Article content

BARCELONA, Spain — Animal rights activists in Barcelona are celebrating a victory after the Spanish city ordered its municipal zoo to restrict the reproduction of captive animals unless their young are destined to be reintroduced into the wild.

Barcelona’s town council voted on May 3 to modify the zoo’s bylaws to include a rule by which any of its breeding programs will be stopped unless there is a plan to eventually release the offspring into nature.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Animal rights activists score win at Barcelona zoo Back to video

“We want zoos to stop breeding animals that do not respond to an environmental strategy, breeding them just so they can be in front or inside a cage,” said activist Leonardo Anselmi, who co-ordinates ZOO XXI, the animal rights group that successfully pushed for the new mandate.

The mandate was passed along with a new strategic plan for the zoo crafted by its staff that will task a committee of scientists and ethical experts with one year to determine a conservation plan for each of the 300 different species housed at the zoo. Those resulting plans will have to be implemented within three years. Any animals the committee thinks should leave the zoo will, in theory, be reintroduced into the wild or relocated at other zoos or sanctuaries.