Raids were conducted on Monday and Wednesday, and residents told TV reporters they saw the animal control workers inject the animals. When they asked what they were giving them, they said they were told it was a sedative for the drive to the shelter.
“They came as if it were a drug raid,” said Alma Febus, an animal welfare activist. “They took away dogs, cats and whatever animal they could find. Some pets were taken away in front of children.”
But instead of being taken to a shelter, the pets and strays were thrown 50 feet from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja, according to Fontanez, witnesses and activists, apparently before dawn Tuesday.
“Many were already dead when they threw them, but others were alive,” said Jose Manuel Rivera, who lives next to the bridge. “Some of the animals managed to climb to the highway even though they were all battered, but about 50 animals remained there, dead.”
Rivera said he alerted officials, who spread lime over the animals’ corpses to control the stench.
Animal Control Solution owner Julio Diaz said he went to the bridge when he heard of the allegations, but remains unconvinced that the dead animals are the same ones his company collected.
“We have never thrown animals off any place. We always take them to our local shelter and euthanize them,” he said. “They can’t prove that they are the same dogs that we picked up.”
I have no words. This is inhumane and despicable.
Because that last quote — “They can’t prove that they are the same dogs that we picked up” — reads to me as a tacit admission that animals have been thrown off bridges.
Julio Diaz, how would you like to be shot with a tranq dart and thrown naked off a bridge? You work with animals — you own a company called “Animal Control Solutions,” for crying out loud — so forgive me for thinking you’d have some compassion. Asshole. 😡
Oh that’s classy. My parents are from Puerto Rico, and I’ve been there numerous times over the years (though I haven’t been there since 1995). This doesn’t surprise me too much.
Puerto Rico is a beautiful place to visit but I’d never want to live there. I’ve had relatives there who were / are police officers, and I’ve heard about some of the corruption there. The quote “They can’t prove that they are the same dogs that we picked up” doesn’t surprise me. So much pride, so much ignorance to admit they did anything wrong.
I vaguely remember my mom telling me one time when she was a girl how there was a problem with “wild” / owner-less dogs in her town. They just went around and collected them, but there was no doubt as to their fate.
It amazes me that some in Puerto Rico want it to become independent. They’re lucky to have US backing, because without it it would become a 3rd world country with a high poverty level in short order. It’s pretty bad when my dad, born and raised there, has said that should Puerto Rico become independent, he’s not going back to live.