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Spend a month with
an authentic tribe in the Amazon Rainforest
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Boycott Las Boas Serpentarios
Amazon and Momón Rivers
I live
in Iquitos, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Even after three years,
sometimes I have to pinch myself and say it out loud; “It’s
true! I live in Iquitos, in the heart
of the Amazon rainforest!” I love to live here and I get excited
about every opportunity to tell everyone what a great place this is and how
fortunate I feel for being here. When someone makes a positive comment
about the wonder and the beauty of this place, my chest swells as if it
were a personal compliment.
But
sometimes the reality of cultural differences comes around to kick me in
the teeth and put me right back, solidly with my two feet on the ground. I
have to keep reminding myself that as a gringo, it is not my place to
preach, just to witness and learn. But it can be darned difficult.
Today
was such a day, when I visited Las Boas, a serpentario on the Amazon River,
about one hour down stream from Iquitos.
I
thought I was prepared, as it wasn’t my first visit to such a place.
Four years ago I came here as a tourist and another serpentario by the name
of Las Boas, on the Momón River, was part of my tour. Apart from
being ripped off -they charged me a 40 soles entrance fee, which, in my
bewilderment, I paid- I found the place extremely depressing. I wrote a
long and furious e-mail to my travel agent about the appaling conditions
under which the animals there were kept and put on display for tourists
like me.
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The owner of Las Boas, Río
Amazonas
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When
we arrived, The animal-keeper, for lack of a better word, upped the price
from the usual 30 soles for two people to 40 soles. I protested, but he
insisted the price had gone up. I gave in, as we had already travelled an
hour, but the price seemed outrageously high.
The
animal-keeper showed us to a bench and said he would bring the animals to us
one by one. We were not supposed to leave the area, or go see the animals
where they were kept. In the immediate vicinity, there were some small
cages in which some snakes, a sloth and two small kinkajous were kept under
dire circumstances.
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A baby
kinkajou was presented to us first. A lovely, sweet animal, the first one I
ever saw up close. But it was obviously ill, and had an infected eye. It
was nothing but skin and bones and did not seem to have much energy at all.
The other kinkajou, an animal that lives, eats and sleeps in treetops, and
which is an expert climber, was kept alone in a small cage and lay
motionless on the wooden planks, in its own waste.
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A kinkajou, lying in its own waste
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A three-toed sloth, screaming in agony,
its rotten teeth visible
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The
animal-keeper went back to the cage, to pull out the sloth. The poor animal
screamed in agony and tried to hold on to the cage. Eventually the
animal-keeper succeeded, but the animal kept screaming, its mouth wide
open, as the man held it with only one hand, under its armpit. I could see
that all of its teeth had rotten away to little brown stumps. My heart
broke right there and then. I nervously took some close-ups, but they
turned out rather blurry, as my 'intelligent' camera tends to focus on the
wrong thing.
The
sloth was put on a tree stump and we were shown a green parrot, a rare,
prehistoric turtle and a young boa constrictor. The snake put up quite a
struggle and proved to be very strong. But our host was stronger and he
kept the animal under control.
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Then
it was time for the ‘piece the
resistance’, the reason why most people come here; a 120-pound,
12-foot anaconda. The animal-keeper and his son dragged the animal across a
fence and into the visitors’ area. My guests had posed for pictures
with the other animals, but declined to pose with this enormous reptile. It
was just a bit too big.
The
animal-keeper draped the snake around his body and gave us his standard
grimace, which was supposed to pass for a smile. Meanwhile, he tried to
keep the giant anaconda in check by squeezing its head between his large
strong hands. I saw how he almost strangled it and its lower jaw was pushed
out of place. The animal opened its mouth and let out a loud hiss, but the
man kept squeezing and squeezing, until the snake started to bleed from its
mouth.
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Twelve feet, 120 pounds of anaconda
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Anaconda mouth distorted by the
pressure of the hands, trying to control it.
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Blood visible at the anaconda mouth
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The
man threw the snake to the ground and one of my guests was willing to pose with
it, helping to lift it off the ground. And again, the snake was dumped on
the sand. It tried to make for the river, but the animal-keeper kept it
back by placing his boot on its head and, with the help of his son,
dragging it back a few yards. This scene repeated itself several times.
Eventually,
I told the man that we had seen enough and his son and he took the snake
away, dragging it over the fence. I was curious about where this large
reptile was kept, and followed the two across the fence. Was it a cage? A
pit? Well, I wasn’t prepared for this; I found the two stuffing the
12-foot animal into a large bag. A bag!
It was the fibery plastic kind that I believe is normally used for
packaging charcoal. That is where they keep this magnificent animal when
there aren’t any tourists around. My mouth dropped and my heart sank,
as I felt a cold shiver running up and down my spine.
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Stuffing the giant reptile into a bag
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So
Las Boas once again proved to be one of the coldest, cruelest examples of
jungle animal exploitation. I imagine not only to a veggie semi-hippy like
me, but probably to many, if not most visitors who go there. Still, there
appear to be plenty of tourists who are unfazed by the circumstances under
which these animals are kept and who just enjoy seeing live jungle animals
up close and even posing with them.
Animal
rights aside, 20 soles per person
is a rip-off for seeing eight animals in an ugly, uninteresting
environment. Quistococha Zoo charges just 3 soles. But apart from being
ripped off, I hope that most people would refuse to support such a blatant
form of animal abuse and exploitation with their hard-earned dollars and
euros. Especially when there are such excellent -and less expensive-
alternatives, like Pilpintuwasi and, as I discovered this morning as well,
the caiman farm in nearby Barrio Florido, both truly wonderful places for
animals and visitors alike.
Las
Boas on the Momón river, which belongs to our animal-keeper’s
brother, now falsely advertises as an animal ‘rescue center’,
just to give it a more animal-friendly layer of varnish. Nothing could be
further from the truth; the owners of these places don’t rescue animals;
they catch them or buy them and exploit them until, as word has it, the
animals die from abuse and malnourishment. When that happens, they
are simply replaced.
As I
said, Iquitos is a great place to live. But there are some things I will
never get used to. I have said it before and I will say it again; for a people
that are such devout believers in God, they certainly treat His creation
disrespectfully. You may ask; aren’t there any rules, laws, or
regulations in Peru? There certainly are. But unfortunately money speaks
louder than the law. I implore visitors and our fellow tourism agents to
steer clear from Las Boas and other serpentarios and instead spend their
time and money supporting places where the animals are well cared for and
treated with respect.
PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THE ABUSE OF
ANIMALS WITH YOUR TOURISM DOLLARS.
DON'T VISIT LAS BOAS SERPENTARIOS.
There are some places that do deserve your
support, where you can see jungle animals:
Amazon Animal Orphanage and
Butterfly Farm Pilpintuwasi
Quistococha
Monkey Island
Barrios Floridos Caiman Farm
(Amazon River)
For
guided tours and daytrips in English, Spanish and/or Dutch
contact
Mr. Gart
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