Dr. Ivonne Cassaigne Visits The Santiago Zoo

August, 2006

I was not about to miss this! I bought tickets to fly down to meet everyone. David Flores of the Gringo Gazette arranged a room for me at Club Cabo, a modest motel on the highway towards Santiago. It was a convenient location to catch the bus north. I met Ivonne, Raul, and Dr. Jorge Bravo in Ivonne's hotel lobby on Friday night. Raul Ramirez is an energetic, dedicated man who never lost patience with Vicky and her persistant calls to arrange all of this. Dr. Bravo is a vet who works with the Humane Society in San Jose Del Cabo. We all agreed to meet at the zoo in the morning. Raul & Dr. Bravo left and Ivonne & I had dinner together.

I was totally enchanted by Ivonne. She spoke excellent English, was funny, caring and 110% dedicated to doing whatever she could to help the animals and support improvement of the zoo. Vicky could not have found a better person for us.

I brought Ivonne up to date about what we had been doing and while we wanted to move the lion & tiger, I also acknowledged the very real possibility that, if we DID succeed in moving them, there was nothing to prevent the arrival of more big cats in the future. The uncontrolled breeding of exotic animals is extremely prevelant in Mexico. If Santiago could not take care of the large cats they have now, and we take them away, what is to stop them from acquiring more and treating them as poorly? The answer, of course, was "nothing".

My ride from Cabo San Lucas to Santiago the next morning was provided by Tamara, the reporter from The Gringo Gazette. ========>

Raul and Ivonne arrived about 20 minutes ahead of us. Raul introduced me to Juan Carlos Gonzales, the first full-time employee the zoo has ever had. He had been hired about 3 months prior (coincidentally not long after another article came out in a Mexican newspaper about our efforts). Later I learned that Raul was aware that there was a new caretaker, but knew nothing about him or what he was doing.

Juan Carlos is educated in what would be our equivalent of perhaps Animal Husbandry, with an emphasis in "production" (such as for the beef industry). He has knowledge of domestic animal nutrition and basic health care. This was confirmed by a long discussion with Ivonne.



Pictured are Dr. Jorge Bravo, Dr. Ivonne Cassaigne and Juan Carlos Gonzales

Juan Carlos had moved Leo out of his little cage into a slightly larger one vacated by the bear. Juan Carlos said that when he was hired, Leo was limping on the foot with the injury, and looked in poor health. He has been feeding both cats horse meat (no more frozen chicken!), giving him vitamins, putting medicine on his injury and Leo is doing much better now. In fact, Leo was chomping on a big meaty bone while I was there. He looked so much happier & healthier that any of the other times I saw him.


Juan Carlos gave us a tour, showed us the bags of animal feed, and the new enclosure under construction for the python (boa?). The zoo gives him a monthly budget of approximately $6,000 (US). His dream for the zoo is to get the permits necessary to make it legal, then raise money for the larger enclosures. He candidly said that if the government of Santiago was given a donation right now for the zoo, he would still receive just the budgeted amount. In other words, the zoo would not get the money. And he personally does not want to be responsible for taking donations. So nothing can happen until a foundation is in place.

I left the zoo "cautiously optimistic" of the new developments. One part of me was disappointed at the reality that they would never give up those cats, but thrilled that Leo was better and that the Santiago munincipality was finally taking a measure of responsibility.

Later that afternoon, back at Ivonne's hotel, we discussed the day's findings. Raul talked of setting up a conservancy similar to what had been done with the Turtle efforts. Ivonne was going to write up a list of recommendations. Here is a copy of it.
As much as I would have liked to get the lion & tiger out of there, the reality is that there is no way to force them to give up animals if they do not want to let them go. But the fact that they are now coming around to acknowledging responsibility is a huge step in the name of progress. And, unfortunately the forecast of more big cats has already come true. The zoo now has come into possession of three lion cubs that were confiscated from an apartment in Cabo San Lucas. One cub, very sickly, died in Dr. Bravo's arms when he went to treat it. Dr. Bravo has been given permission to neuter them, and may have already done so at this writing.

Saturday night Ivonne & I had dinner with two more veterinarians, husband & wife team of Dr. Andreas Yeechig and Dra. Samantha Acosta.



They own a vet clinic at the base of The Pedregal, a very exclusive gated community on the cliffs overlooking Cabo San Lucas. They took us on a tour of The Pedregal. I have seen many high dollar homes before, but the dramatic cliff-hugging architecture with End of the Earth views of both the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez left us drop-jawed. I completely forgot to take pictures.

Sunday morning I took the bus to San Jose Del Cabo to meet with Ivonne again. She was busy writing up her report before her flight out that afternoon. She vowed that she was going to remain a part of this project, not merely coming in, rendering an opinion, and going home. She has lived up to that promise….we are in touch every week.

Breaking News

Ivonne and another vet, Dr. Ole, an orthopedic surgeon... have booked their flights into Los Cabos to operate on Leo. They are donating their services, but their travel costs are being paid for by Sr. Oscar Dacarett. This will take place February 1-3.

Stay tuned!