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POISONING, ZOO ANIMALS - BRAZIL (SAO PAULO)

What's killing the animals at the Sao Paulo zoo? 'Serial animal killer'
suspected

Police are investigating a spate of unusual cases of apparent death by
poisoning at the Sao Paulo Zoo, one of the world's largest, where 10
animals including an elephant have dropped dead in a 2-week period.

"We can't explain what's happening," said biologist Fatima Roberti, a
spokeswoman for the zoo. "We are letting the police sift through the clues."

What police know so far, according to Antonio Carlos Silveira of the Sao
Paulo Civil Police Laboratory, is that 3 chimpanzees, 3 tapirs, 3 camels,
and an elephant were found dead between 24 Jan and 6 Feb 2004. "These were
apparently unnatural deaths," said Silveira. "These animals just dropped
dead suddenly."

Police probed for motives among the zoo's 370 staff members and at first
speculated about a possible "serial animal killer" spreading poison in
animal cages after entering the zoo as an ordinary visitor. But the current
focus is on a more mundane cause -- rat poison. Silveira said police lab
specialists have taken samples of food found in the cages of the dead
animals for chemical tests. They are also in the process of conducting
detailed necropsies of all 10 of the dead animals.

"On Tuesday, the police experts found traces of 3 different rat poisons in
the cages of the dead animals," said Silveira. "We are now comparing those
traces to the viscera of the animals and to poisons used in 300 rat traps
spread all over the zoo."

The theory being tested, Silveira said, is that rats spread small amounts
of the poisons by defecating and urinating in the animal cages before dying
of poisoning themselves.

However, even confirmation of that theory could lead to a further mystery.
According to Roberti, in preliminary necropsies some of the dead animals
showed traces of a deadly poison called sodium fluoroacetate, a substance
used in powerful rat poisons that are banned in Brazil. If sodium
fluoroacetate were found to be the culprit, police would still have to find
out who placed the banned substance in the zoo's rat traps, Silveira said.

"In principle, it takes about 10 days to conclude all the tests we've
ordered, but we're speeding that up," Silveira said. Meanwhile, staff are
keeping a 24-hour watch over the zoo's 3200 animals in hopes of fingering
the "animal serial killer," if there is one.