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The body of Bantú the gorilla, who died while being prepped for transportation from the zoo of Chapultepec to Guadalajara, was torn apart, skinned and beheaded, according to pictures obtained by EL UNIVERSAL.
In the pictures the body is open and its extremities and head separated from it. The former head of the Chapultepec Zoo, Marielena Hoyo, said that it looks like a butchery.
"I don't agree with the method exposed in the images, where the animal is dismembered. It's okay to cut him open to take tissue samples, but I don't understand the need to dismember him and skin him this way," she said.
According to experts seeked by Hoyo, sometimes it's necessary to fully dissect the body and expose the brain in forensic investigations.
“It's a protocol which has to be followed and it's even logical. But (the authorities) will have to present an explanation for the precise reasoning behind his beheading and skinning his face," she said.
Two zoo workers who requested anonymity confirmed that the pictures were taken at the zoo.
The Big Ape Project in Mexico called into question the way the primate was prepared for his trip to Guadalajara in order to mate.
"When we spoke with the director (of Zoos and Wildlife in Mexico City, Juan Arturo Rivera) he told us that he had been sedated in order to put him in the box, and then they administered the antidote, the compound to wake him up... Bantú never woke up, because it was administered twice," said Paulina Bermúdez, from the Project.
She added that the transportation procedures was undertaken by 20 people, among them veterinaries and techs, and the animal was not used to so many humans, since only four were generally used.
She added that many officials are involved in the death of the primate.
