Staff Correspondent, Rajshahi

A pack of stray dogs, presumably starved due to the shutdown, yesterday killed and ate three fawns and their mother deer at Rajshahi zoo.

Five dogs entered the deer shed through a damaged barrier, and killed three fawns at daybreak, said Samar Kumar Paul, executive magistrate of Rajshahi City Corporation, that oversees the zoo.

The dogs later killed the mother deer, he said, and ate them, before zoo staff drove them away, he said.

“Stray dogs (of the city) have been starved,” he said, adding that the dogs used to get food from local restaurants and now the restaurants are closed due to coronavirus pandemic.

The remains of the deer were buried inside the shed, he said, terming it “an accident.”

Paul said they sought explanation from the zoo officials about the incident.

The zoo had a total of 75 deer with 15 fawns that were born in a period of last three months.