According to officials, the former director of a zoo in southern Mexico slaughtered four pygmy goats and served them at a Christmas party.
Following the death of a deer at the local zoo in the city of Chilpancingo on January 12, José Rubén Nava was dismissed as the zoo’s director.
However, officials stated on Wednesday that an investigation revealed some of the zoo’s animals were allegedly sold, exchanged, or consumed on Nava’s orders.
Without adequate accounting, the state environment department reported that a zebra was swapped for tools and that deer and Watusi cattle were sold to private individuals.
It was unclear whether Nava had been legally charged in the case and whether he had an attorney.
The most alarming charge, however, was made by Fernando Ruiz Gutierrez, the director of wildlife at the state environment department. According to him, Nava had four male pygmy goats from the zoo slaughtered and prepared for a year-end banquet.
Ruiz Gutierrez stated, “These four animals slaughtered and cooked on the zoo’s premises, and were served as food at the year-end party,”
“This put the health of the people who ate them at risk, because these animals were not fit for human consumption,” he stated.
Nava apparently swapped the zoo’s zebra for certain tools needed to fix things around the zoo, but no such tools were found during an examination.
Private persons’ illicit acquisition of exotic animals has long been a concern in Mexico. Drug traffickers in Mexico have built private menageries of lions, tigers, and other wild creatures for years. They occasionally escape, causing panic.
State authorities said that a loose lion attacked and critically injured a woman on her patio in the central city of Aguascalientes. Apparently, the lion fled from a nearby residence. The woman was hospitalized with leg, head, and lung injuries.
Additionally, the lion mauled two dogs and a cat. It was captured on Tuesday and sent to a nearby zoo.
Last year, authorities removed 177 lions, tigers, jaguars, and other exotic big cats from an animal rescue center in Mexico City’s southern slopes.
Exotic animals have long had a fascination for Mexican narcos.
A spider monkey disguised as a criminal gang mascot was discovered shot to death after a gunbattle last year. Eleven members of a criminal gang were killed in a gunfight with police in Texcaltitlan, and photographs taken at the site showed a baby monkey draped over the body of a deceased gunman who was presumably his owner.
A 450-pound tiger roamed the streets of the Pacific coast state of Nayarit in 2012, while a man was mauled to death when he attempted to pet a confined tiger in a cartel-controlled region of western Michoacán state.
»Zoo director murdered and roasted 4 pygmy goats for Mexico holiday party«