Pets Seized From Puerto Rico Housing Project, Hurled Off Bridge To Their Deaths

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them from a bridge to their deaths, authorities and witnesses said Friday.

Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to seize the animals and take them to a shelter. “This is an irresponsible, inhumane and shameful act,” he told The Associated Press.

But one activist said police and civil defense workers took part in the raids this week on the housing projects, along with employees of Animal Control Solution. “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.” Instead of being taken to a shelter, the pets were thrown from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja, according to Fontanez, Febus and witness Jose Manuel Rivera, who lives next to the bridge.

“Many were already dead when they threw them, but others were alive,” Rivera said. “Some of the animals managed to climb to the highway even though they were all battered, but about 50 animals remained there, dead.”

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