Authorities on Wednesday began hauling away 177 lions, tigers, jaguars and other unique massive cats that had been discovered at an animal rescue middle in the mountains on Mexico City’s south facet.
The federal Attorney General’s Office for Environmental Protection mentioned 202 animals in all, together with monkeys, canines, donkeys and coyotes, had been being taken to other areas.
Dozens of closely armed metropolis police raided the “Black Jaguar White Tiger” animal sanctuary Tuesday after photos of rail-thin, distressed and injured lions circulated on social media.
The founding father of the reserve informed native media that he had rescued among the animals and that a few of them arrived in unhealthy form.
“It all started with a worker who had been laid off recently and he had lots of video evidence showing abused animals,” Association of Zoos President Ernesto Zazueta informed Reuters. “We tried to approach (the sanctuary’s) area at the back, where you can see animals in very bad conditions – animals down to their bones, with mange, maimed, some of them had had their tails cut out, some with bugs.”
Mexico City police chief Omar Garcia Harfuch mentioned the property had been seized “for the crime of improper use of property and mistreatment of animals.”
City police mentioned in a press release that “according to the inspection, the property where the animals were kept is zoned for agricultural or grazing purposes, not for keeping the kind of species found.”
Under Mexican legislation, non-public people can register to maintain unique cats and other animals in supervised wildlife administration models. The facility raided Tuesday seems to have filed such paperwork.
But the animal rights advocacy group PETA referred to as the location a “false sanctuary,” saying it had been complaining for years that the ability was engaged in abusive practices.
PETA mentioned the lions, tigers and jaguars had been held in comparatively small fenced-in pens, typically with a couple of animal per enclosure, and additionally had been compelled to work together with people for “selfies” or movies.
The Association of Zoos, Breeders and Aquariums of Mexico mentioned its members would volunteer to take cost of the animals.
But Mexican drug cartel members illegally maintaining massive cats and the nation’s 2015 ban on animal acts in circuses have each contributed to the saturation of animal shelters and rescue amenities.
“Several of our facilities are already saturated with wild animals from various rescues, ranging from circuses to hundreds of seizures of illegal trafficking” of animals, Zazueta mentioned. “But we cannot allow these animals, many of which are endangered, to continue in these deplorable health conditions and malnourishment.”
Zazueta mentioned among the monkeys and three lions is perhaps taken to Mexico City zoos as quickly as Wednesday and there have been plans to ship 50 of the animals on Thursday to zoos west of the capital and in the northern states of Gunajuato and Sinaloa.
The animals had been in “a horrible situation,” he mentioned. “Some of their tails are missing, they had been eaten. Others lack an eye, an ear. They are very, very thin, dehydrated.”
The founding father of the refuge has mentioned that donations to the reserve had dropped through the coronavirus pandemic.
Mexican narcos have lengthy had a fascination with unique animals.
Last month, a spider monkey dressed up as a drug gang mascot was discovered shot to dying after a gunbattle. Photos from the scene of a shootout in Texcaltitlan with police in which 11 drug gang members died, confirmed a small monkey – dressed in a tiny camouflage jacket and a tiny “bullet-proof” vest – sprawled throughout the physique of a lifeless gunman who was apparently his proprietor.
Also in June, a 450-pound tiger wandered streets in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, and a person died from being mauled when he tried to pet a captive tiger in a cartel-dominated space of western Michoacan state.
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