Dear friends

I am asking you today for help concerning a very worrisome topic. Two Peruvian zoos have recently announced to expose in the near future Amazon river dolphins. They do not have a permit to do so. One short email from you may help to stop them from capturing these animals and to avoid the suffering and death of the animals.

It will only take a few minutes to read this email and to write an email to the zoo. Here we have a chance to stop this before the animals are captured. Once they are captured its too late to return them.

Here is the background information:

The zoo of Huachipa in Lima and the zoo of Pucalpa announced in emails that they would have soon baby Amazone River Dolphins( Inia fluviatilis) in captivity.
Amazon River dolphins are a species threatened by extinction. They are internationally protected by the Convention on International trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and listed in Annex 1 (Species Threatened with extinction). They are also listed in Annex C1 (most protected category) of the Reglamentation 3626/82 of the European Union. They are protected by the Marin mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of the United States. In short their proteccion is of global interest.

Even though in this case it would not be an export as the specimen would be held in Peru, the zoos anyway need a permit from the National Institute for Natural Resources (INRENA). This is because in Peru Amazon River Dolphins are additionally protected by the national law N° 26585 which prohibits extraction, processing and commercialization of the protected dolphin species and also requires special permits for maintaining them in captivity.

In order to get such a permit they first would have to construct pools according to the specifications of the regulation and get them approved. They still would not be entitled automatically to get a permit. Environmental education would not be a sufficient argument either – they would have to be a scientific research program in captivity that answers questions that could not be investigated in their natural habitat.

We do belive that at this moment INRENA would not give a permit for the captivity of Amazon river dolphins. It seems to us that the zoos are simply not aware of the legislation and might try to capture the dolphins without having a permit.

The national law is specified by Supreme Decree N° 002-96-PE “Regulation for the protection and conservation of small cetaceans” (Reglamento para la Protección y Conservación de los Cetáceos Menores).

Article 4° of this regulation obliges anybody to return live specimen that got caught in fishing nets into their natural habitat.
Article 5° determines that all live stranded animals have to be returned to their natural habitats.
Article 6° prohibits to stress, wound, lesion or mutilate any specimen of the protected species.

Capturing an Amazon River Dolphin would be a violation of all three paragraphs. As this is a national law, violating this law is not an administrative failure resulting in fees to be paid – It would be an ecological crime that carries three years of jail as a consequence.

INRENA in Lima has confirmed to us that they do not have any knowledge of the zoos having solicited permits for having dolphins in captivity and they promised us to investigate the case. However in order to not loose time and afterwards having to deal with reintroduction of dolphins we need to stop this before dolphins have been caught.

It is important that as much people and organizations as possible send an email in English or Spanish language to the two zoos explaining them on one hand the legal situation and on the other hand making clear to them that people do not want dolphins to be in captivity and that their institution would suffer a great damage to their institutional image by capturing dolphins.

Please write to

1) Lizette Bermúdez Larrazabal
GENERAL CURATOR
HUACHIPA ZOOLOGICAL PARK
Av. Las Torres s/n
Ate Vitarte
Lima – PERU
Email: lizettelarrazabal@yahoo.com

2) Jacqueline Ríos.
Parque Natural de Pucallpa
Carretera Federico Basadre K.M 4.200
Pucallpa-Peru
Email: naturaleza_jrs@yahoo.com

Please do not forget to send me a copy of your email

Thanks a lot for your support

Stefan
Mundo Azul
Peru

Dear friends

I am asking you today for help concerning a very worrisome topic. Two Peruvian zoos have recently announced to expose in the near future Amazon river dolphins. They do not have a permit to do so. One short email from you may help to stop them from capturing these animals and to avoid the suffering and death of the animals.

It will only take a few minutes to read this email and to write an email to the zoo. Here we have a chance to stop this before the animals are captured. Once they are captured its too late to return them.

Here is the background information:

The zoo of Huachipa in Lima and the zoo of Pucalpa announced in emails that they would have soon baby Amazone River Dolphins( Inia fluviatilis) in captivity.
Amazon River dolphins are a species threatened by extinction. They are internationally protected by the Convention on International trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and listed in Annex 1 (Species Threatened with extinction). They are also listed in Annex C1 (most protected category) of the Reglamentation 3626/82 of the European Union. They are protected by the Marin mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of the United States. In short their proteccion is of global interest.

Even though in this case it would not be an export as the specimen would be held in Peru, the zoos anyway need a permit from the National Institute for Natural Resources (INRENA). This is because in Peru Amazon River Dolphins are additionally protected by the national law N° 26585 which prohibits extraction, processing and commercialization of the protected dolphin species and also requires special permits for maintaining them in captivity.

In order to get such a permit they first would have to construct pools according to the specifications of the regulation and get them approved. They still would not be entitled automatically to get a permit. Environmental education would not be a sufficient argument either – they would have to be a scientific research program in captivity that answers questions that could not be investigated in their natural habitat.

We do belive that at this moment INRENA would not give a permit for the captivity of Amazon river dolphins. It seems to us that the zoos are simply not aware of the legislation and might try to capture the dolphins without having a permit.

The national law is specified by Supreme Decree N° 002-96-PE “Regulation for the protection and conservation of small cetaceans” (Reglamento para la Protección y Conservación de los Cetáceos Menores).

Article 4° of this regulation obliges anybody to return live specimen that got caught in fishing nets into their natural habitat.
Article 5° determines that all live stranded animals have to be returned to their natural habitats.
Article 6° prohibits to stress, wound, lesion or mutilate any specimen of the protected species.

Capturing an Amazon River Dolphin would be a violation of all three paragraphs. As this is a national law, violating this law is not an administrative failure resulting in fees to be paid – It would be an ecological crime that carries three years of jail as a consequence.

INRENA in Lima has confirmed to us that they do not have any knowledge of the zoos having solicited permits for having dolphins in captivity and they promised us to investigate the case. However in order to not loose time and afterwards having to deal with reintroduction of dolphins we need to stop this before dolphins have been caught.

It is important that as much people and organizations as possible send an email in English or Spanish language to the two zoos explaining them on one hand the legal situation and on the other hand making clear to them that people do not want dolphins to be in captivity and that their institution would suffer a great damage to their institutional image by capturing dolphins.

Please write to

1) Lizette Bermúdez Larrazabal
GENERAL CURATOR
HUACHIPA ZOOLOGICAL PARK
Av. Las Torres s/n
Ate Vitarte
Lima – PERU
Email: lizettelarrazabal@yahoo.com

2) Jacqueline Ríos.
Parque Natural de Pucallpa
Carretera Federico Basadre K.M 4.200
Pucallpa-Peru
Email: naturaleza_jrs@yahoo.com

Please do not forget to send me a copy of your email

Thanks a lot for your support

Stefan
Mundo Azul
Peru

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I read your post yesterday. Today I read your petition on Care 2 ( I´m a member) and I submitted a news about it

http://www.care2.com/news/member/901922468/824541.

I will crospost too in My Space and Facebook as well as to my contacts.

Hope sincerely this dolphin can be saved from men´s greed.

I read your post yesterday. Today I read your petition on Care 2 ( I´m a member) and I submitted a news about it

http://www.care2.com/news/member/901922468/824541.

I will crospost too in My Space and Facebook as well as to my contacts.

Hope sincerely this dolphin can be saved from men´s greed.

Note: To add an image or link in your message,
use <img src="image URL"> or <a href="link URL">Text </a>

 Quote Original

 Watch this Topic