Another animal at the Dallas Zoo has died an untimely death: Jata, one of the zoo's three African painted dogs, died on Saturday, June 29. The dog was seven years old.

The zoo did not announce the death immediately, instead waiting two weeks until July 12, Friday at 2:29 pm. Politicians and government agencies are known to choose Friday afternoons to post news that is negative or controversial, since fewer people (and journalists) are online on Friday afternoons. It's called the "Friday news dump."

According to the Dallas Zoo's stealth post, Jata began showing signs of lethargy and decreased appetite two weeks before he died. They are still awaiting necropsy results to determine cause of death, "but initial findings indicate acute renal failure," meaning he had kidney disease.

The average lifespan of an African painted dog in the wild is 11 years old.

Jata and his brother Mzingo came to the Dallas Zoo in 2019, from The Wilds at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium with a goal of getting them to breed with a female African painted dog. The zoo's first stab was the unfortunate Ola, an eight-year-old African painted dog who was brutally killed in 2019 by Jata and Mzingo less than a month after residing at the Dallas Zoo.

Zoo employees called this savagery "natural." Even your most basic pet owner knows that it can takes many months for animals to acclimate to each other; apparently, this is beyond the skillset of the team at the Dallas Zoo.

Despite Ola's death, the Denver Zoo blithely transferred Cholula, a female African painted dog born in 2018, to the Dallas Zoo in 2020.

Wild animals are corraled together at zoos as part of the so-called Species Survival Plan, a program at zoos across the U.S. wherein animals are moved like chess pieces from zoo to zoo to ostensibly keep imperiled species alive.

Since 2019, the Dallas Zoo has lost two out of the four African painted dogs in its care.

Death count
Jata's death is one more in a long-running series of deaths at the zoo that have accelerated in recent years, the most previous being Ferrell, a 15-year-old giraffe who died in December 2023, after a fall in the barn caused injury sufficient to require that the giraffe be euthanized.

Jata the painted dog joins this death march of animals at the Dallas Zoo:

• Ferrell, a 15-year-old giraffe, died in December, 2023, following "an unexpected fall in the barn" that injured the giraffe's jaw so badly, they were forced to euthanize him.
• Ajabu, a 6-year-old African elephant who died on May 8, 2023, from the herpes virus.
• Pin, a 35-year-old lappet-faced vulture, died on January 22, 2023, cause unknown.
• Jesse, a 14-year-old giraffe, died on October 29, 2021, cause unknown.
• Auggie, a 19-year-old giraffe, died in late October 2021 of liver failure.
• Marekani, a 3-month-old baby giraffe, sustained a mysterious injury and was euthanized on October 3, 2021.
• Kirk, a 31-year-old chimpanzee, died in August 2021 due to "surprise" heart disease.
• Keeya, a 6-year-old Hartmann's mountain zebra, died in March 2021 due to a mysterious unexplained head injury.
• Subira, a 24-year-old silverback gorilla, died suddenly in March 2020, due to a cough, or maybe cardiovascular disease. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Hope, a 23-year-old Western lowland gorilla, died suddenly in November 2019 after being at the zoo for only two years.
• Ola, an 8-year-old female African painted dog, was killed in July 2019 by two other painted dogs, less than a month after she was transferred to the zoo.
• Witten, a 1-year-old giraffe, died in June 2019 during a physical exam under anesthesia when he suddenly stopped breathing.
• Adhama, a baby hippopotamus, mysteriously died in 2018.
• Kipenzi, a baby giraffe, died in 2015 after running in her enclosure.
• Kamau, a young cheetah, died of pneumonia in 2014.
• Johari, a female lion, was killed in front of zoo spectators in 2013 by male lions with whom she shared an enclosure.

And in February 2021, they lost a crow called Onyx who was part of their "animal ambassador team," "participating in a training session" for a bird show. He was never found.