News Briefs for the Week of June 23, 2002
By Marcella Durand for Cat Facts
- German Animals Protected by Constitution
Germany's Parliament, in a surprising and unprecedented action, voted in May to give animals constitutional rights. More than 540 members voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to include the protection of animals. Nineteen opposed the change, while 15 abstained. If approved by Germany's second chamber, the amendment will give those who oppose laboratory research using animals more solid legal footing.
- Spain Tries to Save Lynx From Extinction
Desperately wanted: One male Iberian Lynx. And if he's not found soon, the world's most endangered feline species may become the first feline species to go extinct since prehistoric times.
Jerez de la Frontera Zoo in southern Spain has initiated an emergency breeding plan to save the Iberian Lynx, after the Spanish realized that their native feline species was getting perilously close to a permanent exit. But two tiny female Lynx cubs recently found in a tree stump have raised hopes for the program. "When we brought them here a month ago, they weighed about 600 grams each and were covered in ticks," says Maribel Molla, a veterinarian who is raising the two baby Lynxes, now named Aura and Saliega. "Since then we fed them on milk, diced rabbit and dead rats, and they weigh over two kilos" (4.4 pounds).
The problem is that the only four Lynxes in captivity in the world (including Aura and Saliega) are females. "We urgently need males," says Inego Sanchez, the director of the Jerez zoo and the head of the breeding program. And that promises to be a tough search, because the Iberian Lynx is extremely solitary and only meets other cats in order to mate.
When myxomatosis, a viral disease fatal to rabbits, hit Europe, it devastated the Iberian Lynx population, too, as the cats feed almost exclusively on wild rabbits. However, with the help of the European Union and organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Spain has developed an eight-million-Euro plan to save the Iberian Lynx. "This is such a beautiful animal and so symbolic for Spain," says Sanchez. "We are losing the pride of Spanish nature."
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