animal cruelty

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.

A new law bans circuses in Mexico from featuring animals in shows and only allows circuses to keep animals if they have the proper permits and keep the animals in good living conditions.

Thousands of people gathered Sunday in San José for the 7th National March Against Animal Abuse to demand an animal welfare reform law that President Luis Guillermo Solís has long promised to prioritize.

A UCR study in the Pacific region found the animals most affected by speeding motorists were anteaters, raccoons, ocelots, mice, foxes and vultures. Similar investigations have found dead tapirs, sloths, ocelots, otters, snakes and frogs on major routes in the provinces of Guanacaste, San José and Limón.

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.

Firefighters in the northwestern province of Guanacaste worked until 3 a.m. on Wednesday to extinguish a wildfire that destroyed at least five hectares of Palo Verde National Park. The damaged area is mostly pastureland and secondary forest, park administrator Ulises Chavarría García said.

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.

The savage beating of a toucan has revived the urgency for lawmakers to pass an animal cruelty bill, said President Luis Guillermo Solís on Tuesday during a weekly press conference at Casa Presidencial.