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[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/ 
content_objectid=13949065_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-THE-ZOO- 
KILLER-name_page.html

THE ZOO KILLER

Feb 14 2004

By Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor

A SERIAL killer is being hunted after poisoning 10 animals at a world  
famous zoo.

Tony the chimpanzee was the first to be found dead followed by two  
other monkeys.

An elephant, three camels and three tapirs, including a newborn, also  
dropped dead in the last two weeks. Now the 3,200 animals at Sao Paulo  
zoo in Brazil are under 24-hour guard.

Tests show that the victims had heart attacks or stopped breathing  
after being given banned rat poison sodium fluoroacetate.

But police are baffled because no traces of it were found in their food  
or water.

Zoo biologist Katia Cassaro said: "We're desperate because we don't  
know which will be the next one.

"We are on guard at all hours, looking for a sign, looking for a sick  
animal, different behaviour, never knowing what we could find."

Just one gram of the poison - which is easy to make but only available  
commercially in the US and Australia - is enough to kill an elephant.

Antonio Carlos Silveira, of the Civil Police Laboratory, said: "It  
takes about 10 days to conclude all the tests we've ordered, but we're  
speeding that up.''

Officers are closely watching staff and visitors, especially those to  
come at unusual times - the zoo recently began opening at night.