Costa Rica Closes National Zoo

At last! - Today, May 10, 2024, the infamous and only national zoo of Costa Rica ends once and for all, since its inauguration in 1921. This 19th-century 'show' that taught nothing to locals, had thousands of animals imprisoned for 103 years, to entertain the unsuspecting public and profit from them.

For decades, voices were raised against the zoo but little was achieved. Still, years ago I had the incredible opportunity to help one of them, probably the smartest of the entire collection.

Judy - A giant chimpanzee -very big!- named Judy spent three or four decades -no one knows for sure- locked in a tiny cage that barely allowed her to stand upright, exposed to the public and the inclement weather on all four sides... until her mental health could not take any more, so she began to show aberrant behaviour, typical of someone so desperate that loses his/her mind.

The cruel solution devised by the zoo was to completely surround the cage with zinc sheets for roofing to isolate Judy from the public eye and outside world for the rest of her life...

At that precise moment, Judy lost any commercial value for the administrators, but paradoxically -and providentially too- a small window of opportunity also opened to change her miserable life.

I managed to convince her torturers that Judy should leave there as soon as possible and discreetly; I contacted and found a place for Judy in a primate sanctuary in Arizona, USA, which catered for retired chimps from experimentation facilities. I convinced an American airline to transport the chimp for free, and we built a cage large enough and strong enough to safely contain and transport an animal with the strength of 10 humans, all according to IATA regulations and airline specifications. With the zoo closed, the vet took it upon herself to sedate her ever so slowly and gently, so that she could be moved safely to the cage, then to the airport, and finally to the plane.

• But at the precise moment we were about to start the operation, the airline announced that in the United States, airport officials had for scheduling reasons changed the plane model and the cargo door was 2 inches shorter than the cage...

Next was a mad race against time to cut wood and steel and fit the cage to the new aircraft before its scheduled departure.

Sanctuary - In the end, Judy was successfully transferred to the airport, flown to the United States, and underwent mandatory import quarantine for several weeks, watching Mexican soap operas on television -in case she missed listening to Spanish!- to eventually be released in a controlled manner into the sanctuary grounds, to play and live with other chimpanzees.

The story goes that Judy was the largest and oldest of the chimpanzees in the shelter, that she thoroughly enjoyed the years she lived in freedom and that she never missed Spanish one bit!

Tomorrow - On Saturday, May 11, 2024, it will be the turn for the almost 300 other animals of all kinds that remained at the zoo and that are about to begin a new life.

 In the absence of the zoo administration, the national police will evacuate and transport them to a wildlife rehabilitation centre nearby, fully accredited by the Government of Costa Rica, which will medically evaluate them, quarantine them, and eventually decide their final destination, in enclosures ideally away from the public, or to freedom!

This process is always stressful for the animals, but it will surely be peccata minuta for them, compared to the previous miserable life of slavery they endured!

Finally, Costa Rica lives up to its conservationist image and closes this degrading and mediocre show, typical of the 19th century.

Congratulations!