KIEV — Ukrainian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against the former head of the Kiev Zoo, where hundreds of animals have died or gone mysteriously missing in recent years.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that Svitlana Berzina is suspected of embezzling some $47,000 from the zoo by commissioning projects that weren't fully carried out, if at all.
Berzina was fired last year after nearly one-half of the zoo's animals either died or disappeared. Rights groups claimed that the deaths were caused by mistreatment, with rare animals illegally sold off to private collectors.
