Kaliningrad head Alexander Yaroshuk fired the boss of the city’s zoo after the deaths of seven kangaroos, a pregnant pigmy hippo and a young bison, which was later fed to the lion.
The city’s administration told gazeta.ru that the formal reasons for firing Lyudmila Anoka was that they were unhappy with the way the zoo was run, including too many court squabbles with employees.
The zoo’s employees said that the dead animals were sickened by coli bacillus and fungus infections, which is a result of “sanitary violations and poor quality fodder.”
Anoka claims that the deaths were not connected. The kangaroos died of diseases caused by inbreeding, and the hippo and bison had genetic disorders.
Last year several animals also died in the zoo.