Buenos Aires closes its 140-year-old zoo and turns it into an eco park after announcing that keeping wild animals in captivity and on display 'is degrading'
- Mayor of Argentine capital said zoo will relocate most of its 1,500 animals
- Wants Argentina to follow the global trend of turning zoos into sanctuaries
- The new eco park will house animals rescued from illegal trafficking
Buenos Aires will close its 140-year-old zoo and turn it into an eco park after announcing that keeping wild animals in captivity and on display 'is degrading'.
The mayor of the Argentine capital, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, said the zoo will gradually relocate most of its 1,500 animals to sanctuaries at home and abroad because they are not living in adequate conditions.
He wants Argentina to follow the global trend of turning zoos into parks and sanctuaries and believes that animals should live in their natural habitats.
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Sandra the orangutan sits in her enclosure at Buenos Aires Zoo in Argentina (file photo). The zoo will gradually relocate most of its 1,500 animals
He said: 'This situation of captivity is degrading for the animals, it’s not the way to take care of them.'
The new eco park will provide a safe haven for animals rescued from illegal trafficking.
The mayor called it 'a place where children can learn how to take care of and relate with the different species.
'What we have to value is the animals. The way they live here is definitely not the way to do that.'
The Buenos Aires zoo was inaugurated in 1875 in what used to be the outskirts of the Argentine capital.
The zoo, now surrounded by the busy Palermo neighborhood, has been making a loss for years.
The mayor wants Argentina to follow the global trend of turning zoos into parks and sanctuaries and believes that animals should live in their natural habitats. Pictured: Seven-year-old hipopotamus Mafalda, nurses her 7-day old bab
The mayor said: 'This situation of captivity is degrading for the animals, it’s not the way to take care of them.' Pictured: Bengal white tigers
The site is expected to close soon so work on the ecological park can begin.
Animal rights lawyer Gerardo Biglia, who has long wanted the zoo to close, said: 'The most important thing is breaking with the model of captivity and exhibition.
'I think there is a change coming for which we are already prepared because kids nowadays consider it obvious that it’s wrong for animals to be caged.'
The zoo made headlines two years ago when a local court declared one orangutan Sandra to be a 'non-human person' deserving rights.
Four years ago the last remaining polar bear at Buenos Aires Zoo died after overheating in soaring summer temperatures.
Animal rights lawyer Gerardo Biglia, who has long wanted the zoo to close, said: 'The most important thing is breaking with the model of captivity and exhibition.' Pictured: A three-month old albino wallaby
'I think there is a change coming for which we are already prepared because kids nowadays consider it obvious that it’s wrong for animals to be caged,' he added. Pictured: A 10-day-old lemur
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