History Main / EscapedAnimalRampage

* ''Series/ACountryPractice'': A WeddingEpisode two-parter airing around 1988 had several goats escape from a pick-up truck following a near-miss. Most were recaptured, but one goat provided to be difficult, and a farmer attempts to tranquilize him. He accidentally shoots the priest intending to minster the wedding, in the ''butt''. The goat makes it to a local pub and eats the wedding cake before finally being recaptured.

* ''Film/GoodBurger'': The reason Heather was committed to Demented Hills was that, "Small space aliens landed in her head and told her to break into the zoo and free all the kangaroos."
* In ''Film/{{Gorgo}}'', a dinosaur-like GiantSwimmer is captured off the Irish Coast and put on display in a London circus. We spend most of the movie's second act well aware that this cannot end well. [[spoiler: This trope is ultimately subverted, though; he doesn't escape. [[MamaBear His mom]] comes and gets him.]]
* The first of ''Film/TheGreenHornetSerials'': one episode dealt with the gangsters trying to take over a zoo. We see a tiger get loose due to sabotage, and it's indicated that this wasn't the first time.
* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'': In this film, a magical game board causes all kinds of animals to break loose from the game and rampage through town.
* ''Film/JurassicPark'' series:
** ''Film/JurassicPark1993'': John Hammond creates [[ExtinctAnimalPark a zoo for dinosaurs]]. He plans it as a tourist attraction, but when a storm causes the electric power to fall out, the monstrous animals are able to come from behind the fences and have the humans run for their lives.

** In ''Film/JurassicWorld'', a newly-created hybrid dinosaur, dubbed the ''Indominus rex'', tricks her handlers into opening her paddock and letting her loose on the island. Naturally, she goes on a rampage, killing humans and dinosaurs alike. She then crashes into a giant birdcage, freeing ''Dimorphodons'' and ''Pteranodons'', who immediately head for the thousands of people crowded at the visitor center. [[spoiler:The ''Velociraptors'' also go on a rampage after being turned by the ''I. rex'']].
** ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' [[spoiler:Ends with all of the dinosaurs that were saved (or escaped on their own) from the exploding Isla Nublar (and were going to be put in an AuctionOfEvil) either attacking humans or heavily implied that they will attack humans after being released by Maisie.]]
** ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'': While pursing Delacourt through the dinosaur black market, he attempts to loose his pursuers by setting loose many of the animals. This goes awry when he releases a full-grown ''Carnotaurus'' and ''Allosaurus'', which wreck havoc, devouring several people and eventually running loose through the streets of Malta.
* ''Film/KingKong'' (all versions that aren't set in the ''[[Film/KongSkullIsland Legendary]]'' [[Film/GodzillaVsKong universe]]): After Kong arrives in New York City he is exhibited in a theater. When he escapes he terrorizes the city and... well, [[KingKongClimb you know the rest]].
* In the 1932 Creator/LaurelAndHardy short ''The Chimp'', roustabouts Laurel and Hardy are laid off by a circus and given their "pay" in the form of Ethel, a huge ape. But while Ethel's getaway from the circus is legitimate, a fierce lion actually escapes, and frightens Laurel and Hardy while they try to introduce Ethel to their home.

** ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968'': A funny inversion occurs when Taylor the human escapes from a medical lab where apes do experiments on humans and runs amok, scaring the innocent residents of Ape City.

** ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'': Apes escape from their own facility and release other apes from a zoo to create an army, before disappearing into the forests.

* ''Film/{{Zoombies}}'' combined this with RaisingTheSteaks by having the animals at a state of the art zoo go on a rampage after becoming {{Plague Zombie}}s.

* ''Court Martial'' by Creator/SvenHassel. [[TheSquad 2 Section]] have to get rid of a troublesome Gestapo agent who's blackmailing them. After a [[RasputinianDeath number of unsuccessful attempts]] have landed the Gestapo agent in hospital, Porta and the others decide to pay a friendly visit with a [[AnimalAssassin wildcat in a cage]]. Unfortunately the wildcat gets freed from its cage too early and proceeds to tear up the entire hospital.
** In ''O.G.P.U Prison'', Porta adopts a black panther called Ulrich, and there's a RunningGag of it giving heart attacks to everyone it meets. Ulrich just wants to play with them, but they don't know that.

* Creator/MatthewReilly's ''The Great Zoo of China'': [[spoiler:Which is actually The Great '''''[[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon]]''''' Zoo of China]]. It's Reilly's {{homage}}/[[WholePlotReference ripoff]] of Creator/MichaelCrichton and ''Literature/JurassicPark'', and things go exactly as well as you'd expect.

* In ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'', James' parents were killed by a rhinoceros that broke out of London Zoo. [[AscendedToCarnivorism And ate them, apparently]].
* Subverted in ''Literature/LifeOfPi'': Early on he explains that most animals who escape zoos blend in with the outside very well, and cites an anecdote of a black panther who broke out and then was found months later in the woods feeding on deer. According to him, there are many other that have hidden themselves in the cities.

* In ''Literature/ThatHideousStrength'', After Merlin frees the animals from the experimental laboratory, they go on a rampage, [[spoiler: trampling their captors to death.]]
* In the novel version of ''Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', Scaramanga killed his first man in his backstory as a Circus Brat when he shot the policeman who shot his elephant friend who had went into an amok run.

* In the fifth ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book, a pack of dogs gets loose from the tree farm that they were being kept in to guard, and they end up living in the forest. While escaped dogs might not be the scariest thing to a human, they were a big threat to the cats living there.

* ''Series/AftermathPopulationZero'': In a scenario where all humans have mysteriously disappeared, All animals have to escape their confines or starve, as humans are no longer there to feed them. Zoo animals quickly test their fences, and break out into the unconventional habitats of cities and towns. This leads to such sights as bush elephants migrating through suburbs, feasting on the leaves of trees there, and lions trying to catch monkeys hanging out in playgrounds. Ultimately this pays off for them; even though they're far removed from their normal homelands, the wild animals make new lives for themselves amongst the landscape once occupied by their keepers.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': A pack of wolves escape the London Zoo in the "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight In The Forest Of The Night]]" episode due to the sudden, explosive growth of forests and run rampant around central London. [[spoiler: A tiger also escaped and the wolves are far more afraid of it then any humans.]]

* ''Series/SesameStreet'', Ernie tells Bert about his day at the zoo in an early skit. Ernie describes the day as largely uneventful, despite [[spoiler: the chaos that resulted from several animals getting out of their cages]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rKeEUexz4]]
* In the ''Series/{{Tremors}}'' TV series, the ass-blaster that was captured alive in the third film escapes from captivity and menaces Perfection again.

** ''Film/JurassicPark'': John Hammond creates [[ExtinctAnimalPark a zoo for dinosaurs]]. He plans it as a tourist attraction, but when a storm causes the electric power to fall out, the monstrous animals are able to come from behind the fences and have the humans run for their lives.
** The second installment ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' has a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' taken to the continent with the intention of putting it in a zoo, but he escapes before they could do so and runs amuck through most of San Diego. They manage to get it back in its cage by luring it there with its baby.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': [[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS01E16Animan Animan]], ([[Main/MonsterOfTheWeek the Akuma-target of the Week]]) lets a bunch of animals out of their cages, resulting in this.