MSN – AFP, Alina
Rodriguez, 10 Feb 2015
 |
Veterinarian
Carmen Soto treats a toucan that lost the upper half of
his beak after being
attacked by youths, on February 4, 2015. (AF)
|
Veterinarian
Carmen Soto is gently swabbing what is left of Grecia the toucan's bright beak,
preparing to fit him with a prosthesis to replace the part hacked off by
vandals.
The images
of the bird's mutilated red-and-yellow beak caused outrage last month in Costa
Rica, where donations for a prosthesis came pouring in after his story went
viral on social media -- a new weapon in the fight against the age-old problem
of animal cruelty in Latin America.
Appalled
citizens sent in $3,000 to outfit Grecia with a prosthetic beak after a gang of
rowdy youths attacked the bird, which activists say is a sort of half-wild,
half-tame mascot for the central town of Grecia.
A similar
case shook Honduras in January, when a group of young people blew up a stray
dog with fireworks and posted a video online.
And in
Peru, social media users were repulsed when a man whose children had been
bitten by the neighbor's dog claimed revenge by tying the animal to the back of
his car and dragging him through the street.
 |
Veterinarian Carmen Soto, in charge of an animal rescue centre, in
La Garita, Alajuela, 45 km north of San Jose. (AFP) |
Such cases
usually go unpunished in Latin America, where laws against animal cruelty are
mostly weak or non-existent.
The network
of organizations fighting the phenomenon is also small and underfunded.
But social
media is changing that, said Cynthia Dent, executive director for the Humane
Society International in Latin America.
"Twitter
and Facebook have increased our awareness of cases of cruelty in Latin America,
said Dent from the Costa Rican capital San Jose, the group's regional
headquarters.
"In
the past we would only hear about it when there was a case reported in the
press. But now we have outraged people who take advantage of social media to
highlight these cases of cruelty and join forces against them."
Those
protests are starting to spill over from the Internet to the street, pressuring
the authorities to act.
"The
visibility that social networks give to animal cruelty puts more pressure to
pass laws," Dent told AFP.
$2 fines
Demonstrators
have held rallies in recent months in Honduras, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Peru and Uruguay calling for harsher laws to fight animal cruelty.
In
countries such as Mexico and Uruguay, animal cruelty is a crime but offenders
are rarely punished.
Most
countries in Latin America impose only a small fine for abusers.
In
Colombia, for example, the fines range from $2 to $20.
"These
laws are on the books, but they're not enforced. Prosecutors aren't trained to
implement them," said Leonora Esquivel, head of animal rights group Anima
Naturalis Mexico.
In Costa
Rica, a country whose economy depends on tourists drawn to its world-famous
rainforests and wildlife, activists are calling on Congress to impose prison
terms for animal cruelty -- a fight that has gained momentum since the attack
on Grecia the toucan.
Lawmakers
wary of the legislation are trying to amend it to continue allowing bullfights,
a tradition inherited from Spain during the colonial era that remains popular
in much of Latin America.
In
Venezuela, bullfights remain legal alongside cockfights and "coleo,"
a Latin American twist on rodeo where cowboys on horseback try to grab young
bulls by the tail and pull them to the ground.
Bulls are
also at the center of a legal row in Colombia, where a court last week ordered
the reopening of the bullfighting ring in the capital Bogota, whose mayor,
Gustavo Petro, had ordered it closed in 2012 as part of a campaign against
cruelty to animals.
