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The animal pound at Roquetas del Mar is to offer, until the 15^th of Feb, subsidised animal spaying for domestic pets, to help keep down the number of unwanted (and then dumped) pets. Information and participating vets available online at: http://centrozoosanitarioroquetas.blogspot.com/

Worth remembering that the pound has had its budget slashed by 50% for 2009, so they are desperate to keep the number of strays down. Any stray handed in there now has 10 days to be returned to its owner / adopted before being put down.

Roquetas town hall has taken advantadge of a renegotiation with the private company that runs its stray animal shelter to cut its budget in half, this year to only €75,000, as part of its 2009 Austerity Budget.

As a result, the management company intends to drop its time it keeps animals from 27 days to only 10 days, before they are put down. The centre will now also charge the public a flat rate of €20 to pick up animals or collect strays. The centre will also slash its opening hours, which means that if the local police or firemen catch an animal they will have to keep them in cages until the shelter opens, sometimes over the weekend.

The manager of the shelter, Miguel Castillo, points out that these cuts are the only way to keep going, and reminds us that each animal costs Roquetas del Mar an average of €70.

He’s also setup a blog where he updates us with pictures of cute animals and news from the shelter, you can see it at http://centrozoosanitarioroquetas.blogspot.com/.

The Mayor & Corporation of Cantoria has passed a bylaw permitting the fining of dog owners who leave their pets poo in the street. All well and good. However, in declarations to La Voz, Pedro Llamas (the mayor) said that while he welcomes the new expat members of the community, the Brits tend to be animal lovers who bring large number of pets with them who then foul the area, and are later abandoned “which causes the Diputacion great problems in catching the strays”.

While the first thing that jumps out is that it seems that only in Cantoria does the Diputacion actually carry out its stray catching duties, I’m not sure why he seems to think that only the Brits let their dogs foul the streets?

Albox town hall, possibly in an attempt to divert attention away from the water fiasco, has announced plans to setup a registry of pets.

They will pay the Vet Guild €743,35 annually in exchange for the guild informing them of all the details of all pets chipped (which must be done by law!) in Albox. This will allow the local police to identify the owners of any pets that are found “Out and About”, or, indeed, biting someone.

It will also allow the town hall to identify the owners of dangerous pets and allow the Policia Local to pop round to the owners flat for a cup of tea and a check that they are being kept safely.