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.
National Police officers and Environment Ministry officials last Friday caught two poachers transporting 62 birds in the central Pacific district of Montes de Oro, in Costa Rica's Puntarenas province.
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.
