Overview

• The Kilakán neighborhood festival involved participants—including children—striking clay vessels until they broke open, releasing live iguanas, snakes and foxes
• The Fiscalía Especializada en Delitos contra Animales, Ambiente y Ecosistemas and Profepa have opened formal investigations into event organizers alongside the municipal officials who granted permits
• Under Campeche law animal cruelty carries penalties of six months to three years in prison and fines exceeding 22,000 pesos
• Viral videos showing frightened animals being struck have provoked widespread condemnation on social media and demands from animal-welfare groups for accountability
• The case has reignited debate over whether ancestral customs can justify practices now outlawed under modern animal-welfare protections