Talks of Wild, Exotic Animal Documentary

World-wide publicity following the release of 56 wild, exotic animals in Muskingum County is now capturing the attention of filmmakers.

Minnow Films- a small independent production company located in London- contacted Sheriff Matt Lutz with the interest of making a documentary. Lutz said he was contacted shortly after Terry Thompson released the animals on his Kopchak Road farm and then took his own life. Officers were forced to kill 48 of the animals.

"There’s been a lot of scrutiny, a lot of criticism from people outside the state that never had all the facts and circumstances of why we had to do what we had to do," explained Lutz. "Obviously we don’t want to be doing anything to promote the killing of the animals, our guys were forced to do that and obviously I choose to do that for public safety, and we want to make sure that gets out there."

Lutz said while a number of preliminary interviews have taken place between himself and other responding officers the making of the documentary has yet to be confirmed. He’s hopeful this will be another step toward state-wide regulations of owning exotic animals.

"That’s one thing that I never perceived was the emotion and power that the exotic animal has," said Lutz. "There’s a lot of passionate people out there and obviously this is something that never should have ever happened, we all recognize that."

Lutz said a representative of Minnow Films is currently in town. The company was not able to be reached for comment.