The Iris Zoo will ask to be declared of public interest.
Barbastro City Council and the promoters are studying the possibilities for the activity to continue despite not being 2,000 meters from the town center as required by law. The promoters of the so-called zoological center Iris and the City Council of Barbastro are studying the feasibility of this activity to continue despite not complying with the distance of being located 2,000 meters from the town center, as it marks for this type of spaces the regional legislation for populations of more than 5,000 inhabitants since its reform in 2009. Today they held a meeting at the facilities themselves Mayor Fernando Torres, the Councillor for Tourism and Deputy Mayor, Blanca Galindo, the businessman Jorge Raya, his wife and partner in this activity Beatriz Cosculluela and the general director of the Bearded Vulture Foundation of Ainsa, Oscar Diez. The meeting has passed with constructive spirit and have been raised solutions on the table to try to overcome the legal difficulty involved in not meeting the 2,000 meters away from the town center. The promoters are going to ask the City Council to process the declaration of public or social interest, alleging the impact of their work on the community:
guard and care for abandoned speciesThe company also has a number of other activities, such as the conservation of endangered species such as the owl; activities with school children to instill respect for wildlife; campuses during vacation periods to reconcile work and family life; therapies with its animals for the elderly in the municipal residence and for residents with intellectual disabilities at Valentia; and the center receives approximately 5,000 visitors a yearThe majority of them are schools from various parts of Spain. For all these reasons, they will prepare a report to be presented to the City Council and that the Council will be the one who will transfer it to the Government of Aragon with the aim of allowing Iris to be licensed despite not complying with the distance to the town center. The anomalous situation of the zoo Iris -which operates as such without having the administrative license- transcended to the public opinion this weekend. On Friday morning, at a Town Planning Commission of the City Council, it was reported that the Iris Center received a few days ago a request from the DGA, in which it is required to report its legal status before March 1 and to stop exhibiting certain animals that it currently cares for and that are not covered by the license it has. The managers of the center admit that they operate as a zoo without being a zoo and state that, if the March 1st deadline is not extended, they will have to cease their activities, since their business, they say, “is not viable” if they are not allowed to continue operating as a zoo. The owners have tried to comply with these requirements, but they clashed with the 2009 regional legislation. By not complying with the distance of 2,000 m, the City Council has not given any license to date and therefore has not been able to complete the file. The Seprona alerted about this situation when they received a complaint in December 2022 and warned the owners that if they did not obtain the license they would have to cease the activity. To try to stop this imminent cessation this Friday, the City Council has arranged a meeting this morning before Medio Natural in Huesca and before INAGA.
Social response
Faced with this situation, the owners of Iris published over the weekend a plea on social networks in which they showed the reasons why they consider that they should be classified as an activity of public interest. Their message resonated with the society of Barbastrense and the surrounding area. The Change.org platform already exceeds 3,130 signatures in support of the continuity of this center created in 2018. Messages of support have multiplied on social networks. And they have also received signs of solidarity from other parts of the province of Huesca, such as from the animal protection organization El Arca de Santi de Monzón, or from national animal rights groups. Jorge Raya was satisfied with the result of the meeting and thanked the willingness of the City Council to seek a solution. “They are doing everything in their power and we already have our legal services working. We will present a report that makes it clear what we are, what we do, what we contribute and why we should continue to exist and that supports the City Council to give arguments to those who must legalize us. The City Council can only help and is helping us as much as it can“. He has also given the example of the Bearded Vulture Foundation, which is located within the castle of Ainsa, protected area and is the smallest zoo in Spain. “The City Council of Ainsa declared them a place of interest and with that cataloging they have been able to work. The current legislation is different, but in essence that is our argument to be able to continue with the activity,” says Raya.
Municipal support
In a press release, the Consistory stresses that it will support the Iris Center “to legalize its situation, not to cease its activities and to guarantee the welfare of the wild and domestic animals in its custody“. Today, Iris has a license to operate as a center for breeding and sale of animals, but develops many other activities and the shared objective of the managers of the equipment and the Consistory is that they can get, if the law allows it, to become a zoo.
Transfer of land
The City Council has even offered the managers of Iris the possibility of ceding them a municipal plot of land free of charge so that they can set up there if, in the end, it is not possible to legalize the current facilities. “We want them to continue operating, because they provide an added attraction to the city and perform an important job, but it is necessary that their legal services argue it so that, if possible, we can intercede in some way with the DGA, which is the one who grants these licenses. If not, there is always the possibility of relocation and we have encouraged them to consider it”, explains the mayor.
managements
During the last year, the mayor of Barbastro Fernando Torres and the first deputy mayor Blanca Galindo have met repeatedly with Manuel Blasco, the Minister of Environment, and with the owners of the Iris center to try to identify a solution in accordance with the law and satisfactory for the city. The efforts will continue before the necessary bodies: “Reports have been sent, which so far have not been answered, and meetings and meetings have been held on this matter with the Ministry during the last term and so far this one. In fact, as soon as we heard about the notification that they had received a few days ago, we have contacted the Regional Ministry again, but the norm is what it is today and the exits are what they are. Therefore, the immediate solution that can be provided is this: that Iris provides weighty legal arguments that help the Government of Aragon to understand its importance. As if that were not enough, we even offer them some land, because we want them to continue in Barbastro. The City Council is clear: we have helped them, we are helping them and we will continue to support them in everything in our power”, says the mayor of Barbastro.
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