The municipal pound of Almería has been putting an average of two animals to sleep every day, according to the townhall.
The number is dropping however: in 2012 they sacrificed 934 animals, in 2013 just 797, or 30% fewer.
The answer came after a written question was tabled by opposition socialist councillor Deborah Serón.
Carlós Sanchez, councillor of Health and the chap eventually in charge of the pound, defended it’s “hard work” in rehoming animals, and said he hoped that the 2014 figures would be even lower.
He pointed out that although the law says animals only have to be in the pound for 10 days, the average is 3 months for dogs and 6 months for cats.
Falling budgets means the pressure continues to be heaped on the municipal pound. As other private associations see their budgets cut, they are unable to take in the animals from the pound, which in turn means the pound appears to be unable to accept animals from the public. This has lead to a lot of accusation and counter accusations from different pounds recently – you’ll remember the alleged scandal about cats being put to sleep in the municipal pound, which appears to have been an attempt to get the budget up before it was finally approved for the year, despite the English language press being taken in by the petition to “stop the slaughter”.
914 animals were “rehomed” in 2013, although on closer inspection, only 358 actually went home with anyone, the rest seem to have been palmed off onto private animal charities.
A further 194 animals were returned to their owners after they were declared to have been lost. In several cases, the pound made official complaints to the policia local after they deemed that the pets had been abandoned on purpose.
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