Frozen corpses of 80 animals found in Brazil zoo
Date: 20-Aug-01
Country: BRAZIL
Author: Andrei Khalip
Environmental police investigator Arthur Cabral said in televised comments the Bwana Park Zoo had recently tried to convert itself into a sex club, which could have led its owners to abandon the animals.
The government's environmental agency, Ibama, said that about 100 live animals in the zoo, at the town of Guaratiba west of Rio, bore signs of malnutrition and ill-treatment. The zoo had recently been sold to new owners.
"We found the dead animals during a checkup on the zoo and sealed the park yesterday. Live animals were clearly kept in inadequate conditions. Criminal charges will be made," an Ibama spokesman told Reuters.
Among the dead animals found in the freezers of a local veterinary clinic were an African lynx, an Asian otter, a jaguar, a yellow-tongued alligator, monkeys and macaws.
Local media showed blood-chilling pictures of an environmental official holding up the frozen corpse of a small monkey by its crooked tail and a whole table covered with lifeless furry and feathery animal bodies.
Most of the animals had died in the past two months, according to Ibama's preliminary conclusions.
Apart from a $21,000 fine, the park's former owners and the local veterinarian may face criminal charges for ill-treatment and destruction of rare animals.
Under Brazilian environmental laws, which are seldom enforced, the maximum sentence for killing a rare animal is one year and three months in jail.
The authorities also suspect illegal animal trafficking, a widespread criminal business in Brazil, home to around 20 percent of fauna and flora species found on the planet. Over 200 animal species in Latin America's largest country run the risk of total extinction.
After its opening in the early 1990s, the Bwana park drew scores of children from Rio de Janeiro and other cities, but its financial health has deteriorated recently, especially after its founder died earlier this year.
That was when the plan to create a sex club cropped up, according to local media.