In 2022, Yo Amo a la Ciencia denounced cuts in food for animals in CDMX zoos by more than 50%.
An investigation by “yoamolaciencia.info”
CDMX (yoamolaciencia.info) – The budget approved in 2022 to feed the animals in the capital’s zoos was 19.9 million pesos; in contrast, in 2019, the amount spent was 42.5 million—a budget cut of 53.1%.
Since 2022, yoamolaciencia.info has denounced the lack of food for animals in CDMX zoos. In response, the current Morena presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, during her term as mayor of Mexico City, initially ignored the cut, arguing that “for some reason, it came out in deficit.”
At that point in time, Luz Elena González Escobar, the head of the Secretary of Administration and Finance, confirmed the cut during her appearance before the Congress of Mexico City, pointing out that it was an error. She then modified the budget to reach 33.1 million pesos. However, it is 22% less than what was spent in 2019.
As of the end of 2023 and now in 2024, there is no precise data on how resources were used nor the quality of food, mainly since there are more animals and a higher cost of food due to inflation.
yoamolaciencia.info received the support of Juan Ortiz, Director of Lupa Legislativa, an expert in public and parliamentary management, for the analysis of the Expenditure Budget of Mexico City for the years 2019 to 2023, in which it was detected that the money allocated to the capital’s zoos did not return to 2019 levels.
Faced with public pressure, the CDMX government had to modify the budget for the purchase of food; however, according to official data from the Secretariat of Administration and Finance, it only increased to 33 million pesos, which is 10 million less than the budget that began in her government.
Data provided by the Transparency Unit of the Ministry of the Environment to the National Transparency Portal refers to the annual budget assigned, modified, and exercised exclusively for purchasing food in the capital’s zoos. The Secretary of the Environment communicated through their social networks that they had a budget of more than 43 million pesos for 2022. Still, it needed to be reflected in the Modified Budget authorized by Claudia Sheinbaum.
The expense for the third quarter of 2022 was only 13 million pesos. The data provided by the agency in the fourth quarter would have to justify the sub-exercise of 30 million pesos—practically 10 million per month. The 2023 expenditure budget is the last one that Sheinbaum sent before her resignation as Head of Government. In this, it can be found that 33.3 million pesos were allocated to purchase food for the animals.
That means that if there had been a modified budget of 43 million in 2022, as stated by Mariana Robles, head of SEDEMA, and Fernando Gual, General Director of Zoos, then before Claudia Sheinbaum’s resignation as head of government, there was a cut of 10 million pesos in food for the animals of CDMX.
Perhaps Dr. Sheinbaum did not consider the price increase of all foods due to inflation. The same quantities of food cannot be purchased with the same budget. The increase in the number of animals in the three CDMX zoos must also be considered. For example, the Chapultepec Zoo in 2018 had 974 animals, while at the beginning of 2023, 1,082 animals were registered. In 2024, the Chapultepec Zoo reported 1,236 specimens of 222 different species from Mexico and abroad.
If feeding is still not efficient enough, it implies that the CDMX government under Martí Batres is either giving the animals less food or poor quality food. One way or another, this is a subject that needs to be present in the current conversation.
Full article in Spanish from July 2023 at yoamolaciencia.info
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