ACTIN, making changes for animals in Spain.

On Thursday 24th January the witness was looking out of her window and saw a large Mastin dog walk past about 80 meters from her house and across the road from her drive.  At first she thought it was a stray, as she hadn’t seen this dog before.  A few seconds later the witness saw a man running and shouting at the dog. The dog walked on and then lay down by a tree. 

The man, who the witness did not know, picked up a tree branch and began hitting the dog.  The witness ran out of the house and shouted as hard as she could to the man to STOP, he shouted angrily back to her in Spanish.  He threw the branch to the ground and then went off.  The witness ran after the dog which disappeared into a field. The witness returned to the house to fetch her binoculars and when she looked through them, saw the dog collapsed in a field.  The witness got her car and drove to where the dog was - the poor soul was dead!

Sad in so many ways; the Mastins are gentle dogs and he clearly did not retaliate to this beating. That the man could do such a thing in public, or at all of course…but to do this in public because of a bad temper, when the dog did not come to  him?  Did he think no one would care? Most likely, why wouldn’t he, terrible things are happening to animals in front of our eyes all over Spain – cruelty, neglect, chained animals 24hrs a day in all weathers…and many say nothing!!!!!!!  Despicable. Owners like this should not be allowed to have animals.  This man should be named and shamed.

Our lawyer is a specialist in animal welfare law in Spain.  She understands the difficulties that are presented to anyone trying to make a case against cruelty here and she  will be the one to make this case successful if it can be so.  Lawyers in Spain generally do not undertake cases like this and so we feel fortunate to have the right lawyer on board.  However, we need her expertise and time and here in Spain red tape and paper work is time consuming, the specific needs in this case will need to be handled expertly, so we want to make sure our lawyer is recompensed for the amount of work she will carry out, for as long as is necessary.  There are also legal filings and expenses which will cost as well.

And of course more than anything else, if you would like to see the man who did this to his own dog, receive the maximum penalty for this heinous act, then you can be part of the team that helps.

The witness would like to add this statement :-

‘I would like to add to the article, the incident took place across the road from my drive and not on my property. Also Its only hearsay from an ex-pat that locals are asking me to drop the Denuncia, I have not been approached myself, of course I will not do this’. I would like to add and praise The Prompt Action of both the Local and Civil Guardia who have taken this incident very seriously.

ACTIN feels this is an important story, we are currently doing our best to encourage people to denounce cruelty and report any incident to the Police, Seprona, or to your local Animal welfare Association. Ask your local animal group if they will represent you, if you are afraid or intimidated?

Many don’t report because they are afraid of the consequences, or not being taken seriously by the Police.  In this case the Police have been helpful. It does depend on areas and also individual police officers but it is important to make sure someone in authority knows.  One of the reasons it is difficult to get proper laws in place and implemented, is because there are not enough reports!   Seprona tell us there isn’t a problem in Spain, because there is no sufficient evidence. We need to change that!!

I have seen many comments on this story (enough said on that), I think the witness has been very brave.  She has no intention of stepping down from her complaint and we should all follow suit if we see cruelty.  There is no point in crying about how terrible it is in Spain and believe me those that live and are born here and tell us it is not Spain that is the problem -  it is.  It isn’t the people in general, we agree on that, as there is cruelty in every country - but the cruel people in Spain are getting away with it because they are not being reported or punished.

Viv Wharton