Thieves Steal Animals From Zoos To Eat Them - Police

Animals in Venezuela zoo (Google Photo).

Living conditions are hard in Venezuela. There is chronic food shortage and people have sometimes been seen foraging in garbage for food

Captured in the jungle and kept in the zoo for man’s amusement, people in Venezuela still found their way to steal the animals and eat them.

But it is not entirely the thieves’ fault.

Things are hard in Venezuela. There is chronic food shortage and people have sometimes been seen foraging in garbage for food.

The animals were stolen from a zoo in western state of Zulia and police suspect they are being turned into local delicacies.

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A police official said two collared peccaries, which are similar in appearance to boars, were stolen over the weekend from the Zulia Metropolitan Zoological Park in the sweltering city of Maracaibo near the Colombian border.

"What we presume is that they (were taken) with the intention of eating them," Luis Morales, an official for the Zulia division of the National Police, told reporters on Tuesday.

The chaotic collapse of the country's socialist economic model has created chronic food shortages that have fueled malnutrition and left millions seeking food anywhere they can find it.

President Nicolas Maduro blames food shortages on opposition protests that have blocked streets and highways and a broader "economic war" led by adversaries with the help of America.