alihampton

I retired here to near Loule three weeks ago from England bringing my family of ten dogs ranging from four to sixteen years old and twelve beautiful cats.I brought a house with 20000 sq mt of land which i had all fenced so my beloved pets were safe,i picked a spot down a gravel drive at the end only three houses in the one km drive so no one to near just country.

To my horror Sepna landed on my doorstep to say by law i can only have six dogs and six cats at my house and i have thirty days to get rid of my beloved pets or get a kennel license.if not i could get a heavy fine or they could take them from me.(they are fully passported,chipped and inoculated after all they have just come from England)

I researched for over five years to come to Portugal to retire thinking i had covered every issue,wrote on many forums,asking question,stayed for long and short periods in Portugal,found a vet(who new how many pets) told the lawyer,estate agent who said nothing.

To make things even worse my neighbor who had ten dogs,today i found five of his dogs dead in the big waste bins heads all smashed in covered in blood this is a total nightmare.Apparently Sepna had visited all in my area and is enforcing this law in the Algarve.

As you can imagine i am devastated,in fact i am not thinking straight,i am numb with shock.

Has anybody experience of this before,has anyone any advice??

mfesharne

Get a lawyer and get a kennel licence seems the obvious answer.

alihampton

Hello mfesharne yes i have been to the lawyer and he says it is very expensive to get a kennel licence running into thousand and thousands of pounds,which now i have not got.

mfesharne

I'm very surprised to hear it's expensive to get a kennel licence and personally if I were in your position I'd want to know why it's that expensive because from my (limited) experience most things such as licences etc are fairly reasonably priced.

I wonder if your lawyer is assuming you want to run a commercial kennels rather than just keep your own admittedly large number of pets.........

I'd also be inclined to ask if there is any way to avoid the issue such as register some of them as hunting/working dogs and some as pets etc.

Alternatively, go to one of the existing rescue centres and ask how they manage because I'd guess most of them must have encountered and beaten the problem and it might even be possible/cheaper for you to register as a branch of an existing rescue centre?

The one thing I wouldn't do is just cave in without fighting.

newintavira

It sounds to me like there's someone in your area who doesn't like animals and is causing trouble.

Sadly, the attitude to pets here is very different to back in the UK - it's not unheard of for people to put poison down.

I don't really have any advice to give but I truly sympathise with your plight. Best of luck getting the situation sorted. Perhaps it's worth putting some of your pets in kennels temporarily until you sort out your legal position, rather than risk having them taken?

liveaboard

I suspect this has been triggered by the recent trouble over a kennel in Rogil; authorities were accused of not enforcing regulations.
A kennel next to me suddenly has only 5 dogs instead of 10. Also, it's now clean and a large dog food bag is casually set where it can be seen from the street [the dogs are fed some kind of waste meat in reality]. I hate to think what befell the other dogs, they were the poorly looking ones.

I say try another lawyer! I think the first one didn't want the job so was fobbing you off.
Get a stay, a postponement, whatever. Just applying for a license should be enough in the short term.
Most places seem to have this law [I'm pretty sure England does], but enforcement is usually only done if there's a complaint.
Puppies under 6 months are exempt.
Very sorry to hear of this; I think mfesharne had an excellent idea about asking at one of the dog charities. I'm sure you'll get some good advice there.

Ingles

Just sent you a Private Message

I just feed back from a contact & they suggested registering half off your dogs in somebody elses name.

Hope this is off use & good luck

joseph69

i would go and see this Lawyer And soon...She is very good..And I am sure she will help...
Sara Manzinho in Tavria,
Rua 25 de april
Nr.13
R-CESG

TEL---281-323125

Jose Carvalho
Good luck..
Keep in Touch..

alihampton

Hello I have just returned from another lawyer,he spoke to sepna the law is private homes six dogs only and six cats anything over that is considered commercial.Getting registered is a nightmare and very costly,he also learnt they are now checking everywhere,if you have your dogs out or in the car,you must carry their passports or you can be fined.So this is all doom and gloom.I am now looking for a temp solution a proper registered kennels and cattery,while i try to get to the bottom of this.

mfesharne

Firstly, I'm sure the locals don't carry their pet passports when they take their dogs out and secondly not all dogs have passports...... I bought a Lab puppy recently from a PT breeder and of course doesn't have a passport because she was born here.

If I were in your position, I'd be inclined to ask the local rescue centres what they do and perhaps try to explore the possibility of working with one of them under their licence....... it might mean you have to take in a rescue dog from time to time but that obviously won't be too much of a problem for you. LOL!

alihampton

Sorry they have to be chipped.

CHOPPER

They brought the 6 cats/dogs law out a couple of years ago and introduced the licences for cats.

alihampton

Hello Again I have spent most of the day trying to fine legal animal rescues with a kennel licence,well they are few and far between,they are over loaded with dogs and cats,they are not interested in helping,they know the law lots of people just run,dump their animals here in Portugal,the government rescues are full and seem to put them to sleep,this is terrible.I met a family from Silves the same thing has happened to them they had been here two months and had put their life savings into a new life in Portugal they are now leaving Portugal next week with their beloved pets to live in Spain.I came here to retire but now i am going to warn other people before it is to late for them this is a travesty.

Algarvia

Hi Ali,

My name is Ana Tavares and I am a journalist for the Algarve Resident newspaper. Could you please send me your contact details as I would like to talk to you and get more details on this story?

Ingles

"alihampton"
Please contact myself urgently using a private message ,I have somebody willing to help
Ingles