Living in Spain

[Kizzicoolcat]

We are thinking of living in Spain on a more permanent basis - of course this may be dependent on what happens re the EU. My husband has just come back from our house there having been there for a couple of weeks. So this is the question he does a lot of off road cycling ( and road cycling) and he finds it so difficult when he keeps coming across badly injured dogs/cats, kittens and puppies put in bags etc etc. How do people cope with this on a permanent basis. Obviously being on his bike in the middle of no where he is unable to help these animals which he finds very disyressing and by the time he returns in the car they have crawled off somewhere to die. Does everyone get hardened to this - just interested to know how people deal with this.

[Enrique]

Hi Kizzicoolcat,
Unfortunately its a rural Spanish way of dealing with the unwanted litters and stray dogs.

You just have to ride by................

[elusive]

There are many animal charities that do their best to rescue/foster such animals theres a constant stream of puppies been found in bins ect.that is reported on animals sites..no doubt there will be charities where you live.keep their contact details at hand and that is something you can do to help the poor things. We have made contact several times with local charities who have then saved the animals. Last one being a cat in a horrendous state at a petrol station in nerja. Could hardly move off the fourcourt.how people could walk around it and close their eyes is beyond me.thankfully it was able to be rescued easily and was taken to a vets where its now doing well

[costakid]

Carry on and ignore it. Thats Spain.

[gruff]

Re. your last sentence, no we have not got hardened to it. If you are an animal person you find you get involved with strays, get involved with vets, and spend lots of money. But there is only so much you can do. I can feel for your husband, it must be so frustrating not being in a position to do anything.

[Kizzicoolcat]

It is so hard. We have already brought a little dog that we found thrown out on the road back to UK. I suppose if you are there permanently you are in more of a position to help. Thank you all for your replies. I will say that the UK isn't so great these days we have recently found dead foals dumped on the byways near us and also seen two foals being rammed into a huge metal gate to kill them !

[El Cid]

Carry on and ignore it. Thats Spain.

Absolutely no. Do something about it if you care. (You probably don't). There are many ways of helping these animal charities even if you cannot home some of the animals.

That comment also applies to you Enrique - just ride by? And I thought you were an animal lover. Perhaps it's time to change your avatar.

Sid

[katy]

Well said

[Enrique]

The OP was talking about animals seen deep in the campo, I too have gone back in a car but unable to find said animal.
We have rescue dogs and cat, you can't take them all in.

My avatar will stay............

[biribiri]

It's heart breaking sometimes being a dog lover in Spain but you can only do so much. We have 2 rescued dogs who both give us so much joy.

You have to be hard sometimes otherwise you end up the same as a couple we know who moved to Spain to enjoy their retirement and who are now skint, working 24/7 caring for over 70 dogs.
I'm sure there must be others who are in a similar situation.

If you think you can help in any way please have a look.
https://www.facebook.com/anewdayspain

Another good cause started by a Spaniard here
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yo ... ?ref=video

[MartinEB]

Animal neglect and cruelty is one of the reasons we are seriously considering a move back to the UK. It is never ending. (Please note I said just one of the reasons, before people start harking on about that is what happens in Spain and what did we expect).

There are two ways to deal with it. Accept it as a part of the way of life in Spain or don't accept it and move away. We cannot accept it. There is no excuse.

[BENIDORM]

I agree that it is very difficult and heartbreaking when someone has to make a decision to 'walk on by' when suddenly confronted with a starving or injured animal, but sometimes it is just not possible to give assistance, and that doesn't mean that the person is NOT a caring and compassionate person.

As for leaving Spain because of animal cruelty..well Spain is not alone...most countries have the same problem and UK is certainly not free from animal cruelty...have a look at the RSPCA..PDSA websites.

We have 3 'rescued' Podencos ,2 white doves and a one legged grasshopper in our care at the moment...

Regards,
Gordon the Dogman....

[gerryh]

There are two ways to deal with it. Accept it as a part of the way of life in Spain or don't accept it and move away. We cannot accept it. There is no excuse.

There is athird way. Join one of the many animal rescue groups and actively recue/ rehome the animals and campaign/ educate for better animal welfare here in Spain.
Cheers
Gerry

[MartinEB]

Do you honestly think that somebody writing on here about animal cruelty/neglect would need that pointing out to them? We currently have a puppy (now 35 days old, but found in a plastic bag in or village at 4 days old) who we are fostering and will hopefully re-home (through our local (expat) Asociacion de Animales) when ready. But there will be more, many more.



The tide of animal neglect/abuse is constant and we cannot really see it ending here in the mountains (no matter how hard you try to educate, those being educated must "want" to change (and they don't)). Whenever we go walking we have a back pack of dog food for the dogs tied up at all the various cortijo's in the mountains (why do they do that? to protect their chckens? but why starve them?). In our car we have a bag of dog food under the passengers seat for all the dogs we see on even a short simple journey to the supermarket.

The heartache can become unbearable, maybe we should have asked the same the questions the person who started this topic is (very wisely) asking

[olive]

We have battled with this over the years. Done the carrying food thing. We have two abandoned pets at the moment. First job was to have them neutered and chipped and vaccinated. This was much to the disgust of our Spanish neighbours. They think it is cruel to deny an animal the right to breed and produce young. They may be right, however they are definitely wrong when it comes to disposing of unwanted litters. This they do by putting in a sack and hitting a wall with the sack till the noise has gone. True evil. Another has an endless stream of adorable puppy dogs . These mysteriously vanish when mature. Just witnessed that last month. The mother dog gave birth and then vanished a bit later. When you ask what happened they just shrug . All you can do is chip away at these customs and practices.

