Authorities are currently probing a line of animal cruelty and are investigating to identify who could be responsible for the dogs’ ordeals.
On Wednesday this week Commander Santos Pereira of the Portimão Maritime Police, who are heading the investigation, told The Portugal News there were no new leads or developments to report.
Last Tuesday (7 April) a brown and white male dog was spotted stuck halfway down a rock face on the coastline near the Ferragudo lighthouse.
The dog is said to have had a brick tied round its neck and is believed to have been purposely thrown off the precipice by a perpetrator or perpetrators who intentionally wanted to kill the animal.
He was rescued by the Lagoa fire-brigade, shaken and frail but otherwise having suffered only minor injuries. After a couple of days’ rest and recovery the dog was found a new home.
Four days later, on Saturday, a second dog was thrown off a 55-metre cliff from a nearby spot in the same area. It too was sighted stranded halfway down the cliff face and rescued by Lagoa fire-fighters, but had suffered severe injuries that required surgery.
On Monday a three-and-a-half-hour operation to the animal’s spine was carried out by a veterinary clinic in the neighbouring village of Carvoeiro, where its ongoing treatment is being funded by donations.
After the operation the Villapet Clinic said that the surgery had gone well but it was still too early to know if the dog will have lasting movement problems, and it still faces a long road to recovery.
On Wednesday this week the animal , given the name ‘Chico’, was still doing well and has received a number of offers of adoption.
In the wake of the “inhumane” incidents, the Parish of Ferragudo has launched an appeal to “help us find the criminal”, which has been shared more than 150 times on Facebook.
“Last week inhumane acts involving animals were committed in the Parish and the perpetrators are unknown, though it is believed, however, that they were carried out by the same individual, or individuals, because of the state of mistreatment of the animals.
“It is believed that this situation does not involve the citizens of Ferragudo and that our territory has been used only as a place of ‘crime’, but we appeal to anyone who has clues about the subject”, the Parish wrote.
Speaking to The Portugal News, Parish Mayor Luís Alberto reiterated the suspicions.
“It is presumed that it was the same person or persons [who committed the acts] and they are not from here, but they could have been here while looking after a property”, he explained.
Ferragudo has in recent years dealt with other high-profile animal-related incidents.
Most recently, in 2013, the locale made headlines after a man on a bicycle was allegedly attacked by a pack of stray dogs that occupied an area surrounding nearby fishing docks.
At the time the Parish held a series of meetings with local authorities and associations to try and resolve the situation.
As a result some of the dogs were taken in by associations or re-homed but others were left behind, and while today, the Mayor says, the animals are “more controlled”, the continuation of “small packs” of stray dogs and cats in the village still fuels some discontent.
“We are trying to find ways for the dogs to be removed in a dignified manner so that we can also verify whether they can be adopted”, Alberto says.
He believes the ideal solution would be to find a plot of municipal land to where the stray dogs could be moved.
Exacerbating the issue further, he adds, are people who use the welcoming village as a dumping ground for unwanted pets.
Three years ago Ferragudo implemented an initiative to control its cat colonies, which has so far this year seen around 20 cats sterilised with close to eighty cats sterilised since its launch.
The Parish is now looking to introduce shelters for its street cats, made from recyclable materials, which will resemble “typical Algarvian houses.”
While being a backer of Lagoa municipality’s increasingly animal-friendly approach, Mayor Alberto admits that complaints about the village’s strays – and the noise and mess they create – continue to arise.
He reasons, “We cannot be radicalists, to one extreme or the other; animals have their place and so do humans. In Ferragudo both have always lived side-by-side – fishermen, dogs and cats. However, things have evolved over the years and there are situations that cannot continue if we want to maintain the flow and settling of people.”
Readers who would like to make a donation towards Chico’s care can visit the Villapet facebook page (Villapet Clinica Veterinaria), or pop into the clinic on Rua do Barranco, Lote 9, Loja D, Carvoeiro, Lagoa.