irregularities and shortcomings in the Buenos Aires Zoo - Global Observer by Laura Palacios and Gabriel Sotillo
"Since 1991, when leased out for the first time the zoo of Buenos Aires, to the present, none of the companies complied with the controls and measures for building maintenance, security and protection of animals. There are at least 5 reports of bodies of the City of Buenos Aires and documents that guarantee the irregularities. " Since leased out the zoo, there were complaints about the lack of commitment by the company. It breaches the measures safety, animal care and architectural preservation. There are accusations by the dismantling of the library.
Since 1991, when it leased out for the first time the zoo of Buenos Aires, at present, none of the companies complied with the controls and measures for building maintenance, security and protection of animals. There are at least 5 reports of bodies of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and documents that guarantee the irregularities. According
AGCBA (Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires), held on July 7, 2008, in 1990 the municipality of Buenos Aires decided to concession the garden Zoo to a private company that took possession of the property on February 1, 1991. Buenos Aires Zoo was awarded to the company Zoo-Botanical 2000, its controlling shareholders were Hugo and Gerardo Sofovich, who later sold their shares to the Mexican group Grinbank and CIE (Corporación Interamericana de Entretenimiento), that when entering the country changed its name to CIE Argentina SA
In 2003 mutated to CIE SA Commercial Holding Capital Variable, and in January 2004, there was a merger where CIE Variable Capital International SA was the absorbing Commercial Holding Capital CIE SA Variable. Today, the head is Osvaldo Waiter, who has served as Chairman of the Board of the property.
The operator transferred its stake in at least four times and changed the composition of capital and changes in the social contract without authorization. Committed also lack the Bidding Terms and Conditions. HERITAGE CARE
By Decree no. 437/97, \u200b\u200bthe building complex, environmental and artistic landscape, formed by the Zoo of Buenos Aires City, was declared a National Monument, protecting its space under the Laws 12,665 and 24,252, under the supervision orbit exercised by the Commission National Museums, Monuments and Sites. According
AGCBA, this regulation is not enforced. It is an infringement of Article 2 of Law 12,665 of damage detected in these works, lack of maintenance, conservation and treatment, and therefore Article 8 which provides that "Those who violated this law by concealment, destruction, illegal transfers or export of historical documents, will be punished with fines of 1,000 to 10,000 pesos, provided that the act without the services provided by Article 184, paragraph 5, of the Penal Code. "
dealers were alterations, modifications and exclusions of commitments, which ended following the destruction of the House of Cat (1900), Hindu Temple (1903), Monari Monari Blue and Arabic (1899), Temple Hindostánico (1901), Library (1901), Argentina Aviary (1903), Snake (1901), Pumera (1926), Rodents (1901) among others. ("Crimes against Nature", Juan Carlos Sassaroli, 2002).
The AGCBA also explained that since 2008, the Directorate General of the Zoological Gardens SA has worked only time in 10 buildings of heritage value. "
The head of the restoration area of \u200b\u200bthe zoo, Maria Cristina Architect Fernandez said that "some of the zoo's buildings were in a state of demolition a few years ago" and said that one of them was the Palace of the Elephants.
The veterinarian Juan Carlos Sassaroli, a former employee of the zoo in the veterinary area and currently employed in the municipality of Palermo of the Environmental Protection Agency, explained that "the Hindu Temple, Goddess Nimaschi, was built in 1902 for elephants and was a replica built in Bombay by Rajah of Tirumala. The replica of the zoo was made by architect and trim Cestari correspond to Lucio Correa Morales. " As stated
Head of the restoration area, has damage to the moldings and moisture left in various sectors exposed brick. But what Maria Cristina Fernández said that the grant is the story of the temple coated with cement, removing the wooden floor that is most appropriate for this species. It's like comparing a horse walking along the pavement without their shoes. Sassaroli
also remarked that the House of the Beasts, 1900, Renaissance style, "covered an area of \u200b\u200b750 square meters and the same magnitude in his basement. The basement was under water for many years, leading to degradation of the foundation and shoring up the floors danger collapse. Once built there late Magic Zoo. "
But most important was the demolition of greenhouses for reptiles, which was the first snake that existed in Argentina and now the tunnels are filled. Where once stood, is now running the farm zoo.
