Skopje, 19 October 2024 (MIA) -- The Skopje Zoo said in a press release on Saturday afternoon that several Food and Veterinary Agency inspectors had entered the premises without inspection warrants or any other official orders and killed dozens of birds. The Skopje Zoo would press criminal charges against the FVA director, the inspectors, and the people who broke in carrying weapons, the release said. 

"Since this morning, without a warrant, an order, or any other evidence, FVA inspectors accompanied by people carrying weapons broke into the Skopje Zoo and massacred the birds.

"Without any explanation, these people, under the FVA director's orders and carrying no proof, have killed, as of now, several dozens of birds who had been freely walking around the Zoo.

"These were decorative species of ducks and geese that live in the City Park and have natural access to the Zoo from the City Park," the release said.

According to the Skopje Zoo release, the goal of the veterinary inspection was to cause "a new, made-up problem to provide an alibi for closing the Skopje Zoo and tarnishing its reputation."

The Skopje Zoo has been closed since Saturday morning. 

Earlier, FVA sources told MIA their inspectors had been sent to the zoo, where some technical procedures were under way. No reason was given for the FVA inspection.

Unconfirmed reports said there had been either a bacterial infection found in geese or a potential outbreak of a virus that can infect people.

In a Facebook post, former Zoo director Gjorgji Galetanovski said that "deadly bacteria" of "bird flu" was detected at the Zoo, and urged staff and recent visitors to watch out for symptoms.

Public Health Institute director Marija Andonova told MIA the FVA had not asked for a team of epidemiologists to interview the zoo staff yet.

This would happen, she said, in the case of a zoonosis, a disease caused by a pathogen transmitted to humans by infected animals. mr/