The former director of a zoo in southern Mexico killed four of the zoo's pygmy goats and served them up at a Christmas-season party, authorities said.
These four animals were slaughtered and cooked on the zoo's premises and were served as food at the end of the year, said Fernando Ruiz Gutierrez, the state environment department's director of wildlife at the time, Jos Rub n Nava. The health of the people who ate them was put at risk because these animals were not fit for human consumption. Rub n Nava had been replaced as director of the local zoo in the city of Chilpancingo on January 12 after the death of a deer there. But officials said on Tuesday that some animals in the zoo had been sold, traded or eaten under Nava's orders.
Deer and Watusi cattle were traded without proper accounting, according to the state environment department.
Nava also allegedly traded a zebra for some tools needed to fix things around the zoo, but an inspection did not find any such tools at the facility.
It was not clear if Nava had been charged with a crime or if he had a lawyer.
Mexico has had a problem with private citizens illegally acquiring exotic animals for a long time. For years, drug traffickers in Mexico have been known to build private menageries of lions, tigers and other wild animals. They sometimes escape, sowing panic.
State police said a loose lion attacked and seriously injured a woman on the patio of her home in the central city of Aguascalientes. The lion apparently escaped from a nearby home. The woman was hospitalised with injuries to her legs, skull and lung.
The lion also attacked two dogs and a cat. It was captured on Tuesday and sent to a local zoo.