Seprona campaign against animal cruelty

SPAIN is definitely moving towards a better position with regards to the mistreatment of domestic animals and although some expats continue to find fault in what the country does, we are of course visitors who are entitled to an opinion, but cannot expect everything to change overnight to suit us.

What should please all animal lovers however was an announcement made on the morning of July 29 by the Chief of Nature Protection Service of the Guardia Civil (Seprona), Vicente Pérez, that there is to be a national campaign against abuse and neglect of domestic animals under the title #YoSiPuedoContarlo.

The aim of this campaign is to raise public awareness to promote the necessary measures for the protection, management and welfare for pets, as well as to bring to the attention of Seprona any cases of abuse that become known to individuals.

The campaign will be promoted through all areas of social media and publicity open to the Guardia Civil and Sr. Pérez has asked that newspapers such as Euro Weekly News should help in promoting this initiative by bringing it to the attention of our readers.

He advised that during 2015 the Guardia Civil became aware of 10,793 administrative offenses and crimes against domestic animals and no less than 426 people were investigated with many of those arrested and charged with cruelty.

The Chief confirmed that these figures show that there is a problem of abuse and pet abandonment, which must be taken notice of even by use of ‘denoncios’ if necessary to try to eradicate a climate of cruelty generally and to protect individual animals in danger immediately, especially as many activities are not only cruel but illegal.

The Guardia Civil is taking this action in part because it has detected an increase in public awareness, not only through formal complaints, but also among users of social networks, as evidenced by the fact that one of the issues that obtains the most interaction and response from their twitter and Facebook followers is any request for cooperation to solve crimes of abuse to animals and indeed many followers send them information and photographs of abuse cases to investigate.

In addition, the second objective of this campaign is to raise awareness that having a pet is a big responsibility, not something to undertake on a whim and then throw out onto the streets when holidays come around.

The campaign asks that if anyone knows of any case of animal abuse or neglect report it by phone on 062, email seprona@guardiacivil.org or through their social networking accounts.

Written by

John Smith

Married to Ophelia in Gibraltar in 1978, John has spent much of his life travelling on security print and minting business and visited every continent except Antarctica. Having retired several years ago, the couple moved to their house in Estepona and John became a regular news writer for the EWN Media Group taking particular interest in Finance, Gibraltar and Costa del Sol Social Scene. Currently he is acting as Editorial Consultant for the paper helping to shape its future development. Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews

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