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The management of the Zoo at the Casino Campestre in Camagüey issued a statement rejecting the allegations shared on social media regarding the abandonment and malnutrition of its animals, but subtly acknowledged that the country's economic crisis directly affects the facility.
The text, shared by Radio Camagüey on , describes the publications that circulated in recent days as "manipulation and slander," and claims that the workers care for the animals "with such diligence and dedication."
However, the statement itself acknowledges that the oldest lioness in the zoo, at 22 years old, "shows natural signs of deterioration due to her inability to digest food," although it attributes this to biological causes associated with her old age.
The institution claims to have five caretakers, a food preparation specialist, a biologist, and a veterinarian who monitor the animals' health daily.
Even so, the message concludes with a phrase that reveals the contradiction between the official discourse and reality: the zoo operates "despite the effects of the current economic situation in the country, from which it is not exempt."
The complaints that prompted the institutional response began last Thursday, when the Cuban Yanaris Álvarez published images of three lions from the Casino Campestre showing ribcages and visibly marked bones, severely atrophied muscles, and lying on a concrete floor surrounded by dry leaves in a neglected environment.
The next day, on Friday, citizen Pedro González reported in the Facebook group Revolico Camagüey that the zoo director prevented him and other neighbors from directly feeding the animals with meat, guava, bananas, and corn purchased with their own resources.
The executive told them that "the animals have a diet and are not hungry" and called the police when visitors questioned his behavior.
González's response was forceful: "Where is that diet when animals are dying of hunger? Where is the care when the water is dirty and the environment is unhealthy?"
The director suggested as an alternative that citizens donate food to the zoo staff so that it could be given to the animals, a proposal that the neighbors rejected. "We all know what usually happens with donations: they don't always reach those who truly need them," González explained.
The case of Casino Campestre, the largest zoo in Cuba with over 900 animals from 72 species, is not an isolated incident but part of a documented pattern of neglect in state facilities throughout the Island.
In December 2025, it was reported that a lion at the zoo in the municipality of Florida, also in Camagüey, had been without food for eight days.
In February of last year, the organization Bienestar Animal Cuba reported neglect and widespread hunger in the Puerto Padre zoo in Las Tunas, where the animals "do not ask for luxury, they ask for food."
In January, the felines at the Santiago de Cuba Zoo were fed with leftovers and slept on their own waste; the response from a staff member at the facility was simply: "There they are."
Cuba approved the Animal Welfare Decree-Law in 2021, with fines ranging from 500 to 4,000 Cuban pesos, but activists and independent organizations point out that the law lacks effective enforcement mechanisms and that state institutions rarely respond to complaints.
The statement made this Saturday is a notable exception, although its defensive tone and its veiled acknowledgment of the economic crisis as a limiting factor reveal that, behind the official words, the situation of the animals under state management remains critical.
As González summarized: "It is forbidden to feed the animals, but it doesn't seem to be prohibited for them to go hungry; it is forbidden to help but not to abandon; it is forbidden to act but not to turn a blind eye."
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