Thread: Suspected drug dealers in Mexico leave exotic pets behind

Suspected drug dealers in Mexico leave exotic pets behind

By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

TOLUCA, Mexico — Mexico's war on drugs has swept up a new breed of innocent victim: hundreds of exotic animals, from monkeys to white tigers, which are kept by drug cartel bosses as flashy pets but then become homeless when their owners are thrown in prison.

In recent months, Mexican police have raided at least four estates populated by zebras, giraffes and other animals that big-time drug traffickers like to brandish as status symbols on their ranches and in their mansions.

In just one bust in the town of San Simon de Guerrero, authorities netted 193 animals, from colorful Chinese pheasants to squirrel monkeys.

The raids have left federal officials with the problem of what to do with the animals. Mexican zoos have taken in some of them, particularly the rarest specimens, but don't have the capacity to handle them all.

"We don't want zoos to be seen as animal shelters," said Manlio Nucamendi, director of the Zacango Zoo in Toluca, near Mexico City. His zoo took in some of the animals from the San Simon de Guerrero raid and is caring for others while federal officials find permanent homes.

President Felipe Calderón has launched an unprecedented crackdown on drug traffickers since taking office in December 2006. The rate of drug-related arrests has nearly doubled since then, and the U.S. government says that cocaine supply has fallen in American cities as a result.

That progress has come at a high cost: More than 4,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico this year, the government says.

Drug traffickers have long had a fascination with exotic animals. The most famous collector was Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, who kept elephants, camels, lions and hippopotamuses on his 3,500-acre estate, along with 700 farmhands to care for them.

As Mexico's drug wars have heated up, animals have sometimes been caught in the crossfire.

In an echo of The Godfather, at least three dogs have been killed and left with written threats, according to the Reforma newspaper, which keeps a tally of drug slayings. In September 2007, hit men gunned down a man in the northern city of Caborca as he was towing a horse trailer in his pickup — and then they shot the horse.

The animals who survive often face widely divergent fates. At the Zacango Zoo, a peacock seized in the San Simon de Guerrero raid garnered plenty of attention from schoolchildren, who gathered to snap pictures. Across the park, four squirrel monkeys scampered around in a new cage.

There was far less adulation, however, for the burros, mules and horses that were confiscated in the same raid. They roamed a small corral behind the zoo's offices. Eventually they will be donated to government programs that aid small farmers, Nucamendi said.

Even exotic pets pose a problem because they can be expensive to maintain, said Salvador Lozano, a spokesman for the Morelia Zoo in central Mexico.

"In the past, we've received tigers, lions — that's the kind of animals that these people like," Lozano said. "It's a sign of power for them."

Feeding six felines seized in a Mexico City raid cost the federal government about $350 a day until the animals were moved to Guadalajara, the Mexican attorney general's office has said.

For zoos, big cats are often more trouble than they're worth, said Pablo Varela, technical director for the Guadalajara Zoo.

"You have to make sure they're compatible with the animals you already have, and if they're not, you have to have space for them to live separately," he said.

He said both lions, one of the tigers and one of the jaguars confiscated in Mexico City are now on display at the zoo but have not been allowed to move freely among the other animals.

Their arrival attracted much attention from the Mexican news media during the first few days, but the novelty wore off quickly, Varela said. Visitors sometimes ask about the cats' history.

"Honestly, we don't really need them," Varela said. "We already have lions, tigers and jaguars. We really took them in out of a sense of responsibility for the animals, not because it's a great addition to the zoo."

Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic.

Contributing: Sergio Solache contributed to this report

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008 ... pets_N.htm

Zebras, giraffes, lions . . . meet taco shop owner.

Perhaps the lions, tigers, and jaguars could released into the jail cells of captured drug traffickers, thus saving on the costs of feeding all involved.