Animal cruelty

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.

Rescuers found beagles, Chihuahuas and American Staffordshire Terriers during the raid, along with 39 birds.

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.