Dallas Zoo offers $10,000 reward after suspicious vulture death

Dallas, Texas - Dallas Zoo officials believe that the suspicious death of an endangered vulture is connected to the dubious string of incidents being investigated by the police that has plagued the zoo and it's animals over the last two weeks.

Over the last few weeks, the Dallas Zoo has been plagued by a string of strange events.
Over the last few weeks, the Dallas Zoo has been plagued by a string of strange events.  © screenshot/Twitter/Dallas Zoo

Over the weekend, a male lappet-faced vulture named Pin was found dead in its enclosure, as reported by KERA News.

The zoo announced the endangered vulture's death on Twitter: "The animal care team is heartbroken over this tremendous loss."

In another tweet, they said the circumstances of Pin's death were “unusual.” They continued to say the bird's death "did not appear to be from natural causes," and that the Dallas Police Department was looking into the matter.

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At a press conference, Dallas Zoo CEO Gregg Hudson reportedly said that Pin was found wounded in his enclosure and necropsy, or animal autopsy, is pending.

Monday, the Dallas Zoo also announced that they're offering a $10,000 dollar reward to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest of the individual responsible for a string of recent animal-related crimes.

Anyone arrested in connection with these crimes could face felony charges for animal cruelty.

Vulture death marks third animal incident at the Dallas Zoo

Pin's death is the third animal incident at the Dallas Zoo in the last few weeks.

A little over a week a go, the zoo couldn't open because a clouded leopard was missing from her enclosure for several hours. Keepers found a hole in the fence of her enclosure that appeared to have been intentionally cut. They also discovered that someone had tampered with the habitat of a languor monkey.

In light of the recent events, officials said they have added additional cameras around the zoo and increased onsite security patrols to keep their animals and staff safe.

Cover photo: screenshot/Twitter/Dallas Zoo

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