Word: bolivia
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...staff spent two years undercover working inside Bolivia's circuses documenting animal abuse, which included forcing pregnant lions to jump through fire and keeping brown bears in 6-by-9-ft. cages. A handful of countries, including Israel and Costa Rica, prohibit the use of wild animals as performers, but Bolivia is the first to extend the ban to all animals, including domestic species like dogs, horses and llamas. "We are extremely proud," says Bolivian Congresswoman Ximena Flores, the law's main proponent. (Read a Q&A about the illegal trade in wildlife...
...Lions hate circuses" has long been a bumper-sticker slogan of the animal-rights movement, and Bolivia has heard the message: the left-leaning government of the Andean country recently passed the world's first legislation prohibiting the use of all animals in circuses. That's a huge victory for the London-based organization Animal Defenders International (ADI), which agitated for the ban. But it has left the group and others like it facing the challenge of finding homes for 22 lions and a few primates, which will be euthanized if none are available...
...unclear how many of Bolivia's circus animals will end up at one of these nature reserves. Officials want to avoid the reserves' being expanded as a result of the circus-animal ban. Even Goodall admits that Antezana shouldn't take on more animals because the reserves are maxed...
...Bolivia's first freed lions - five surrendered by a cooperative circus - are heading to California. "It's going to be like heaven for these animals," says an excited Pat Derby, founder and president of PAWS (the Performing Animal Welfare Society), which will receive the five lions early next year. PAWS currently offers sanctuary, with minimal human contact, for dozens of former performing bears, tigers, elephants and lions in large, fenced-in natural habitats on 2,000-acre reserves. "We provide a space where animals can run and play and rest as they choose," says Derby. "Our goal is for [life...
...Bolivia's challenge now is to maintain the good numbers. The last time Bolivia witnessed a plummet in diarrheal-disease rates was during the cholera outbreak of 1992 and 1993, when better personal-hygiene habits led to a reduction in the spread of infection. But as the threat of the disease died down, so too did people's standards of cleanliness. Lenis says that the Bolivian government is committed to continuing its media campaigns and that ongoing potable-water and sewage-system expansion projects will help make Bolivians healthier. Most important, however, is keeping up the education, says Lenis. "Adults...