Another time some Brits had disposed of an unwanted litter of puppies . One at each house with a large Sky dish. We fed and watered ours whilst looking for a responsible owner. At a local bar I offered it and one bloke I knew offered to kill it there and then with his bare hands much to everyones amusement (except me). Fortunately two chldren took a shine to it and their dad grudgingly took it. It is doing well several years on.

Attitudes are changing - for example bull fighting.

[MartinEB]

This they do by putting in a sack and hitting a wall with the sack till the noise has gone. True evil.

The method of choice here is to grab the puppy or kitten by the back feet and smash its head against the wall (I suppose this has the bonus for them of not ruining a perfectly good sack?)

If you are happy and able to turn a blind eye, then yes, why not live here, the weather is nice and the tapas are good we however cannot

[Pamela1]

We bought our home from an English couple who left 8 dogs behinde, all campo dogs..whether we liked it or not they were on our property and that meant they became our responsibility....My husbands brother took care of them when we were not there but we have a neighbour whose daughter somehow thought they would be better off being homed...bear in mind these are wild dogs who guard their territory and don't venture from where they live..to cut a long story short..we turned up to find all the dogs missing..we made phone calls and discovered someone had took them away...My Spanish niece saw them being advertised on the internet a few days later...they were never house dogs..and they were happy and well fed where they were...im not saying that whenever you see a dog alone that its not being looked after...what im saying is,,don't always jump to conclusions..

[Wicksey]

Maybe the cruelty to animals is less obvious than here, but really the UK has a lot of issues with it too, not just Spain. As Benidorm said you only have to look at a RSPCA site for example, http://media.rspca.org.uk/media/facts
PETA UK also says "At any given time, there are an estimated 100,000 dogs – and countless cats – without homes in the UK ...... Many stray animals are poisoned, shot, mutilated, tortured, set on fire or killed in other cruel ways."

We have 4 rescue cats here, but always took on rescue cats when we lived in the UK too. The Spanish neighbours here have cats and dogs but although left to roam the owners do come everyday to feed them and they all look quite healthy. I have not been aware of seeing any pregnant animals or signs that any have just reproduced .... maybe they are all males (the un-neutered Tom cats definitely call by our house quite regularly ). There are foreigners here that have returned back to their home countries and then leave their animals behind as well that we know of.

We support the local animal charities which do an excellent job but desperately need more funds. It's a case of trying to educate owners to have their animals neutered (and that goes for Brits too .... I have known a few that haven't bothered then wonder why their pet gets pregnant).

[MartinEB]

Maybe the cruelty to animals is less obvious than here, but really the UK has a lot of issues with it too, not just Spain.

Of course the UK has its problems, every Country does, I am not naive enough it think it doesn't, but it is beyond compare and not on the scale or frequency as the cruelty and neglect here in Spain. Additionally in the UK there are "official" agencies to approach if you have a concern (RSPCA, Dog wardens, police) who will take you seriously and well organised, funded national charities providing superb assistance (Dogs Trust etc).

Spain has nothing, a handful of underfunded charities trying their hardest to attract funding in an area that really is not taken seriously enough, some wonderful expat groups trying to educate and help, but it is like pushing treacle up-hill and if you (dare) try and report animal cruelty to the local police (who can always to be found daily having a coffee & Brandy between 10 - 1045am in the local cafe), the policeman is undoubtedly related in some way to the person you want to report and it will not be taken seriously and brushed under the (rather huge, lumpy) carpet.

Don't even mention Medio Ambiente (SEPRONA) - they drive around in some tasty looking 4x4's and that's about it!

Just visit your local (council funded) Perrera (our nearest is Almeria), death row, last chance saloon for animals (all animals not just dogs), probably bursting at the seams, to get an idea of scale of the problem.

I am trying not to tar everyone with the same brush. We know some wonderful Spanish animal lovers who are as aghast as us at the animal neglect and cruelty (in their Country). It comes to something that when you take a stray to the local vet on behalf of your local asociacion de animales, the vet is relieved to hear it is being re-homed to the UK (or for that matter Germany or Norway) and not within Spain!

Hope I am ok posting this link, to just one of the underfunded Spanish dog rescues that we help just outside Granada, run by a young Spanish girl and her boyfriend http://www.kalidog.es/ Maybe people can help in some way

[katy]

It is changing in Spain, slowly. Have seen a couple of prosecutions in the news which would never have happened years ago. Don't see many dogs wandering around in the coastal towns either. Inland seems as bad as it ever was. There was always a few Spanish with dogs in our Vets.
If I were to compare I would rate Spain alongside Greece and Southern Italy, some of the Caribbean too. Yes there are some appalling animal cruelty cases in the UK but the fact that they appear on front page news says it all. A dog wandering around in the UK. Wouldn't get very far, someone would step in. Many of the dogs in UK shelters are there because their owners have died, been hospitalised etc. I haven't seen dogs wandering around in France or Holland either.

Years ago I came across a dog in a hedgerow in UK. Couldn't stand, possibly had been hit by a car. I called the authorities and someone came within 15 mins. I was also informed of it's progress and shortly after recovering it was adopted. There is also a charity which rehouse Romanian dogs too. Before leaving Spain myself and a German neighbour who was also leaving paid for eight local street cats to be neutered but I heard later they were poisoned.