

I am told that the police had No Other Choice last month.  It Had To Be Done.  Perhaps, but what I've seen of cops over my life time and here, I will withhold my approval on that.  I will go further, I sincerely doubt that the slaughter was really necessary, but that cops with their assualt rifles need to use them every once in a while.

They said that he let the animals out and killed himself.  Perhaps.  I've also seen people with serious anger and depression issues do things that I cannot understand.  My first thought was that it was a murder and then the animals were let out to cover things up.  

Some how one thinks that things could have been done differently, reached back only a little bit and changed things.  Crap.