At least four zoos and aquariums in the central United States were targeted this weekend by apparent swatting calls, forcing temporary closures and emergency sweeps from Louisville to Columbus. The latest wave reached the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium on Saturday, after earlier threats sent police rushing to the Louisville Zoo and the Toledo Zoo.
On Friday morning, the Louisville Zoo was evacuated after someone called in a bomb claim, police said. Officers swept the grounds and quickly gave the all clear. Around the same time in Ohio, police reported calls of a bomb threat and gunshots at the Toledo Zoo, where Sgt. Mohamad Nasser said tactical units, a bomb squad and K9 officers responded and found no danger to the public. The Toledo Zoo stayed closed for the day.
By Saturday, the threats had moved to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio. Tom Schmid said zoo staff swept the Columbus property and found no traces of any bombs of any kind. He said the calls fit a grim pattern that has become familiar to animal facilities and public venues alike: “This is part of life now around the country, around the world,” he said.
The weekend incidents landed in the middle of a broader run of apparent swatting calls aimed at animal attractions in the region, with each site shut down or cleared out as a precaution while police checked for danger. Schmid said employees have recently done drills to prepare for emergency calls like these, a preparation that proved useful even though the threats turned out to be empty.
The pattern is the point. The zoos and aquariums were never found to be in danger, but they still had to react as if they were, and that is what made the weekend disruptive: the calls were false, the response was real, and the next threat could come just as quickly.