Ponderosa Adventures Park has 10 days to eliminate the practice of allowing visitors to feed zoo animals. This was ordered by the National System of Conservation Areas (Sinac) through an official letter addressed to the legal representative of the tourist center, David Joseph Patey, in addition to the regent biologist, Rodolfo Vargas Leitón; in which they are informed of the expiration of the agreed term to comply with the administrative and operational measures indicated in the Wildlife Conservation Law and its Regulations.
Contraception plan
They were also notified of the obligation to comply within the same period with the contraception plan presented by the Ponderosa administration, so as to prevent the reproduction of wild animals that are managed in captivity, which in the case in question includes, for example, giraffes, zebras and ostriches.
With this notice, issued through the Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG), the body attached to the Ministry of Environment and Energy (Minae) is given just over two months after the Constitutional Chamber declared the actions filed against the Regulation inadmissible to the Wildlife Conservation Law, which “maintains firm” decree 40548, that prohibits the reproduction of species in commercial zoos, according to Vice Minister Franklin Paniagua Alfaro.
“As a result of the Functional Directorate FGR-451-2020 (of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic), a commission of experts was formed who have systematically evaluated the management sites where it has been detected that they should improve, or implement, the new measures established in the Regulations to the Wildlife Conservation Law”.
For just over a year the head of the Public Ministry, Emilia Navas Aparicio, ordered the ministry to intervene in 16 management sites for “serious” violations of conservation regulations.
These are:
- Herpetological Refuge of Costa Rica (Escazú)
- La Paz Waterfall (Cinchona de Alajuela)
- Snake Garden (Sarapiquí)
- The Spring Hotel (La Fortuna de San Carlos)
- Arenal Eco Zoo (La Fortuna de San Carlos)
- Jaguar Rescue Center and Zoo (Limón)
- Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center and Zoo (Turrúcares de Alajuela)
- Hotel Paraíso Carlisa (Orotina)
- Hotel Gaia (Quepos)
- Osa Wildlife Sanctuary (Puerto Jiménez de Golfito)
- El Manantial parrot farm (Palmares)
- Zoo Safari Tempisque (Guanacaste)
- La Marina Zoo (San Carlos)
- La Ponderosa Zoo (Liberia)
- Reptilandia (Pérez Zeledón)
- Hatched To Fly Free (Puerto Jiménez de Golfito)
In the case of Ponderosa Adventure Park, he was also instructed to close his veterinary clinic within three months.
As reported in a statement by the Conservation Areas System, between November and December of last year meetings were held with representatives of the management site and in these it was agreed that at the end of April, the park would adopt the administrative and operational measures that correspond to it. as a commercial zoo.
