Starving Venezuelans butcher horse at zoo

A black stallion was butchered for its meat last month after a group of Venezuelans, suffering the effects of food shortages, broke into a Caracas zoo.

When zookeepers at Caracas’ Caricuao Zoo arrived for work on the 25 July, they found the ribs and head of the horse, the only one of its kind at the zoo, in a pile on the ground.

It emerged that in the early hours of the morning, a group broke into the zoo, leading the horse from its pen to a secluded area, where they killed it. Environmental prosecutor, Dalila Puglia, has been called in to investigate.

The horrific incident is sadly not a one-off. Amidst a severe decline in the country’s economy, looting, riots and crippling food and medication shortages are rife. Caricuao Zoo has already lost several Vietnamese pigs and sheep to theft this year. The animals themselves are also suffering as a result of lack of food. 50 animals are said to have starved to death in the zoo in the last six months; with some going as long as two weeks without food.

Oslander Montoya, the accountant responsible for funding the zoo commented, “We are doing all that is humanly possible to ensure the zoo continues to function.”