The Risk Professional: when people go mad

There will be all kinds of calls to discover exactly what led Thompson to literally open the doors of the cages and then the park of his "Muskingum County Animal Farm" - and then shoot himself.

The animals had been well cared for (at least, within the bounds of looking after, amongst others, huge Bengal Tigers in pens) and it could be that, for so-far unknown reasons reaching the end of his tether, a deluded Thompson thought that his animals would be better off free after he killed himself.

As the dangerous animals left the compound, the spread out. Armed police had no choice but to shoot the animals and, because it is the most humane course, to kill them as cleanly as possible.

There are several states across the USA where there are no rules on the keeping of exotic pets including endangered species such as the Bengal Tiger. There are reckoned to be as few as 3,200 of those tigers in the wild.

It is ironic that the USA is a signatory to the CITES convention that would have prosecuted the trade in tiger products but there is no federal law to protect live animals.

Thompson's action came after he was released from prison on unrelated gun charges.

There was no hint that any of this might happen but it all demonstrates a lack of appropriate systems and controls. In a country that monitors what people look up on Google in public libraries, this seems a remarkable oversight.