Photo credit: Lions at the Camagüey Zoo Facebook/Yanaris Alvarez
As severe economic instability in Cuba continues, a worsening animal welfare crisis is emerging within its zoos, raising urgent concerns that can no longer be ignored.
Recent reports from April 2026 paint a deeply troubling picture. At the Casino Campestre Zoo, images and eyewitness accounts have sparked international concern, showing lions in visibly emaciated condition. They appear weak, severely malnourished, and described as skeletal in appearance, struggling to survive. These reports have prompted urgent calls for immediate intervention.
But this may not be an isolated case.
Across the country, multiple facilities are reportedly facing similar challenges as Cuba’s ongoing shortages of food, fuel, and basic resources take a devastating toll not only on people, but also on animals entirely dependent on human care.
Zoos are increasingly struggling to meet even the most basic standards of animal welfare. Caretakers, often working under extremely difficult conditions, are constrained by a lack of supplies, limiting their ability to provide consistent nutrition and adequate care.
Facilities such as the National Zoo of Cuba are not immune to the country’s broader economic crisis, raising serious questions about long term sustainability and animal welfare.
Meanwhile, attractions such as the Acuario Nacional de Cuba and the Delfinario de Cienfuegos continue to operate, though visitor experiences vary widely and growing ethical concerns are being raised about conditions and consistency of care.
This crisis raises a broader and urgent question: what happens to captive wildlife when the systems meant to protect them begin to fail?
Without immediate attention, resources, and international support, the suffering of these animals risks deepening further, hidden in plain sight behind bars that were never meant to become cages of neglect.
The global community cannot look away. Greater transparency, independent monitoring, and urgent intervention from Cuban authorities are needed to address these conditions and prevent further suffering.
Take action by contacting the Cuban government, along with international animal welfare and public authorities, to urge immediate intervention to protect the lions and other animals at the Casino Campestre Zoo, as well as at zoos and facilities across Cuba.
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."
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.
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."
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.
World Animal News and the US Time.
