Animal welfare in Spain
 

By the kindness of Sue and jdr, I have been granted permission to re-start a thread that has been locked entitled 'Treament of animals in Spain'.

I'd be very grateful to read any comments, good or bad about your views on how animals - particularly dogs and cats - are treated in Spain.

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

Hi derbyflan,

In our area (Jalon) and the surrounding areas we work in (ie Calpe, Benissa, Moraira, Albir, Altea) you very rarely see strays. The people (Spanish and foreigners alike) either love them or don't care for them at all. It is a mixture. We notice it more when we have our dog with us, which is most of the time. Dogs are allowed into some cafes and not others. There is usually a sign at the entrance.

More often than not, when we sit at an outdoor cafe and it is a hot day, the waiter/waitress also brings out a bowl of water for our pip when serving us.

Last summer we had to re-home a beautiful Spanish Mastiff because he was getting so big and the owner (English) was starting to fear him for some reason. Don't know why, as the dog is a gentle giant, but anyway, we successfully re-homed him with a Danish family and the dog and family are very happy. :)

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

:thumbup: Sue and jdr

I lifted this from a website:

Copy and pasting it breaches copyright, rule 6.
Just post the url link to the page on the site please.

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

Thanks for that MnM - that's quite reassuring and thanks for taking the time to respond:thumbup:

Smarties - come up trumps with that one mate. Although it does make for sad reading. Can't imagine why someone would bound a horses legs together:frown: Beggars belief. I fully appreciate that the cultural differences on this matter are massive - but it still strikes a chord with me - a bad one at that. However, it doesn't mean that I'd judge all Spanish ppl as animal neglectors obviously.

Should I avoid Andalucia then:blink:

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

Thanks ;-)

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

Welcome [group hug] :thumbup:

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

A link from Think Spain Newspaper formerly known as CB Friday (Friday, 2nd March 2007 edition) page 2 regarding whales.

Re whales on page 2

There are two sides to every coin ;)

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

Thanks again MnM:) I'll make a note of that link and read all the latest news there from now on. Blimey, I'm talking like I've made my mind up about wanting to choses Spain over everywhere else we've considered:blink: I wonder what the missus will say:D

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

One of the reasons I left spain was because I couldnt stand the way animals were mistreated there and the attitudes towards animals. I have some horrific stories of animal mistreatment but I've just eaten and don't fancy making myslelf ill thinking about them. Plus I don't know if I could post the details.

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

Hmmmmm!:unsure: I think I'd rather that you didn't. Have you seen Smarties link about animals in Andalucia? That's where you lived wasn't it?

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

I've just read it, thats common practice I've seen loads of horses with their feet tied together and many a dog left with no food, shelter or water. My hubby was working for a spanish family for a couple of weeks and he said they only came every 3 days to feed it. It was tied to a barrel with about a metre of rope which it kept getting tangled in and never had water. He used to give it water and some of his lunch. I love dogs thats why I couldnt bear it. They were always lying in the road after being knocked over. My own dog was stolen (probably bye gypsies) never to be seen again. My other dog that I rescued from the dogs home had his ears cut off with a scissors when he was a tiny pup. We had him for 11 months until one night he escaped out of the fence came back 4 hours later having convulsions, we ran around in the car franticly looking for a vet and watched him dye in the back seat. That was the turning point for us after that I couldnt be happy there. Even the two dogs I have now I found on the edge of a busy main road. There are more stories but I'll tell them later.

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

:(

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

You're very welcome derbyflan :)

This is the link to the paper and inserts, all in pdf format. It's available every Friday on the newstands and free online. ;)

Re: Animal welfare in Spain
 

I think attitudes are very variable. I work for PEPA an animal rehoming charity, and people who bring animals to us have found them tied up by the road or on the beach, dumped as VERY TINY puppies in green bins. But there are also a lot of very caring owners, both Spanish and Ex pat as well. Only today I've had a neighbour telling me of a problem with a dog belonging to an English family near here, it's the brother of their dog, so they are taking an interest in it and keeping an eye on it. There are many casitas in the country where dogs are kept as guard dogs, and it isn't that unusual for them to only be fed 3 or 4 times a week, but then in the wild dogs would NOT eat every day. We only get involved when the dogs show signs of ill treatment, and even then it is not legal for people to go into the property to 'liberate' the animals, but it does happen.:) One of my cats is on its third home, it was found as a very tiny kitten and homed by an animal charity, it lived there for several months and then they moved, apparently the cat didn't 'settle down' in the new property, so they contacted the charity and asked them to find a new home for it!, luckily they did know we were looking for a cat of about that age, so we were offered it, and is settled down within an hour, so I just think they were using that as an excuse for getting rid of it. Fortunately PEPA is just about able to keep pace with the influx of dogs with the number of homes becoming available, but as we don't have any kennels we do have to rely on foster carers, and we do cover the whole of the Costa Blanca. Just looking at the sheer number of animal charities in any area shows the level of difficulty the apparent indifference of people to their animals.