Zoo shut after 7 tigers found dead

A private Chinese zoo has lost at least seven tigers due to starvation, sickness or fight wounds in the last four years, state media reported after two dead tiger cubs were found in a refrigerator in the ticket office.

The discovery of the cubs at the zoo near Yichang at the foot of the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province came after a rare Siberian tiger was found beheaded and skinned last week, prompting an investigation, the New China News Agency said.

The zoo was ordered to suspend operations and “shape up its management,” the news agency reported. A flood of visitors to the zoo slowed to a trickle soon after it opened in 2002, leaving it financially strapped.