After revealing that personnel of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and Environmental Protection (Profepa) seized 54 animals from the zoo in Puerto Vallarta, the site’s director, Martín Castañeda, has prepared a criminal appeal against the federal agency for irregularities in documentation.
According to Castañeda, the agency, in the report, said that the animals were in perfect health and in appropriate environments for their stay, a contrast to the bulletin issued to the media, which indicated that there were no conditions for the healthy recreation of the animals seized.
“It is verified that in the development of the activities that the inspected person performs, related to the management of the wild life, no acts of cruelty are carried out, in turn they are observed in general in good apparent physical condition in all the housed specimens as well as it was observed that in the interior of the cages of each animal are troughs and drinking troughs”, dictates the inspection report in its ‘Section M’ within page 24 of 26, however, the content of the remaining 25 pages is unknown.
Without elaborating on details, the zoo will file a criminal appeal against the federal agency, since the reputation of the zoo has been damaged, and this could have an impact on the economic solvency for the maintenance of the rest of the animals.
Prior to the investigation by Profepa a private individual raised concerns on social media that drew attention the Center for Animal Control of the municipality, who preformed their own inspection and found no wrongdoing. Profepa enforces the laws in place for animal wildlife, including those in captivity, while animal control only inspects the health of animals.
As reported by PVDN, Profepa found issues such as animals not receiving enough outdoor time in their rotation according to federal law. It was not reported that the animals were in poor health, but only procedures under federal law were not being followed by the zoo in Puerto Vallarta.
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