Restoration
The Chief also referred to the subtropical forest. Clarified that was built in 1999 and was carried out with an investment of $ 1,400,000. He said "the Subtropical Forest was not the happiest investment, may not be made the way the structure required it, as we can observe on the walls and plaster. Could not build correctly because just beginning to emerge the area of \u200b\u200brestoration. "
The Temple of Vesta is a circular building with 16 columns corintianos, built in 1909. It was the nursing room for children. It was donated by the Municipality of Rome with a Latin inscription. This nursery is now functioning as a store of merchandise from stalls in the park.
The zoo also has the Byzantine ruins found on an island in Lake Darwin. It is the oldest monument owned by the city and was purchased in Trieste, Italy. Up the remains of a porch and balconies of Byzantine architecture limestone and marble. Currently, the zoo does not stop at its importance and its architectural state is not favorable and is in view of visitors.
The origins of the Zoological Gardens date back to 1840 when Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of the province, wanted to build in his house in Palermo cages to accommodate native species.
After the Battle of Caseros, the place had many destinations until in 1874 the President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento presented to the Congress a plan to create a public space called Parque Tres de Febrero which opened officially on 11 November 1875. Designed
Chinese architectural style, Hindu, Greco-Roman and Moorish, showed the public the exotic animals at that time could only see in photographs. The library had 53 species from around the world and a total of 650 animals.
SECURITY NEEDED
Buenos Aires Zoo is a site that is located in Palermo and covers 18 hectares.
On January 11, 2004 a visitor jumped the fence to enter the den of about four feet deep. The young man was attacked by the pair of lions and to calm the animals the guards had to give tranquilizer darts. The boy suffered cuts on his arm and neck.
following the event, the zoo instituted additional monitoring by the Federal Police Argentina.
Today, where the tigers, visitors can see them behind glass. But adopting the same approach for all cats and in the case of the hyenas, cheetahs, white lions or pumas that only your space is lined by a fence where it is the size of a small child's hand.
The site reinforced the security barriers in front of dangerous animals like cats if someone can climb them, but equally, these barriers by the size and not being closed does not prevent that can be crossed.
Marcela Díaz, Head of Education Area, and María Cristina Fernández, confirmed that the lake area was a dangerous area because he was not locked and anyone could fall. The zoo installed acrylic glass that surround the lakes, but their height does not exceed half a meter. Claudio
Bertonatti, environmental specialist, museums and Director of the Journal of the World Wildlife Fund, believes that "there is a better organization and prevent accidents must be larger enclosures and better managed" To exercise
adequate control is estimated in the Statement of Conditions aimed at ensuring the proper functioning of the zoo, which should have a minimum staff of 60 caregivers in the premises. However, in 1997, under the dealer's statement in footnote No. 28, only 25 people were charged with that task, ie 41%, of which only 5 of that total were trained to perform this work (ie 20%). Osvaldo
Waiter said today that of the 300 people working inside the facility, only 60 people are dedicated to safety and adding staff would be ideal for this work. Claudio
Bertonatti stressed that the safety of the venue should be directional, so for visitors and for animals. "I am concerned about the plight of animals because the statistics prove that many accidents." Neighbors of the property
confirmed that some ducks and rabbits out of the zoo. The Zoo agrees to free some species like the gangs because they need freedom. Marcela Díaz said that "animals are all there, should not escape, but sometimes they do."
