| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Animal rights activists score win at Barcelona zoo |
| 2019-05-24 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Animal rights activists in Barcelona are celebrating a victory after the Spanish city ordered its municipal zoo to restrict the reproduction of captive animals unless their young are destined to be reintroduced into the wild. Barcelona’s town council voted on May 3 to modify the zoo’s bylaws to include a rule by which any of its breeding programs will be stopped unless there is a plan to eventually release the offspring into nature. "We want zoos to stop breeding animals that do not respond to an environmental strategy, breeding them just so they can be in front or inside a cage," said activist Leonardo Anselmi, who coordinates ZOO XXI, the animal rights group that successfully pushed for the new mandate. The mandate was passed along with a new strategic plan for the zoo crafted by its staff that will task a committee of scientists and ethical experts with one year to determine a conservation plan for each of the 300 different species housed at the zoo. Those resulting plans will have to be implemented within three years. Any animals the committee thinks should leave the zoo will, in theory, be reintroduced into the wild or relocated at other zoos or sanctuaries. The bylaw says it is adopting a stance of "compassionate conservation" that sees "animals are beings deserving our respect." The goal is to convert the zoo, which was built inside a park in the city center in 1892, into a center focused on education and research, and a refuge for animals that can no longer survive in liberty. Currently the zoo hosts several animals in this condition, including elephants, tortoises and Pedro, a 45-year-old rhinoceros who eats baguettes for breakfast. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 If they restrict animals breeding for zoos, more animals will be captured from the wild. Unexpected consequences are so often predictable. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2019-05-24 18:49 |
| #2 I went to the animal fair; The birds and the bees were bare. Planned Parenthood was doing much good Aborting the babies there. Doc Monkey, he got drunk And sucked up the elephant's trunk; The creature, displeased, ungratefully sneezed And that was the end of the monk. |
| Posted by: Alistaire Panda4723 2019-05-24 16:30 |
| #1 So, no sex for the elephants. Yeah, activists score. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-05-24 14:47 |