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[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/8183028.htm?1c

Posted on Sun, Mar. 14, 2004

Poisonings stymie, horrify Brazil zoo

At least 62 animals killed by unknown foe; may be an inside job

HENRY CHU

Los Angeles Times


SAO PAULO, Brazil - Tony was the first to die. They found his body on Jan. 
24, limp and
lifeless, his face a mask of pain.

Three days later, another suspicious death surfaced, with similar signs. By 
week's end,
there were five more.

Soon victims were dying in groups, poisoned by the same odorless, colorless, 
highly toxic
substance. Desperate authorities have tallied at least 62 deaths, but 
acknowledge they
are not close to making an arrest.

Who is killing the animals at the Sao Paulo Zoo?

Since Tony the chimpanzee died, an elephant, five camels, several tapirs, a 
pair of rare
capuchins, an orangutan, some tiny golden lion tamarins and dozens of 
porcupines have
been poisoned in a case that has baffled police and horrified zoo officials 
and visitors.

Law enforcement agencies have mobilized 50 officers -- including nearly a 
fifth of the
city's special operations unit -- to hunt down the serial killer, while 
zookeepers
scramble to beef up security, change feeding routines, install cameras and 
find ways to
cope with a rampage nobody can make sense of.

"It's an unthinkable situation," said Jose Luiz Catao Dias, technical and 
scientific
director at the zoo in South America's biggest city. "We have emergency 
protocols for
escapes, for fires, for flooding, for walkouts and strikes. But the Sao Paulo 
Zoo had no
protocol for insanity."

Worse yet for Catao and his staff, signs point to an inside job, or at least 
assistance
from within -- meaning that a killer may be in their midst, somebody with 
knowledge of
the park's operations and access to its food supply.

Investigators are probing the possibility of a vendetta by a disgruntled 
worker or former
worker, but some employees say they cannot think of anyone who left the zoo 
under a cloud
or who would kill so many defenseless creatures to make a point.

"If it's for revenge, then take it out on a person, not on the animals," zoo 
biologist
Juliane dos Santos Soares said. "Cowards!"

She and her colleagues have been dealing with the horror of seeing so many of 
their
charges die painful, premature deaths. Many of the animals' handlers had 
worked with them
for decades, like Baira the elephant's keeper, who knew her so well after 30 
years
together that he could tell she was blinking differently one day. He 
immediately informed
his bosses, but the elephant died less than 24 hours later, leaving her 
keeper in tears.
The man is still too devastated to talk about what happened.

Lab tests have implicated sodium fluoroacetate, a rodenticide so lethal that 
a few specks
dissolved in water can kill a large dog. A drop in the eye of a human being 
would cause
an agonizing death within an hour or two.

The substance is banned for everyday use in Brazil. It can be bought abroad 
-- Australia
uses it to control its wallaby population -- or made by someone with a modest 
knowledge
of chemistry.

Whoever acquired or made the poison must have known its potency and 
considered its lack
of odor or taste ideal for killing animals, such as monkeys, which refuse to 
eat anything
with a bitter smell or taste, Catao said.

Nobody suspected deliberate poisoning at first.

Nine days after the first death, with carcasses piling up, the poison was 
identified.

"We knew it was fluoroacetate," said a weary Catao. "We knew there is no 
antidote.
There's almost nothing that can be done once it's ingested."

The zoo now knew what was killing the animals. But who was doing it? And how?

The death count, at 62, may rise after lab tests on more than a dozen more 
carcasses are
completed.

Catao is eager for the mystery to be cleared up, if only so that other zoos 
around the
world will not balk at donating replacement animals.