The Association of Municipal Vets has warned about the “absurd” numbers of animals – some 50,000 per year, that are collected from the streets.


According to Ricardo Lobo, one of the directors of the Association of Municipal Vets, in 2017 and 2018 the number of animals collected by official collection centres (CRO) was around 41,000 and 36,000, respectively, while the number of adoptions is 17 thousand animals annually.


“The number of abandoned animals, which we are asked to collect, is still at a perfectly absurd level, which is why kennels can’t collect them,” Lobo told Lusa.


“Besides carrying a cost that the country is not prepared to bear, it doesn’t make any sense to build more kennels - each municipality would have to build “two or three kennels every year,” to house all its abandoned animals.


As well as sterilisation policies, Ricardo Lobo considered that the fight against the increase of stray animals is to educate people, which will take a long time to happen.


“We have a lack of general education about what it is to own pets,” said Ricardo Lobo, reiterating the need to create laws of supervision, punishment and awareness.


According to the vet, it is possible to “change mentalities” through awareness campaigns in schools.


“We can change mentalities. We can change perceptions of what it is like to have a pet, so that children don’t have to pressure their parents to acquire a pet without them having the proper conditions”, he said.


Ricardo Lobo sees the future with some “apprehension”, because of the accumulation of dogs on the streets, which can transmit diseases and attack people.


Animals on the streets are prone to transmit diseases, he recalled, warning of the vaccination of all animals, in order to stagnate the propensity of diseases such as rabies, which exists in “North Africa and the Maghreb”.


The president of the Order of Veterinary Doctors, Jorge Cid, has accused the authorities of failing to comply with the law that requires the collection of abandoned animals, because of overcrowding in the official collection centres.


“The law is not being carried out,” he said, “the law requires stray animals to be collected by the competent authorities - Municipalities, PSP and GNR”, adding that this is not happening because they “have no place to put them”.


In September last year, the law prohibiting the killing of animals in kennels began to be applied in Portugal, a 2016 law that also provides for the creation of a network of official animal collection centres.


According to the president, during the transitional period of two years, between 2016 and 2018, there was no concern of the entities in controlling the abandonment of animals.


“For two years little has been done. When the measure came into force the kennels were already overcrowded and, therefore, it was already known that this problem would not be resolved ”, said the president, who still considered the law beneficial.


Jorge Cid also acknowledged the need to create a working group capable of controlling the situation and building more collection centres.
“We have to set up a working group with a number of stakeholders who are knowledgeable about drastically reducing the number of abandoned animals,” he said. “It is not acceptable in a developed European country to have abandoned animals”.


The president has ensured that stray animals pose a danger to the population, as well as to other animals, particularly those of livestock origin and went so far as to advise people to avoid outlying areas of cities and rural areas, where packs of dogs can be found, so as not to risk being attacked.


“There are many kinds of stray animals. There are those who are inside cities and towns, who are protected by the people of the neighbourhood, who have food and are generally tame animals, and then there are the animals from the peripheries, which gather in packs and pose a threat,” he said.


In January this year, the National Association of Municipal Veterinary Physicians highlighted the existence of “waiting lists” in the municipal kennels, making it impossible to collect abandoned animals.


Meanwhile, Animalife, a voluntary organisation working with abandoned pets, has defended the need to offer support for poorer families with dependent animals and animal adoption as means to combat animal abandonment.


In a statement, the association, created in 2011, considers that the measures provided by the current legislation “are not the most appropriate to put an end to the problem of abandonment of pets.


“The solution to abandonment should include measures such as supporting families in situations of extreme economic need with dependent animals and promoting awareness campaigns calling for adoption instead of purchase,” argues the association.


President of Animalife, Rodrigo Livreiro, stresses that to prevent abandonment, action should be taken. Support for needy families is the first preventive measure.


“We know that many of the animals that are delivered to the CRO are because of lack of financial resources”.


Regarding sterilisation, the president of Animalife advocates that it be extended to animals with owners, “to avoid unwanted litters, especially of animals from people with few financial resources”.


In this regard, Rodrigo Livreiro regretted the reduced investment in campaigns to support the sterilisation of dogs and cats.
“In April last year, the government approved a campaign to support the sterilisation of companion dogs and cats, for a total value of €500,000. By the end of the year, just over half of the available funds had been used,” he said.

Author

Originally from the UK, Daisy has been living and working in Portugal for more than 20 years. She has worked in PR, marketing and journalism, and has been the editor of The Portugal News since 2019. Jornalista 7920

Daisy Sampson