Mange spørger, om det overhovedet nytter noget at kæmpe for bedre dyrevelfærd og opretholdelse af de eksisterende dyreværnslove i Spanien, og selv om vi mange gange føler, det er et skridt frem og 4 tilbage, så dukker der tilfælde op, hvor vi pludselig ser et positivt resultat.  

Et sådant tilfælde oplevede vi netop med den lille podenco – nu kaldet VIDAL.

Efter at have modtaget dusinvis af opringninger, hvor enkeltpersoner fortalte om den stakkels hund og bad om hjælp til at redde ham, kom de lokale myndigheder på banen og efter 4 dages intens eftersøgning lykkedes det endelig.
Dét, der er unikt i denne sag, er, at selve borgmesteren og hendes folk deltog i redningsaktionen – endelig nogle myndigheder, der udviser interesse for dyrevelfærd.

Tilbage står nu ønsket om at finde det umenneskelige ”monster”, som påførte Vidal så mange lidelser og dumpede ham til et liv i smertehelvede og død - men det er desværre nok et ønske, der ikke bliver opfyldt.
Dog, vi må glæde os over, at det lykkedes at indfange Vidal, så han kan få behandling og et nyt liv. Den stakkels hund var blevet så rædselsslagen for mennesker, at en dyrlæge var blevet tilkaldt for at  bedøve hunden med en beroligende ”pil” (det er den, I kan se på billederne).

