The Chilpancingo Zoo sacrificed four pygmy goats for New Year's dinner

Two specimens of pygmy goats in the zoo of the city of Chilpancingo, on January 31. José Luis de la Cruz (EFE)

It all started after the death of a deer in the Chilpancingo zoo, in Guerrero.

On January 14, Maximino Organista, a neighbor of the Jardines Zinnia subdivision, posted on his Facebook profile that he had found an injured deer near his house.

Some dogs had bitten the animal and had injured one leg.

The man protected the deer at home and called the authorities who took it to the Zoochilpan zoo to be treated.

The animal ended up dying days later and several animal associations denounced the zoo.

What seemed like an isolated case, however, uncovered a whole chain of corruption of the director where animals were sold, illegally exchanged and slaughtered for human consumption.

The environmental authorities point out that four pygmy goats, of the 10 they have, were sacrificed and cooked in the zoo facilities for New Year's dinner on the orders of the director, José Rubén Nava Noriega, who faces charges for species trafficking and animal abuse. , in addition to crimes against health.

"With this fact, the health of consumers is put at risk because they were not animals suitable for human consumption," said the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources of Guerrero (Semaren), Ángel Almazán Juárez.

According to the authorities, Nava Noriega handed in low-figure invoices for a microwave oven and a printer to justify the money he had received and it was detected that he used apocryphal invoices from a laboratory owned by his family, as well as the purchase of drugs that were not They are used in wild animals.

The Secretary for the Environment has indicated that among the irregularities detected is the exchange of other species and the presentation of apocryphal invoices from a family business from Nava to justify the money transfers.

The director negotiated to deliver a zebra to an unidentified person in Querétaro in exchange for three red deer and four watusis, an African bovine breed, to another buyer in exchange for tools and supplies, however, Almazán assures that the facilities have not found neither the materials nor the tools that appear in the transaction document, signed on December 8.

The authorities indicate that the Zoochilpan management notified Semaren, nor the Ministry of the Environment (Semarnat), nor the Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) about the exchanges,

Almazán Juárez also pointed out that there were several births during Nava Noriega's time at the head of the zoo that were not registered, apocryphal deaths and that the whereabouts of these species are unknown.

Authorities say they do not know the whereabouts of a jaguarundi -a small cat-, a coyote, 10 reptiles, a baby macaw and a red-tailed hawk that were rescued and whose whereabouts are unknown.

Regarding the deer rescued in mid-January and taken to Zoochilpan, the authorities reported that it was not treated "adequately", its antlers were cut off and its leg was sutured without anesthesia.

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