It appears that it's early Christmas this year for the Spanish anti-zoo lobby, as according to the latest Spanish animal rights update, Spanish zoos shall be turned into 'centres for the recovery of native species'.
I do wonder what will happen to the non-native wild animals then. Will they just magically disappear? Be released into the Spanish countryside to become "native"?
Spain's new animal rights law bans pigeon shooting, zoos and dolphinariums
This is another case where journalists do a very bad job in describing what a
proposed law actually means. I asked a friend who is familiar with Spain/Spanish zoos what exactly is happening and apparently this piece of journalism could be done better by any of us.
This proposed law has just left the cabinet as it is fit for debate now, though a version of the bill will probably get passed by parliament within a few months. The law itself is apparently quite vague and chaotic, but not dangerous for zoos.
What it actually says is that it will ban the keeping of animals for commercial purposes (but excluding farm animals (except fur farms), bull fighting and zoos).
Zoos are exempted and will continue to be allowed to keep, breed and exchange exotic animals. They are however expected to focus more on conservation, education and research, but most major zoos probably already fit the descriptions that this bill deems necessary. It does seem to propose a ban of keeping species in captivity that do not adapt to captivity, but for research or conservation purposes this does not apply. This might be a loophole that people will use to try to ban cetaceans, but chances of success are probably slim as zoos could just as easily defend that the species adapt to captivity and are used for research and conservation purposes.
Local legislation that Barcelona Zoo has to work with is stricter. So all in all it seems that this is more of a motivation for Spanish zoos to up their game and it could well have a positive effect for zoo animals.
