New animal laws in Spain - Page 3

Apologies Jenni - in Ireland we have a preference for the “y” over the “i” and I shouldn’t expect you to understand; I’ll get your name right in future. There may be Scottish Gaelic coincidences that tie in with Irish Gaelic. I would like to hear that you are speaking some Scots Gaelic in Scotland. 

Unfortunately, a lot of these points which the new law covers are are left to your local town hall to decide if they will allow you to have more dogs or cats and any fines for not obeing the law can be maximum or minimum or not at all in some cases, depending on your pull in the places that matter!  If your Alcalde is an animal lover, or hunts in his spare time and only sees as either working beasts or usless, these factors may influence all of the decisions concerning the applying of the law.  Local vets are supposed to be consulted about certain matters in the new law, but some older rural  spanish vets are hunters also, and usually look upon animals in a most unsentimental manner.  

In my opinion the town halls have too much power here and are generally pretty corrupt  only acting with alacrity and enthusiastic when organising fiestas.  Also there are too far too many of them!

Very very good points - but the Ayuntamiento will respond to public pressure when they start to be made to look bad.

Facebook can be the scourge of humanity, BUT … it has its uses.  A contributor to this forum, Claudio, went on a “clean-up Mojácar” campaign and with his posts on Facebook which embarrassed the Ayuntamiento , has really made a difference - action being taken.

This will require cultural change as well as laws of course, but it is the youth of this country who are more in tune with their humanity towards animals who are tomorrow’s Alcaldes, Judges, Lawyers etcetera who will make the real difference - but change has to start somewhere, and maybe in years to come people can look back upon these laws and say “yes, yes that’s the point the real cultural shift started happening”

Yes, you're  probably  right Dario.  Too many people can't be bothered to complain and many use the language barrier as an excuse not to do so.

Podemos has certainly tried to.make a law to.protect animals.  To their credit, they wanted to extend the animal cruelty protection to include hunting  dogs but in order to get the law approved, had to.make certain amendments in this area due to protests from mostly Vox and the PP and to some extent PSOE also, many of whom represent rural areas, for fear of losing votes if the law was enforced to include working animals.  The law is a little strange in certain areas as.it includes such animals as rabbits, guinea pigs, mice  and budgies to name a few, on the forbidden list to keep as pets, but generally speaking at least it's  a step in thr right direction.

Yet I do feel that many country people here, even young ones, need to be taught to respect animals more. but gradually in time better education will.play a part in improving the consciousness of future generations.

My friend found a kitten yesterday in a bin. It is now fighting for it's life on a drip at the vet's.

How would this new law make any difference in this situation and fine the unspeakable scumbag who threw a life away? 

I just hope the liability only insurance doesn't extend to all types of medical cover. That's a slippery slope towards vets becoming unaffordable, as evidenced in the UK.

I'm not surprised to see a post like this regarding unforgivable behaviour of many animal owners. Like I said earlier, everybody I know in Mojacar has a dog or a cat or multiples of each. Animals need lots of care but some don't see this. The new laws would come against such antics by the owner. And like cgd said veterinary bills will get more expensive progressively in future. 

I wish some people would think carefully before giving or receiving pets as presents. Near where I live in Ireland I see dogs and cats being dumped from cars from mid to late January each year. A dog or cat is not just for Christmas.

Have a look at the facebook equivalent of this forum - a poster there wants a section of beach in Mojacar for dog use and moans about the carbon footprint bringing dogs elsewhere by car. Likely the same person brings dogs to the Mojacar beaches every day anyway without care or even on a lead. Even the picture on the post shows a dog unmuzzled which should by law be muzzled while in public. 

If you can't care for an animal don't have one and most of the excuses I see are vomit inducing.

Surely the most simple way to monitor and make people accountable is to make it compulsory for all dogs to be micro chipped and then strays or unruly dogs can be traced to the irresponsible owners . 

That is already the law - this new law gives a framework for that to be enforced.

Oh , sorry didn’t know that was the law in Spain . Is the law adhered to by most people ?  Of course people that travel between countries I presume need all the correct paperwork and have to be chipped . What of the hunting dogs , do they have different rules or just indifferent owners ?