PHILADELPHIA — All five meerkats at The Philadelphia Zoo have died this month after an apparently accidental poisoning that is under investigation by both zoo officials and animal welfare groups.
Rachel Metz, the zoo’s vice president of animal well-being, said necropsy results were still pending. But zookeepers suspect the poisoning was linked to the dye used to differentiate the near-identical meerkats. Zoo management has launched a probe alongside the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Something different happened and we don’t know what that is,” Metz said. “We’ve started our initial fact-finding and are talking about everything that happened, step by step.”
