jueves, 13 de noviembre de 2008

The Animal Protection Law

Animal protection in our country is improving. Little by little, step by step, what some years ago seemed impossible, today is a reality.

There is a Protection Law. Filled with some loopholes and a bit too lenient, but at last abuse and neglect are penalized.

We would like to talk about equines, animals that go from the tiny pony to the powerful packhorse: these very faithful quadrupeds that have been present in our lives all through history. We have used them to labour the country, in mines, for transportation, in wars and also for sports and leisure.



To this date, and I will focus myself on Spain, their meat is being consumed, their skin used, they aid in the fieldwork, but above all this we find them ever present in popular holidays, in sports and leisure activities.

We work in Catalunya and occasionally, in very concrete cases, also in Spain.

What is their situation or the circumstances of abandonment, abuse or mistreat we find here?



It is hard to believe that people who enjoy the possession of horses are not prepared to take due care of them. Sometimes out of sheer ignorance, but mostly and unfortunately because of abuse and indifference to the suffering of animals.

A very high percentage of the reports we get at ADE-Fundación Altarriba are about horses forsaken in a terrible state of abandonment, namely lacking water, food, and held up in the smallest of sheds almost in the dark and hardly allowed to move.



When finally a seizure takes place, the law enforcement authorities (the Guardia Civil SEPRONA, Mossos d'Esquadra, or Local Police) take the animals to the ADE-Fundación Altarriba shelter on a deposit basis.

Their master will eventually retrieve the animals provided the trouble had not been abuse, but slight neglect of habitat conditions, or their having escaped his control given his capacity to prove his ownership through dully certified records.



The rest of the animals are kept under the protection of ADE-Fundación Altarriba and are eventually given to foster owners after following a protocol proving their aptitude to take care of them.

In the area of sports we do also find situations quite unorthodox. Training and competition efforts rendering the animals exhaust, cruel punishments and doping…No exaggeration. In this field we do also have a harsh task, following-up and reporting these cases to the Federations.



We have to join efforts to educate and raise consciousness among the people so that they also act up, reporting and collaborating to help enforce the Law of Animal Protection. The press has played a major role, denouncing, recording and showing up the most serious episodes of abuse, thus bringing awareness to public opinion. St.F.

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