It Began With A Whimper

The history of my involvement with the Santiago Zoo dates back to my first visit on December 26th, 2001. When we were planning our itinerary, my traveling companion said he wanted to stop at the zoo. He had been there in 1985. I firmly said I had no interest in going to a village zoo. I knew I would see animals in horrid conditions. Each time the subject surfaced, I said no. I was still refusing to go in as I sat in the truck in the Santiago Zoo parking lot....and again as I was walking through the gates.

Ok....I acknowledged that the grounds were tidy..."See, he said...it's not that bad". Then, I saw the lion.


He was pacing in his small cage, and he looked me in the eye and whimpered. I burst into tears and ran back to the truck. I didn't know there was also a tiger and a bear until the film was developed of the pictures he took after I had returned to the truck. (I was so upset about the lion, he wasn't about to tell me there was also a tiger and bear.)

When I came home, I went on the Baja discussion boards and began a campaign to help "Leo" and the zoo. Over the years the project has had its ups & downs. I found two people to help me, and they have helped to keep this project alive. First I met Robin, who had successfully moved a lion out of Mexico a few years ago and his friend Vicky. Robin also saw an Animal Planet episode about a woman named Gloria out of Houston who had moved a lion out of Cancun to a sanctuary in San Antonio, Texas - Wild Animal Orphanage . Gloria helped a lot in communicating with the local government to establish exactly who was in charge of the zoo. There were only part-time employees and an honorary volunteer "President". There was no regular veterinary care.

• In 2003 Leo somehow broke a bone in his paw and it was sticking out. We contacted Animal Planet and had a commitment from one of their vets to come down to operate on him, but they kept cancelling on us, then stopped taking our calls. Click picture to enlarge.



• In January of 2004 Lic. Maribel Collins of the Tourism Dept. of the State of Baja California Sur announced that the state was giving the zoo $150,000 (pesos) for improvements. Where did the money go? No one knows....it did not go towards new enclosures for the animals.



• In April of 2004, we thought we were going to be successful in getting Leo moved to Texas. Jesus Corrall Gonzales, the Municipal Secretary of Tourism, Los Cabos, BCS wrote us a letter of intent to start the permit process to export him. Unfortunately, the permit was denied by Julio Cesar Peralta Gallegos of PROFEPA.



• The bear died in June of 2004 and that started to bring some unfavorable publicity to the zoo.

After the permit was denied, we were stalled and nothing happened for quite a while. Gloria had other animals in Cancun she was trying to help, and we were running out of ideas.

In July of 2005 I asked David Flores of the Gringo Gazette for help. I wondered if he could get an answer from the government about what improvements had been made since he published that announcement in 2004 about the 15o,000 pesos that the state supposedly gave to the zoo. I hardly expected them to give David an answer, but he was very instrumental in advancing our efforts, because the authorities told David that they had just appointed Oscar Dacarett to be in charge of the zoo. David gave us Oscar's telephone numbers. Vicky now had someone to call.

I would have given up long ago, for I do not speak Spanish, but Gloria and Vicky do. So Vicky went to work on Oscar. We were also supported by an article that came out in a local Mexican paper. At last....the locals were getting involved. When Hurricane Wilma hit Cancun, the sanctuary Gloria had been working on suffered a lot of damage. She no longer had the time to work with us, so it was left up to Vicky to keep the lines of communication open.