MEXICO'S DRUG WAR CLAIMS EXOTIC PETS AS VICTIMS

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 in their ranches and
mansions.

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

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.

The most famous collector was Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, who
kept elephants, camels, lions and hippopotamuses on his estate, along
with 700 farmhands to care for them.

Gannett News Service