Category: Regulations

  • PACMA – protestng about the Royal Decree 666/2023

    PACMA logo 400
    PACMA – we want to tell you that on 5th March 2025 we have presented a proposal for an urgent modification of the terrible Royal Decree 666/2023 of the Government, which has generated enormous discomfort among veterinarians and animal guardians. There are many inconsistencies to correct.

    Why is this decree a problem?

    It requires notification of each veterinary prescription through the PRESVET system, including animals considered companion animals, when the European Regulation excludes them.

    It requires pathogen identification tests for certain antibiotics, which delays treatments and is costing animal lives.

    It imposes mandatory identification of animals for the administration of medications, making it difficult to treat community cats and abandoned animals. Such as where cats in a feral community are caught, neutered and returned to their community.

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  • Taking your dog, cat or ferret abroad – Animal Health Certificate needed every trip

    Brexit has a lot to answer for, not thought out and making an unholy mess of countless things linking the UK to the rest of Europe. Travelling from the UK to Europe with your dog gets ever more complicated. You need to get a certificate a minimum of 10 days before you travel, and a certificate for every time you do!!

    This weblink takes you to information about an Animal Health Certificate.

  • E-Collars and Podencos: Why We Must Push for the UK Ban

    E collars and podencos 350
    From a post by Bev Farmer of Podenco Friends

    The Use of E-Collars on Podencos: what are your thoughts about using them?

    On the attached photo a question was put to a advocate of e-collars .. Why would you use E.Collar on a podenco that has been abused ? The answer was extremely disturbing. Please read the reply on the photo.

    The Reality of Rescue: Healing the Broken

    Every Podenco that enters rescue has a story—often one of neglect, fear, and survival. We spend months rehabilitating them, earning their trust, and helping them recover both physically and emotionally. These dogs, already so fragile, should never be subjected to training methods that rely on pain and fear.

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  • Madrid – a hellhole for podencos discovered by Guardia Civil

    Guardia Civil podenco 1 2025 400
    MADRID

    Investigating a hunter from Cadalso de los Vidrios for animal abuse after finding three dead puppies and 11 other injured dogs.
    The owner had the animals unidentified and without any document control.

    Agents of the Madrid Civil Guard have investigated a 44-year-old hunter for a crime of animal abuse when locating in the municipality of Cadalso de los Vidrios (Madrid) last January 8 three corpses of a puppy dog and 11 podencos with injuries to legs, ears and one with extreme thinness.

    https://goo.su/Y5Y9

  • Looking back on 2024

    Beryl 5 dogs 400
    So another year draws to a close. Another year when the Spanish government has done nothing to protect the hunting dogs, their over-breeding, the cruelty of the galgueros, using them just as a hunting tool and discarding at the end of January when hunting in Spain finishes each year. Thousands abandoned in the campo, dumped in perreras, dumped outside shelters.

    One difference in my 15 years involved with the plight of the galgos and podencos is that there aren’t the hangings in olive groves which there used to be. The bad publicity has possibly been one influencing factor, plus the increase in shelters and rescue associations to help these wonderful dogs to find forever homes around the world.

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  • The Waste of Spanish Society by Ed Verhaegen, founder of Podencoworld

    This is an article written by Ed Verhaegan published in Laverdad, an Alicante newspaper, in 2010. Sadly 14 years on the situation hasn’t changed and currently there are protests about municipal perreras being handed over to a private company which has a bad reputation for its treatment of dogs from the day they arrive.

    ‘The waste of Spanish society

    Valencia, FEDENVA wants to change the law on stray animals, adaptation of the law implies that the collection and housing of stray and abandoned animals by private commercial hands, to earn this money. This means mass slaughter of stray animals in which starved will come to an end because the only purpose of these commercial companies make money. It will be the animals provided with minimal care and they will want to get rid of the cheapest possible way of animals. Valencia-The Federation for Animal Valencia (FEDENVA) wants the collection and care of stray and abandoned animals to be managed by non-profit organizations and not “by commercial companies whose goal is to make money.”

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  • Justice for Podenco Mr Bones – a call for change

    Mr Bones 400 11 2024
    From Bev Farmer

    ‘This is a long but important post and it would be greatly appreciated if you can share it. Paws on Hearts/Aguiproan Animal Rescue And Rehoming

    As a rescuer, this is one of our greatest fears. Many rescues, including Paws on Hearts Animal Rescue and Rehoming, work tirelessly to ensure their dogs are safe, even after rehoming. A common practice is to dual-register microchips in both the adopter’s name and the rescue’s name. In theory, this system ensures that both parties must be consulted before a rescue dog is euthanised.

    But tragically, this safeguard failed Mr. Bones. He is not the first rescue dog to be euthanised without a rescue’s knowledge or consent — and heartbreakingly, he won’t be the last unless change is made.

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  • SOS Galgos – protest against the Spanish Animal Protection Act 7/2023

    SOS Galgos campaign 400 10 2024
    SOS GALGOS (oficial)

    One year after its implementation, we protest the Animal Protection Act 7/2023, a law that denies hunting greyhounds rights and sentences them to a lifetime of suffering. Come on, that’s a f*cking law.

    Become a partner to protect the greyhound from this unfair law!

    Protest with us by sharing the campaign so that everyone knows what is happening with the greyhound.

    #Noscagamosenlaley

    (The link is on Instagram, apparently)

  • Protectora Scooby – summer newsletter – Animal Rescue Transitions To ‘Bureaucrazy’

    Scooby shelter from above 400

    Fermin writes.

    As many of you know, the Scooby shelter grew organically from doing the best we could with limited resources and still
    making tangible improvements for our rescued animals, nursing them back from the brink to overcome sickness and
    adversity to become dogs and cats well enough to go to loving adoption families. Yes we had tragedies but our small team
    shared the work and helped the animals to a better life. I still remember a volunteer vet from Scotland, in the twilight of his
    career, telling me to welcome volunteer vets but crucially to make sure they had solid experience because in a ‘field’
    medical setting, she said we’d need people who were skilled to work with what’s available, rather than the early career medical professionals who would not yet be ready to work in a situation needing ingenuity and technical resourcefulness. I still remember this vet stitching by candlelight when we were blighted with power cuts.

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  • Protectora Scooby – summer newsletter – Declining Adoptions, Rescues & Donations

    SOS Galgos 400 6 2024
    From Fermin.

    ‘We collaborate with 10 – 15 partners internationally who help us fromtime to time to home our rescued dogs and cats in their countries. This is much needed because it is impossible for us to home dogs and cats in significant number in Spain. Shelters like ours cannot operate without international adoptions.

    We, like our adoption artners and fellow shelters around the globe, are witnessing a decline in home offers. We have noticed this trend over the years since 2019/20 and attributed it to the many pets homed during the COVID period. But it is a continuing trajectory and we suspect there may be more to it than a simple glut. It is now so acute that we cannot rescue as many dogs and cats as in prior years or indeed those now in adversity because our refuge is at capacity. It is simple if we don’t move dogs and cats to families, we will not have accommodation space for those in need of rescue.

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