The new law introduces prison sentences ranging from three months to one year for those found guilty of killing a domestic or a domesticated animal, and a series of monetary fines for animal cruelty.
Legislative President Gonzalo Ramírez said lawmakers hope to hold the second and definitive vote 10 days after the bill’s publication in La Gaceta, in order to allow consultations from animal rights groups.
A new Discovery Networks documentary tells the story of the Costa Rican toucan whose savagely mutilated beak was replaced with a prosthetic one, and how it inspired a nation to push for better treatment of animals.
Several recent cases of dog abuse, including that of Duke, who suffered major damage to his muzzle in an apparent machete attack, have renewed calls for harsher punishment for those who maim or kill animals.
Animal rights groups in July will begin collecting signatures across the country to approve a referendum in which citizens would vote on an animal welfare bill imposing stricter sanctions for animal cruelty.
A bill that seeks to establish prison time for animal abuse faces an uncertain future after several lawmakers filibustered voting on the law last week by filing over 70 motions against it.
Dozens of animal rights activists gathered during the opening of the Zapote festival, east of San José, to protest against one of the celebration’s main event: Tico-style bullfights.
With just over two weeks left of the year, reports of animal abuse have already surpassed by 15 percent those recorded last year, the National Animal Health Service (SENASA) reported Friday.
A Cartago court sentenced a man for illegally breeding dogs in a puppy mill. Most of the dogs were kept inside stacked cages or hanging crates for years.
Experts believe Alik, the beaten ocelot, could be released into the wild again and live a normal life in about four months, pending evaluations and retraining.
A family found the ocelot, a threatened species, inside their henhouse and allegedly beat her with a metal pipe. The case highlights the continuing problem of animal abuse in Costa Rica, while a bill that would impose stricter penalties for abusers languishes in the legislature.
Approval of Bill #18,298 — known as the Animal Welfare Bill — was scheduled for discussion by lawmakers in a full Legislative Assembly session starting this week, but it now has been postponed. President Luis Guillermo Solís on Monday evening tabled the proposal in order to prioritize passage of a construction bill for the highway between San José and San Ramón.
Recent cases of aggression against animals in Costa Rica have prompted animal rights advocates and everyday citizens to pressure lawmakers to pass an Animal Welfare Bill currently awaiting discussion in the Legislative Assembly.
Inspectors from the National Animal Health Service are struggling to manage more than 400 neglected dogs discovered during farm inspections following last week's phreatic eruptions at the Turrialba Volcano, northeast of San José.
More than 1,200 people were attending an illegal cockfight on Saturday when police raided it on a farm in Barrio Mercedes de Atenas, 40 kilometers west of Costa Rica's capital.
Officials of the National System of Conservation Areas last weekend conducted inspections in several protected areas in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, resulting in the arrest of six hunters inside Palo Verde National Park, the agency reported Thursday.
President Laura Fernández has widened a controversial order requiring polygraph tests for officials involved in her government's new security strategy, declaring Friday that judicial...
Argentina's Francisco Cerúndolo, the highest-ranked Latin American man in the Roland Garros draw, was knocked out of the French Open on Saturday, beaten in...
