The death of a lion in the La Reina de Tizimín Zoo has generated questions on social networks. According to local media, the feline convulsed due to heat stroke that he suffered while he was inside his cage.
Park staff argued that the lion had water to hydrate itself, however it could not withstand the high temperatures.
The information generated annoyance among the inhabitants of Tizimín. Laura Figueroa stated: “There is no point in spending 11 million on remodeling the Tizimín zoo if there is always neglect of the animals’ health, poor nutrition and poor supervision by the person.”
Figueroa denounced the neglect of the animals by the zoo director, Jaisa Cuxim, and the biologist Isabel Dzul.
She suggested that it would be better to hand these animals over to SEMARNAT and “let them take care of giving them a quality of life due to the corruption that exists in the zoo, where its director steals the money for the animals’ food.”
The Merida-based newspaper Por Esto recalled that the La Reina de Tizimín Zoo has “a black history for the death of animals.”
In 2009, the place was closed by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa), after detecting “irregularities in terms of registration and legal origin of some specimens, as well as failures to treat them with dignity and respect after two inspections”, according Por Esto.
In February 2008, “a hippopotamus suffered a cardiac arrest that led to its death a few minutes after being transferred from Mérida to this city after a four-hour trip,” the same newspaper published, noting that those responsible for the park argued as the cause of death “stress or sudden change of environment, noise, rain, lightning and the people around them.”
