A Dallas man was arrested last week for a string of bizarre occurrences at the Dallas Zoo. Davion Irvin, 24, told Dallas police he is an animal lover. And he claims he would do it again.

He is being charged with six counts of animal cruelty and two additional counts of burglary. And he is being held on a $25,000 bond.

Irvin has confessed to stealing two emperor tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo.

The second count of burglary is related to the first time Irvin jumped the fence and broke into the zoo. In his first middle-of-the-night break-in he cut open the enclosure of Nova, the clouded leopard. 

Just an animal lover looking for a pet

Irvin admitted that he was petting the big cat in an attempt to take her with him. Nova managed to escape by jumping on top of her habitat. And she was not captured till hours later by the zoo care team.

Irvin is also linked to the damage found at the languor monkey cage on the same night that Nova went missing. Police did not charge him with cutting that enclosure since the languors didn't leave their habitat.

Where the tamarin monkeys are concerned Irvin explained to police that after dark on January 29. He jumped the fence and entered the zoo. 

The suspect was caught on surveillance video during this breach of the zoo.

He admits he cut a hole in the metal mesh enclosure of the languor habitat. 

According to arrest warrant affidavits, the monkeys named Bella and Finn were taken. And Irvin carried them on the Dallas light rail train to Lancaster. He then walked a couple of miles with them to the church-owned vacant home.  

The monkeys were taken in the early hours of Monday. And discovered on Tuesday evening in the middle of a record-breaking ice storm in a closet of the vacant home. 

Vulture’s death remains a mystery

Multiple news outlets reported, Irvin’s arrest last Thursday. An employee at the downtown Dallas World Aquarium recognized Irvin from the video the police made public.  Aquarium staff got suspicious of Irvin questioning them about animals at that site.

The police and Fish and Wildlife authorities are still investigating, the death of Pin the beloved endangered vulture at the zoo. And there is also the matter of multiple cats, pigeons, and dead feeder fish. And fish food that went missing from a staff-only area of the Dallas Zoo earlier in January.

It has not been announced if the Aquarium employee is going to get the $10,000 reward that the zoo was offering for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the man behind the odd occurrences.