In 2024, the Animal Vigilance Brigade (BVA) rescued hundreds of animals from places where they were being mistreated in Mexico City — and they weren’t just cats and dogs.
In total, the BVA, part of Mexico City’s Ministry of Citizen Security (SSC), rescued 137 dogs and 127 cats across 16 city boroughs in 2024. They also rescued a wide range of wildlife, including three eagles, one owl, 10 ringtails, one alligator, one crocodile, two steers and a bull, three horses and three snakes — not to mention a peacock, a porcupine, a toucan, a quetzal, and a wolf.
Of these rescues, 103 dogs and 35 cats were adopted.
The BVA reported that, in collaboration with the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office, they participated in 178 inspections to ensure that the animals received adequate care in temporary accommodations.
The SSC has urged residents in the city to alert authorities to any animal abuse.
Last year, the SSC inaugurated the brigade’s new facilities for the shelter and care of rescued animals. The Antonio Haghenbeck y de la Lama Foundation, IAP, donated 14 million pesos (US $683,000) for the project.
Dubbed Michigan, The City of Cats, and The Wildlife Space, the new facilities commenced operations in September.
According to former Mexico City Acting Mayor Martí Batres — who inaugurated the facilities — the Michigan center features a medical area, a consulting room, a quarantine area, bedrooms, green areas, a food storage room, a bathroom and a laundry room.
The Wildlife Space includes a consulting room, an operating room, two stables, an aviary for wild birds and another for farm birds, 12 cages for animals of various species, four serpentariums, a space for iguanas, an incubator, six cages for native birds, a metal pool for turtles, a bathroom and two storage rooms.
Some of the current city government’s strategies to protect dogs and cats’ welfare include sterilization, vaccination and deworming campaigns, a monthly adoption event called the Adoptatón, a new veterinary hospital and 20 clinics located inside Mexico City’s “utopias,” community-center complexes created by current Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada when she was borough mayor in the city’s Iztapalapa borough.
Mexico News Daily
