A 24-year-old man has been arrested in Texas in connection with the theft of emperor tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo, the scene of many weeks of mysterious wrongdoing, city police said Friday.
• Also read: Two missing monkeys found alive at Dallas Zoo
• Also read: Two monkeys stolen from Dallas Zoo
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According to the Dallas police, the preliminary investigation and the help of the population have made it possible to identify Davion Irvin, 24, as a suspect in connection with the theft of these primates, which were found Tuesday evening in an abandoned house about thirty kilometers from Dallas.
“Dallas Police received a report Thursday that (Davion) Irvin was seen near the animals on display at the Dallas Aquarium,” police said in a statement.
The suspect was eventually arrested further in the city and charged with six counts of “cruelty to animals”.
Police say the charges relate solely to the theft of the emperor monkeys and that “investigations are continuing into all cases at the zoo.”
Because the Dallas Zoo has been the subject of mysterious misdeeds for several weeks.
The menagerie of this Texas oil town is recovering from the death of their beloved vulture. The animal, named “Pin,” was found last week with an “atypical injury,” leading authorities to believe his death had no natural cause.
On January 13, a rare clouded leopard escaped from the menagerie through a deliberately cut breach in its enclosure. The cat, named Nova, had been recovered after a major mobilization notably involving police infrared vision drones.
Zoo staff later discovered a similar hole in the cages of langurs, a species of Asian monkey.