Libera! is a Spanish non-profit
animal rights organization. Among other actions, it carries out education and public-awareness campaigns. 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"). 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
The Born Free Foundation is an international wildlife charity that campaigns to "Keep Wildlife in the Wild". It protects wild animals in their natural habitat, campaigns against the keeping of wild animals in captivity and rescues wild animals in ...
, suffered from severe psychological problems 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),
Queen Sofía, and personalities in Barcelona municipal politics, such as Imma Mayol, have endorsed the campaign. Libera! conducted this campaign with the support of the ''Fundación Faada'' and the Born Free Foundation.
Libera!, together with ''Fundación FAADA'', formed the ''Plataforma Rambles Ètiques'', 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.
Along with the Platform SOS Stop Our Shame and
CAS International
CAS International is an international non-profit advocacy group which aims to end bullfighting. CAS International was founded in 1993 as Comité Anti Stierenvechten, with the help of ADDA from Barcelona, Spain, De Dierenbescherming ( Dutch Socie ...
, Libera! is a co-ordinator of the ''Plataforma Galicia Mellor Sen Touradas'', which aims to abolish
bull fighting in
Galicia
Galicia may refer to:
Geographic regions
* Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain
** Gallaecia, a Roman province
** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia
** The medieval King ...
. 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
Mariano Fernández Bermejo (born 1948) is a Spanish jurist and politician, who served as justice minister of Spain from 2007 to 2009.
Early life and education
Bermejo was born in Arenas de San Pedro, Ávila, in 1948. He holds a PhD in law, which ...
for the crime of
poaching without a license in February that year with the judge of the
Audiencia Nacional,
Baltasar Garzón, 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.
See also
*
List of animal rights groups
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Animal rights organizations
Animal welfare organisations based in Spain
Organizations established in 2004