PROTECTION AND CARE OF ANIMALS
According AGCBA in Appendix Component Detail Zoo is mentioned that the property has a total of approximately 220 species and about 1,400 specimens including birds, mammals and reptiles. By applying the minimum increase of the collection, provided in the statement, comes "the need to increase the collection to a total of 440 species for 2,800 copies made within 5 years." The report states that the restructuring approach "privileges to the native fauna address in order to know the exotic wildlife resources and to protect themselves." Soledad
Rosso, Head of the Department of Nutrition at the Zoo, said that "animals have a diet of balanced foods and fresh alfalfa bales for all herbivores, and carnivores' diet sometimes meat is low quality for human consumption. They were fed with 700 kg of meat per week. " For some reptiles, Soledad said that there Biotario department in charge of raising laboratory animals to feed the raptors and snakes.
Rosso also said that weekends and holidays are preparing a special diet for each animal, decreasing the amount of food because they can get colitis, or indigestion of food products sold for the kids to give eating. Soledad says that "you can not measure the amount of food intake when the animal is fed by the kids."
The AGCBA asked the dealer listing incorporations by purchase and exchange of animals during the period 2008 to conduct the audit, but his request was not answered by the company nor provided data sheets, information detailed in the audit of the July 7, 2008.
president and director of the concession, said Osvaldo Waiter physical space of the animals is not the desired "enclosures are not made as we would like for that to happen there must be an investment based on the property, maintain the garden as it was originally, and also have modern advances needed Species
Bertonatti
Claudio spoke about the situation of Giraffes: "These animals die in quantity because they are very sensitive to noise. Definitely not suitable for a zoo that is in the middle of the city. If the property known to be the animals that have the highest mortality rate, should not bring them more. "
granting President, Osvaldo Waiter, said that minutes before being interviewed, one of the elephants found in the Hindu Temple, fell into the pit.
The director of the Wildlife magazine also said what is the importance given to each animal. "We have this habit of valuing what is not proper and that also happens to animals. Animals are traded stars as white tigers are the result of the mutation and who are good for conservation. Everything happens on the commercial side. International zoos are like stars native animals, however, our country has a great diversity not valued. If I have to show stars have to be local. "
Regarding the death of the animals, the zoo has the autopsy room to determine what killed the animal. Juan Carlos Sassaroli, who took part in that sector, said "the autopsies are drawn so as not to skip the actual death of the animal, but leave settled in other causes of death reports convenient." He also argued that "the obligation to perform a necropsy is founded not only by its importance to certify the decline in the inventory of the collection of fauna and legalize the situation, but autopsies are the foundation of preventive medicine. If you know the root cause of death is impossible to implement measures to reverse the situation "
book was compared with the Low Necropsies recorded in the inventory submitted by the Concessionaire to AGCBA the first quarter of 2008, a total of 89 animals listed as low in inventory, 23 did not appear in the book of autopsies (25%), with the following details: From a total of 19 amphibian listed in the inventory as low, 17 is not listed in the book of autopsies (89%), 8 reptiles, 1 not included (12%) of 22 birds, 3 are not listed (14%) of total 3 arthropods listed in the inventory and low, 2 are not listed in the book of autopsies (67%).
Some of the most notable deaths from the first issue were published in "Crimes against nature" are: the Nile crocodile (04/14/1991) REFRIGERATED pneumonia, maned - wolf (23/12/1992), edema catch lung, black rhino (4/21/1993), colic due to excess intake of cookies, mataco ball (06/07/1994), death from cold, Asian elephant 51 years (06/04/1995), pulmonary edema, aortic atherosclerosis, suppurative foci in the kidney, liquefaction phalanx. It was determined that he died for malpractice, bison (26/08/1996), overdoses of tranquilizers, striped hyena (06/01/2000).
The book also details the high mortality from the first issue of the zoo currently outstrips investment in livestock reported by the dealer. Moreover, the fate of offal, are hides, skins, horns or feathers, was administered by the dealer without any intervention. Ie it is unknown what is done with the remains of animals and there is no documentation to support it.
irregularities and shortcomings in the Buenos Aires Zoo - Global Observer
