600 wild animals die under government responsibility due to neglect

Under the federal environment agency Ibama’s care, about 600 animals died for lack of tending in the last four months in the Center for the Treatment of Wild Animals of Rio de Janeiro (CETAS-RJ), installed in the Mário Xavier National Forest (FLONA), in Seropédica. The shelter - considered to be one of the largest in the country, with more than 1200 animals - receives birds, reptiles, and mammals recovered from illegal trade for rehabilitation.

Currently, the CETAS-RJ has only four employees. In November, the contract with the outsourced company RCA, which took care of the space, was suspended after the company warned in advance, in July, that it would not be interested in extending the agreement, G1 reported. In January, a new contract, made on an emergency basis, was also broken. The responsibility for hiring the team of keepers lies with Ibama’s superintendent in Rio, Navy Reserve Admiral Alexandre Dias da Cruz, in office since March 2019.

After the complaint, Ibama announced that the center will have 11 new animal handlers starting March 2, in addition to opening five internal processes to investigate the deaths of animals, but in a statement, said that “the contract for food and security of the site is still in full operation,” according to an article in O Estado de São Paulo. The Federal Police has already started an investigation on the case, considered an environmental crime.

The situation of abandonment of CETAS-RJ is a tragedy foretold and another episode of the dismantling of federal environmental defense agencies promoted by Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, marked by the dismissal of qualified technicians and the military trimming of key positions. In July 2019, months after assuming the superintendence of Ibama in Rio, Dias da Cruz ordered the replacement, without justification, of four of the ten outsourced keepers who worked at the site, reporter Bela Megale found out at the time. The decision mobilized the Rio Ibama Servers Association to send a letter to the administration. “Considering the years invested in training to prepare a wild animal handler, and that this type of professional is not easily available in the market, it is certain that a replacement in the team will cause enormous disturbances to the routine work performed by the CETAS/RJ. These disturbances will be translated into an increase in the number of deaths of the animals , which we consider unacceptable,” said the document to which the newspaper had access.