Herunder: billederne taler vist for sig selv

HELVEDE EKSISTERER STADIG  DE FLESTE STEDER

Countdown to execution... ...four days left
By the time the Coast Rider is distributed today (Tuesday) the two beautiful Bichon Frise Maltese Crosses pictured will have only four days left to live. If the obviously related pair are not adopted by Saturday 19th July they will simply join a number of other unclaimed dogs and be herded into the incinerator room for their final moments of hell on this earth.
Imagine if you will, a large warehouse. The sort that is suitable for car spraying, or storing vegetables. It has a high roof, hardly any light, and is concrete floor to ceiling. Not the sort of place to put animals in, let alone distressed and abandoned animals, desperate for a caring, loving home.
This is exactly the place that stray dogs, caught by the one official animal recovery centre, end up in.
Into this barren, uncaring hell hole they go, and few of them are lucky enough to escape it. On the day in question, working under cover, I was on the escape committee.
In this part of Spain , rumours abound about this place. I am not interested in recounting the rumours; the story I have to tell is of truth and fact, no matter how hard you find it to believe. This business is run for profit, and supported by 40 town halls. This is a place of misery for dogs that I had to see with my own eyes to believe.
I have rescued dogs before, and gone to other rescue centres with their nice receptions, clean pens and helpful staff. They are full of healthy, dogs that plead for you to take them home with them. This is not one of those places.
Here cages line the outside walkway, filled with dogs. The smell still hits you even though you are in the open-air. The pens on the right have the smaller dogs, on the left large dogs. It doesn’t matter what breed they are, or what size they are. It doesn’t even matter what sex they are, in they go together! I was standing by one of these cages for just ten minutes, and witnessed one large adult male dog forcing intercourse on a small puppy three times. Nothing is said by the owners, and you better not say anything either, or you have no chance of getting the management to release a dog into your care.
One needs and wants to have as many of those dogs in your care, because you know that there is no care here for them. There is no bedding for them.
They are not groomed. They are not petted, or walked. But the biggest crime, is their health is not attended to. There are no facilities for medical care.
Not even the pretence of an examination room. If one gets ill, they all do. Disease and pests spread like wildfire in these circumstances.
Go and visit, and you too will see the rough concrete floor of the cages being hosed down while the dogs are still in them. You too will smell the faeces and urine that cover these poor animals, matting their fur and assaulting their noses too. You too will see the desperation on their faces, for they know that even though it is rough outside, there is much, much worse if they end up in a cage inside the building. They are on the clock and if someone doesn’t save them fast, there is no parole.
Cross the threshold. Come inside this place if you dare. For in this inner sanctum is more misery than you could imagine. Here cats, dogs and puppies are all caged together willy nilly in a parvo and distemper hell. Infected animals are placed in this area, and along with them are chipped animals waiting patiently for their owners to reclaim them.
Little do they know that their darling doggie that they have been trying to find may well die an excruciating death, because the people who found it just want money. Given the evidence of the conditions the animals are kept in they do not care about the animal’s welfare. As long as the streets are kept clear of strays, they get paid. What happens to the dogs, very few care.
At the back of the room is the place where no good man may tread. The large metal cages that have solid walls, so the dogs cannot be seen, exude an all encompassing terror by themselves. These cages are the end of the line. They are the prisons of no return, and lead to the gas chambers. The dogs know it. You know it. These are the reason that the manager happily tells you that he has “a large turnover”.
I cannot take too much of this. I have to keep a smile on my face and ignore what is going on, so that I can rescue some of these dogs. I want to take all of them away from here, but there are not enough volunteers to care for these dogs until they find good homes.
I am allowed to have the puppy that was being raped. When I take her to the vets on my way home, I am told she is 10 weeks old. She sits in the car with me in a state of shock. She is not the only one.
I can also take a small dog that has nibbled my fingers through the bars. She is eight weeks old. She is put in my arms and gives me a kiss and snuggles in close, just in case I change my mind and have her put back in the cage. Rules have been spouted at me about the time that the dogs have to be kept before they are released and I cannot take any more today, but can come back in a few weeks time. I dread to think what the state of the dogs that I want to rescue will be in that time, but I can do nothing more today, I have to think myself lucky that two have come with me. Two have escaped and two more are coming soon. It seems so few, but I am only one person.
Any dogs sent to the re-homing centre must by law, be kept for 10 days if they are not chipped. For those that are chipped they are allowed to endure 30 days of hell before they too are terminated. Unless that is their owners claim them or some kind soul comes along and rescues them. Very little effort is made to re-home the animals. It does after all cost money to feed them for a few extra days. So much easier to turn on the gas, then shovel the dead bodies into the incinerator afterwards.
The company’s website has a section where people looking to adopt an animal can search for a specific bread. I have been logging on to this website for months. In that time not a single animal has been put on the site for adoption. When I quizzed a staff member about this, he simply replied, “by the time it takes to get the dog onto the website it has already gone.” When I pushed further as to what he meant by “gone”, he just said, “Sacrificado. We have a large turn over.”
Due to the filthy conditions and zero medical treatment for the animals, the story doesn’t end there. Both the puppies have got infections; diahorrea and dehydration and need to be hospitalised. They are lucky to be pronounced Parvo negative. Others aren’t so lucky. Parvo virus could be described as the dog equivalent of Aids. It attacks the animal’s immune system, leaving the helpless dog open to any disease that is going around.
Unfortunately the treatment is almost as hellish as death, especially for puppies. Vets are often loath to treat puppies as the treatment itself leaves the poor animals in excruciating pain until the puppy either comes through it or dies.
Once out of hospital the two lucky ones will start their lives learning all the things that puppies should.
Playing, eating good food, drinking clean water, sleeping in a comfortable bed (which is usually yours!), and being in a healthy and happy environment. Come to think of it, isn’t that what we would like for ourselves?
How do these animals end up in the dog pound? Some have escaped from their owners’ gardens, or become lost whilst out exercising. If they are found wandering many local police forces simply call up and have them taken away to the pound. More forward thinking councils now realise this is not the way to deal with stray dogs.
They are now starting to contact animal rescue charities firstly and only sending them to the dog pound as a last resort. I wish I could say that this was normal practice for most councils, but unfortunately it has only been adopted by a few.
Some of the dogs have been taken from their owners because they have been abusing them. Others have simply been abandoned by their owners, many of them are Brits returning back to the UK after failing to settle in Spain . Either naively or worse still uncaringly, they abandon mans best friend thinking that someone will find it and take care of it. How wrong they are! They are normally rounded up and shipped off to the pound. Once they have reached the end of their grace period they are marched off to the incinerator room. Which, on certain days of the week, means that this hell hole has another aroma, the stench of animals being cremated in the incinerator.
I urge everyone that comes over to Spain , to make sure that their dogs are immunised against rabies and that they have been blood tested for rabies. You cannot take your dog back to the UK until six months has passed from the initial blood test date. One of my neighbours told me that their dog was a rescue dog of five months old. The previous owner had taken it at only four months to the vets. They asked the vet to put it down as they were returning to the UK and didn’t have time to find anyone to look after it. The vet refused to kill the puppy and took it into his own care, before finding a home for it.
The local animal rescue centres are full to bursting. None of them can take any more dogs, not even the two lovely Bichon Maltese crosses that are sitting on death row. If you can home one or both of these dogs, even temporarily, or you think you can give a lifeline to any of the others awaiting execution, then please get in touch with me. I will put you in touch with the organisation that is fighting to save as many animals as it can. They do not wish to be named in this article, for fear that they will not be allowed to help any more dogs on death row. I can be contacted on my private mobile number 680 624 608.
This awful place is in Cereco near Crevillente. They have recently applied for a licence to open a place four times the size in Albatera. I have finally managed to wash away the stench of that place off of my clothes and body, but I doubt that I can ever get it out of my mind.
Sean McSeveney

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