The wayward journey of a runaway pet zebra named Ed has come to a dramatic close. Tennessee police nabbed the zebra on Sunday, just over a week after he had first escaped his owners’ confines.
The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office detailed Ed’s capture on its Facebook page, complete with a video of the zebra being airlifted to a waiting jail cell (animal trailer). Ed and his bid for freedom stirred the hearts of people online but also caused real-life drama, at one point shutting down part of a local interstate.
“Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office is happy to report Tango 82 aviation crews located Zebra Ed and returned him to his owner Sunday,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The great zebra escape occurred on May 30, just a day after Ed arrived in the community of Christiana in central Tennessee. According to Patrol Lt. Kenneth Barrett, Ed wreaked “havoc” during his first day of freedom. The zebra ran through traffic on both sides of Interstate 24 near Joe B. Jackson Parkway in Rutherford County, which led to its temporary closure. He then scampered into some nearby wooded areas and disappeared from public view for several days.
Ed reemerged on Thursday, though his owners soon fretted that the public’s attempts to catch a glimpse of him would scare him away for good. Online, he became the stuff of legend, with people creating memes of him visiting typical Tennessee locations, such as Waffle House, while one local resident even baked a cake in his honor. The Sheriff’s Office enlisted the help of the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, along with a local veterinarian, to bring him in. By Sunday morning, Ed was found in a pasture and finally wrangled.
Wild or exotic animal escapes do occasionally happen in the U.S. Last November, for instance, a “sizable group” of rhesus monkeys fled the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in South Carolina. The monkeys’ taste of freedom lasted quite a bit longer than Ed’s did, however, with the last of the monkeys only finally caught in late January 2025.
Ed may have only been free for about a week, but his rebellious spirit will surely go on to inspire us all.
