Action on stray animals

[Karen4]

I don't think anyone's blaming only the Spanish. However, there's a great difference between prople who allow their dogs to run freely during the day, and stray dogs who no longer have homes. The former are generally quite friendly and pose a mimimal threat. The latter are considerably more dangerous, particularly when in "pack" mentality, and hungry! I know of at least one woman who spent time in hospital here with very serious injuries inflicted by stray dogs she encountered while out for a daily walk.
The number of "unowned" dogs will increase while dumping is seen as a solution due to the homing organisations, and where mass neutering programmes are not established.

[freddie]

Although we dont always  agree with how the spanish treat their animals they have made over the last ten years great inroads into changing their mindset, however we must remember we are not living in England where animals are mostly kept indoors,  here they let their animals run free in the main during the day, I know lots of spanish who really love their animals and I think to tar them all with the same brush is doing them a disservice. A lot of the dogs running around are not strays they belong to people however the ones that are strays have not just been dumped by the spanish, a lot (and if you have anything to do with animal care here you will know) come from people leaving the country and dropping their dogs off wherever to be either killed on the roads or if they are lucky to be found and rehomed.

The Town Hall have been working with HAA group  (I wont say rescue because they cant rescue all of the animals) for the past couple of years and it is great that this neutring and speying campaign has finally got off the ground, it will take a long time for some people to grasp the need to do this as its not in their culture. 

As you say education is one of the ways to move forward and this again is something that is in the pipeline. Arboleas Town Council are a forward thinking council but a drop in the ocean if other areas dont take this on board.

The situation here years ago was diabolical and has greatly improved thanks to the dedicated people that assist with the animals here.

Have a nice day  :wave :wave

[jamesturner]

It appears the mayor may be about to take some action on the stray animals in the area:
"-Se pone en marcha con fondos propios del Ayuntamiento, la primera campaña de Castración de Animales residentes en el Municipio, todo ello con la inestimable colaboración de la Asociación de Animales de Arboleas."
Perhaps a cull at the same time would help bring the numbers down? The more they are fed and "rescued" the more often animals will be dumped on the general population, ie because those who abandon them know they will be looked after.
Might be time for some radical action combined with a neutering and education programme - it's becoming impossible to even go for a walk in the area without being confronted by packs of unpredictable dogs.