The lifeless body of
Zeus, a 14-year-old lion
, was dumped outside the Chilean presidential palace, in downtown Santiago, as a protest after a failed inspection procedure at a zoo.
After the animal
did not wake up after being anesthetized
, the owner of the private zoo where it remained took its corpse and took it to the center of Santiago, to leave it in one of the entrances to the La Moneda presidential palace.
"Why are we protesting? Because
they made us kill an animal. They made us stain our hands with the blood of our animals just to read the chip,"
César Chanampa, owner
of the Los Angeles City Zoo, 500
, told local media .
km south of Santiago.
The zoo blames the Agricultural and Livestock Service for Zeus's death after he forced the zoo to anesthetize all of its animals in order to read the identification microchips.
Photo: AP
The image of the dead animal
spread rapidly through social networks
, where there was controversy over the actions of all parties involved in the case,
and aroused the curiosity of thousands of people who were passing through the center of the Chilean capital at that time.
The Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) will surely anesthetize the animal on Thursday in order to proceed to read the chip or information storage device and thus identify the lion and confirm that the zoo had its
possession in order.
According to Chanampa, the zoo will observe the SAG about the danger of the procedure and the risk of death for that 14-year-old animal:
"It was not necessary to anesthetize the lion,"
he said.
Zoo workers surrounded the animal's body during the protest.
Photo: Reuters
In a statement, the Agricultural and Livestock Service explained that the sedation process "is required to carry out a
safe review process
that safeguards the physical integrity of both the animals and the personnel participating in the procedure."
He added that the practice was carried out within the framework of a sanctioning administrative process against the private zoo, "for serious irregularities derived from
inadequate handling of the animals
that are in this establishment."
After spending a few hours outside the Chilean presidential palace,
Zeus's body was removed.
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