In the future, more abandoned dogs will be available in Finland than before, because the Spanish animal welfare law will change soon.
This is the opinion of representatives of Finnish dog rescue associations, the executive director of Galgos del Fénix and a veterinarian Tanja Hakkarainen and board member of the Spanish Street Dogs Association Miina Pellinen. Both associations bring abandoned dogs, i.e. rescue dogs, from Spain to Finland, where they are looking for a home for the rest of their lives.
The new law protects pets better than the current one, but hunting dogs and other working animals, for example, are excluded from the law. Among other things, the law has been covered in the news news agency Reuters. (you switch to another service)
– It came as a shock that the change proceeded as it did, Hakkarainen says.
– This has been a terrible shock for those doing international animal protection work and those who protect dogs in Spain, Pellinen says.
According to Hakkarainen, approximately 60 percent of dogs and a large number of other animals are excluded from the law. He says that there are an estimated one and a half million dogs in Spain. The exact number is not known because most of the dogs have not been chipped.
The lower house of the Spanish Parliament recently approved the law. The law will next go to the upper house of parliament, where it is expected to pass.
– The possibility that it will not go through is really small, says Hakkarainen.
Dogs of hard fate
The status of hunting dogs in Spain is already miserable. Until now, the autonomous regions of Spain have had their own animal protection regulations, which have been able to protect hunting dogs as well.
– The progress that has been made locally will be reset when the national legislation comes into force, says Hakkarainen.
In Spain, tens of thousands of hunting dogs are killed and abandoned each year.
– Some hunters see a hunting dog only as a disposable tool, says Pellinen.
Hunting dogs are used in the Spanish countryside, especially for hare hunting. Galgos, or Spanish greyhounds, are competed for example by letting two dogs go after a hare and seeing which one reaches the hare first. Which of the dogs is faster is more important than the catch.
The best hunting dogs can be turned into puppy machines after their hunting career, because hunters always only wish for more winning hunting dogs. According to Hakkarainen, curbing mass littering would be the best way to improve the situation of hunting dogs, but the future law will not intervene.
Pellinen fears that the change in the law will make the treatment of dogs even worse. In his opinion, leaving hunting dogs out of the law sends a message to hunters. Even now hunting dogs are found drowned, hanged, burned and thrown into wells. Some hunters believe that the brutal disposal of a bad hunting dog brings hunting luck.
– It is worrying that dogs are abandoned even worse than before, says Pellinen.
More rejects
Hakkarainen and Pellinen believe that the entry into force of the law will increase the number of abandoned dogs.
– I thought about whether we will be able to respond in sufficient numbers and in the way we want to the requests for help, if the need for help increases even more. Even at the moment, we are not able to help everyone, even if we wanted to, says Pellinen.
Hunting dogs are adopted in many countries in Europe, but currently there are too few people adopting dogs. Hakkarainen and Pellinen say that more than usual abandoned dogs are currently waiting for a home in Finland in a temporary care facility.
– The current world situation and, for example, economic difficulties and uncertainty about the future may cause a slowdown in adoptions, says Pellinen.
The rescue association Galgos del Fénix brings 60–100 galgos from Spain to Finland a year. In recent years, through Spanish street dogs, a few tens have come to Finland to closer to a hundred dogs a year.
In Spain, a national animal protection law is going through.
When the new law is implemented, for example:
These laws do not apply to hunting dogs and other working animals.
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