New opportunity away from home in Mexico for the rescued tiger Frida

By Our Special Correspondent

As a young child four years ago, Frida Bengal Tiger was trapped in a dirty, impassable condition in a restaurant parking lot in Mexico City.

Protected and rehabilitated, she is now a popular attraction in Reno Animal (Animal Kingdom) Park, along with hundreds of other exotic creatures taken from Mexican "pet" owners, as well as attractive drug dealers, and reports.

Far away from the Asian forests where she lives, Frida has fully recovered and "no longer suffers," said park employee Augustine Bastida, as the tiger yawned loudly.

Lying on a grass patch she looked indifferently at the men looking at her from the other side of the fence. Frida is one of 1,100 animals in a park in Otumba, northeast of the Mexican capital - 40 percent of which are endangered. Fellow inhabitants include zebras, giraffes, wolves, and a variety of birds.

According to officials, about 150 to 200 exotic animals are caught each year in Mexico City, often following reports from neighbors. Some of the worst offenders are drug dealers like Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who has a pet monkey called "Boots". "

According to Lucio Garcia Gill, head of the PROFEPA environmental crime office in Mexico City, during a major rescue in 2007, officers who broke into a "narco-mansion" found two jaguars, two tigers, two lions and a macaque.

"There are many exotic birds like macaws or parrots, reptiles, many primates and big cats; we find that most people have,”

Two big cats were rescued in Megacity in 2021 and so far this year four - including a lion cub. According to Gill, a tiger or lion sells for between $ 1,000 and $ 5,000 on the Mexican black market.

Mexican law allows people to legally purchase exotic animals from registered dealers, "as long as they keep them safe and provide adequate protection,"

"Unfortunately ... no one complies with the conditions," he said, adding that illegal possession could result in up to nine years in prison or a fine of up to $ 15,000, but Gill said he never remembered going to jail.