Fighting animal cruelty, one tweet at a time

Activists face weak laws, low awareness but growing outrage

Veterinarian Carmen Soto is gently swabbing what is left of Grecia the toucan's bright beak, preparing to fit him with a prosthesis to replace the part hacked off by vandals.

The images of the bird's mutilated red-and-yellow beak caused outrage last month in Costa Rica, where donations for a prosthesis came pouring in after his story went viral on social media - a new weapon in the fight against the age-old problem of animal cruelty in Latin America.