Circus Animals Caught in a Cartel War Are Fleeing a Mexican City

The Ostok Sanctuary, a once-peaceful animal refuge on the outskirts of Culiacán, Sinaloa, in Mexico, loaded 700 animals onto trucks and quietly slipped out of town under white flags. This was a sign of peace displayed prominently so as not to get caught in a bloody war between rival cartels.

Detailed by The Associated Press, the sanctuary, a kind of halfway house for ex-circus tigers and pets formerly owned by drug kingpins, has become a front line in a battle between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The war was sparked when the leader of one of the groups was kidnapped by the son of notorious drug dealer Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The leader was then hand-delivered to US authorities.

Since then, the region has spiraled into chaos: extortion, carjackings, and now, zoos on the run.

A Mexican Zoo Was Caught In A Cartel War. So, It Fled, Animals and All.

For Ostok’s staff, it’s all a matter of survival. Not just for them, but for the animals in their care. They’ve been threatened, robbed, and surveilled for years, while the animals have had to face starvation after the handlers had to flee the zoo for days for their own safety.

Several of the animals were showing signs of stress and anxiety from having guns firing off nearby and helicopters flying overhead. Some are losing their hair, others are simply dying from the stress.

Zoo Director Ernesto Zazueta described a steady stream of death threats and near-daily firefights close enough to spook the lions. At one point, a Bengal tiger was found chained in a plaza during a shootout. Sanctuary staff like Diego García risk their lives rescuing these animals, many of them abandoned by cartel members once they get bored or busted.

The final straw came in March, when their elephant Bireki injured her foot. No vet in Mexico, or even the United States, dared cross into Culiacán. That’s when they knew that if they didn’t leave, the animals wouldn’t survive.

Now relocated to Mazatlán, where it’s “at least more stable,” the animals have a shot at peace, even if the threat of violence still looms.