Libera!
Founded2004
FocusAnimal rights
Location
Area served
Spain
MethodEducation, demonstrations, protest actions and complaints.
Key people
Nieves Camarero, president
Rubén Pérez, spokesperson
Websitewww.liberaong.org
Libera! activists in a demonstration against hunting, Barcelona

Libera! is a Spanish non-profit animal rights organization. Among other actions, it carries out education and public-awareness campaigns.[1] Libera! was founded in 2004 in Barcelona. The group's initial actions focused on Catalonia, but the group gradually transformed into a national organisation.

One of its campaigns reached international media was the campaign Libera a Susi (Spanish: "Free Susi").[2] This campaign aimed to free the only elephant at the Barcelona Zoo, an African elephant named Susi, who according to Libera! and the British organisation Born Free Foundation, suffered from severe psychological problems[3] resulting from loneliness. Libera! aims to move Susi to an elephant sanctuary, where she could live in better and freer conditions in the company of other elephants.

This campaign has received support from the world of culture. José Saramago (a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature),[4] Queen Sofía,[5] and personalities in Barcelona municipal politics, such as Imma Mayol,[6] have endorsed the campaign.[7] Libera! conducted this campaign with the support of the Fundación Faada and the Born Free Foundation.[8]

Libera!, together with Fundación FAADA, formed the Plataforma Rambles Ètiques,[9] which campaigns to ensure that, in compliance with the Animal Protection Act 22/2003 and the Ordinance on the Protection of Animals, the Barcelona City Council stops the sale of animals in the traditional bird shops of La Rambla. In media campaigns, the Plataforma Rambles Ètiques denounced both the conditions in which the birds live and the practice of throwing away the bodies of the animals that die (though the practice is not legally allowed to threaten public health). As the campaign has pointed out, the shopkeepers have also thrown living animals in the trash.[10]

Along with the Platform SOS Stop Our Shame and CAS International, Libera! is a co-ordinator of the Plataforma Galicia Mellor Sen Touradas,[11] which aims to abolish bull fighting in Galicia.[12] This campaign has the support of environmental Galician organizations including ADEGA and Matar por matar non.

In March 2009, Libera! brought a lawsuit against the former minister Mariano Fernández Bermejo for the crime of poaching without a license in February that year with the judge of the Audiencia Nacional, Baltasar Garzón,[13] when Bermejo was still minister of justice. Spain’s Justice Minister Mariano Fernandez Bermejo resigned on Monday after a hunting trip he shared with a prominent judge investigating opposition party members became an issue in regional elections.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "La Mirada Ética" (in Spanish). Libera!. Archived from the original on 11 January 2011.
    - "Asociaciones de defensa de los animales protestan por la matanza de focas en Canadá". 20 minutos (in Spanish). 30 March 2007.
  2. ↑ "El zoo de Barcelona se degrada". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 6 June 2008. Archived from the original on 7 May 2009.
    - "Susi, la elefanta del Zoo de Barcelona sufre depresión debido a que no tiene compañía". 20 minutos (in Spanish). 4 March 2009.
    - "Lonely elephant 'could die of sadness'". The Daily Telegraph. 6 February 2009.
    - "Aidez Susi, l'éléphant dépressif". La Presse (in French). 6 February 2009.
    - "La regina in campo per l'elefantessa triste". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 15 May 2009.
  3. ↑ "'Quitamos el Parlament o no caben más elefantes'". El Mundo (in Spanish). 18 February 2009.
  4. ↑ "Saramago se une a la campaña para liberar a Susi, la elefanta enferma del zoo". ADN (in Spanish). 19 February 2009. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009.
    - "Susi". Blog de José Saramago (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 February 2009.
  5. ↑ "La Reina intercede por la elefanta 'Susi'". El País (in Spanish). 13 May 2009.
  6. ↑ "Mayol aboga por que la elefanta 'Susi' deje el zoo". El País (in Spanish). 18 March 2009.
  7. ↑ Pilar Rahola (15 February 2009). "Salvemos a 'Susi'". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 21 February 2009.
    - "Un eurodiputado de ICV lleva a Bruselas la situación de la elefanta 'Susi'". El Mundo (in Spanish). 28 February 2009.
    - "Un eurodiputado lleva hasta Bruselas el caso de la elefanta Susi del Zoo de BCN". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). 27 February 2009.
  8. ↑ "Free Susi". Born Free Foundation. 12 February 2009. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014.
  9. ↑ "Rambles Etiques - Contacte" (in Catalan). Archived from the original on 2 May 2009.
  10. ↑ "Una plataforma denuncia que els ocellaires de la Rambla tiren animals a les escombraries". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Catalan). 26 April 2009. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022.
    - "Els ocellaires de la Rambla llancen animals a les escombraries". Diari de Tarragona (in Catalan). 26 April 2009.
  11. ↑ "Galicia Mellor Sen Touradas" (in Spanish).
    - "Las corridas estivales avivan las protestas del movimiento antitaurino en Pontevedra". Farodevigo.es (in Spanish). 6 August 2009.
  12. ↑ "Parte de nuestros impuestos se dedican a financiar estas prácticas. Cada gallego aporta 42 euros al año a la tauromaquia". El Progreso (in Spanish). 21 July 2008. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011.
  13. ↑ "Presentan ante el Tribunal Supremo una querella penal contra Bermejo por furtivo". 20 minutos (in Spanish). 13 May 2009.
  14. ↑ "Spanish justice minister quits after hunting trip". Reuters. 23 February 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2023.


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