The recent reform to the Animal Protection Law of Mexico City obliges mayors to travel through their territory and protect street dogs in temporary care centers. However, activists warn that the rescued animals will remain under their responsibility.
In the modifications, they accuse, a budget for this purpose is not guaranteed, in addition to establishing that city councils can request help from civil organizations.
On March 27, the capital government presented new reforms to the Animal Protection Law, one of them was to article 12, which stipulates the actions that the 16 demarcations must follow.
“Carry out tours in their demarcation to rescue animals abandoned on public roads or in street situations and take them to the temporary shelter areas in their charge, until the place where they must remain until their adoption is determined,” explains the section IV BIS.
Mara Montero, president and legal representative of the AC Pro Animal Committee, considered that the new powers were given to the mayors without thinking about whether there are sufficient economic and physical resources in temporary shelters or public canine care centers.
“In the previous legislation, razzias had already been eradicated and in this one it was concentrated that the mayors will carry out tours to remove the animals from the streets, this is historically known as razzias, the difference is that before the animals were taken to the centers and were sacrificed, now these razzias foresee that the animals will be in temporary shelter centers until they are adopted or until the associations take them away,” indicated Montero.
The activist also criticized that the powers were granted without diagnostic studies to know why the inhabitants of CdMx decide to abandon, get rid of or mistreat their pets.
“We have been asking for diagnostic studies for many years as associations. “That would help plan more effective strategies,” he claimed.
Moreno explained that the rescue work was already carried out by civil associations, without government support, and once the municipalities begin the tours and removal of street dogs, their shelters or temporary shelter centers will be overwhelmed.
“It may be a setback to the legislation that was already in place, it implies a greater number of animals that need to be relocated and for a long time, historically, it has been civil associations that have been doing that work. And we are already full,” he lamented.
Another point in this reform to article 12 is the creation of a registry of civil associations and shelters, and although it was announced almost 20 days ago, it has not advanced.
“The mayors are the ones that must have the registry of associations that are in their demarcation,” said Carlos Esquivel Lacroix, head of the CdMx Animal Care Agency (Agatan).
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Lacroix pointed out that there is currently a list of 23 consolidated associations, which was started in 2017 by the capital administration.
This list is not public, so the 16 municipalities must make their own registration to request shelter support, when the removal of street dogs begins, although Mara Montero does not believe that it will happen, since the resources of Civil organizations are limited and do not have shelter spaces, and the government is not supporting them.