The head of a zoo in Mexico is fired for selling and cooking animals

Director of a zoo in southern Mexico was fired after the detection of alleged irregularities in the management of some animals, ranging from sale and exchange of copies for tools and supplies up to the slaughter of goats to feed the workers of the centreState authorities have announced.

On October 11, 2021, the official account of the zoochilpan zoo he tweeted: “We work with techniques aimed at animal welfare…“.

“[…] In this case, positive reinforcement operant conditioning is performed with nodes [el nombre del animal]which will allow in the short term a safe approach for the giraffecaregiver and medical team”, continues the publication that almost a year and a half later it becomes a sad irony of the fate of some of the animals in the park in the state of Guerrero, where tremors and clashes between police and residents which left a balance of five dead.

The zoo, which should be a place of recreation amid so much bad news, has given another jolt to the Mexican south.

The Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources of the region, Ángel Almazán Juárez, announced to the press, reports the AP agency, that the director was fired of the Zoochilpan zoo, José Nava, for alleged irregularities such as the exchange of fours watusis -a bovine that looks like a cow with a huge horn- for materials, tools and supplies for the center that operates in the city of Chilpancingo, the state capital.

Almazán Juárez said that after an investigation it was also discovered that the fired director changed, without the authorization of the Ministry of the Environment, one zebra for three red deerwhose value is much lower than that of the first.

The official specified that the four watusi and the zebra were transferred to the states of Mexico and Queretaro.

Investigations remain open at the zoo because other irregularities with animals such as Barbary sheep, pygmy goatsjaguarundis (feline), coyotereptiles, a red-tailed hawk and a Harlequin macawAlmazán Juárez said without offering details.

As reported by the head of the Wildlife Department of the State Secretariat for the Environment, Fernando Ruiz, the former director of the zoo would have had four dwarf goats that would have been slaughtered and cooked in the centre’s facilities to be served at a New Years party by the workers.

“They weren’t animals fit for human consumption”Ruiz told the press. In the meantime, it is not yet known whether any legal proceedings will be initiated.

Suspicions arose earlier this year when neighbors reported lto the death of a deer who had been rescued from the street after being attacked by dogs.

According to media reports, the deer was found dead and without horns. The former zoo director said at the time that the deer had died of blood loss.

Escape and attack of an African lioness in Aguascalientes

The secretary of public security of the central state of Aguascalientes confirmed that in the capital of that region she was captured this Tuesday a two-year-old African lioness who had run away from a dwelling where they held her captive and so on he assaulted a resident of that community, two dogs and a cat.

Commissioner General Antonio Martínez Romo, public safety secretary of the municipality of Aguascalientes, said the big cat attacked a 40-year-old woman on Tuesday, who accidentally encountered the animal as she walked out onto the patio of her modest home. The woman is in serious condition. because he has injuries to his skull, a lung and his lower limbs.

The African lioness belongs to an inhabitant of Aguascalientes, identified as Giovani N, 34 years old, who He was arrested after the event. The authorities did not specify how the big cat escaped captivity, which after the accident was transferred to the Rodolfo Landeros park in that country.

In recent months, the Mexican authorities have seized some large felinos which were in private hands and criminals who have a fondness for exotic animals.

DS