Tyron the pitbull
by VM
.Animal welfare has hit the headlines again this week. The animal care policies in local council pounds have come under investigation on a Mallorcan television programme. This has come as the outcome of the news of the death of a healthy animal which had been living in the Calvia council dog pound for the past four years. The animal in question, Tyron, was a pitbull and had been put in the pound following an alleged incident. The animal and owner were acquitted of any wrong doing, but the dog was never released from the pound, and stayed there for four years until he was put down earlier this year by the council appointed veterinarian. Now local animal lovers and refuge volunteers have got together to start a campaign to highlight the living conditions of the council pounds and their seeming unwillingness to collaborate with the volunteers and charitable refuges that are all over the island.
“The councils don’t live up to their own code of conduct for pet owners,” said Angela Pryce a local campaigner for animal rights. “In particular the animals are supposed to get exercise and socialisation, but they don’t get the chance. This means that the animals in the council pounds start to develop behavioural problems”. The local voluntary refuge in Calvia, SOS Animal has volunteered to take over the care and management of the animals currently residing in the council pound but this offer had been turned down. “A lot of people don’t even realise there ARE council pounds, so the animals in there don’t tend to get adopted,” said Angela. “What was proposed did not involve the Town Hall and rate payers having to pay for it, the volunteers only needed access to the council pound. No money was needed to let volunteers walk the animals that are caged there. There is no need to open the public treasury to place the dogs by size or “character” in the cages … the politicians and officials only needed the will to do it”. The campaigners are currently collecting signatures: you can sign the petition at one of several veterinary surgeries in the South West, just go to your local one and ask.
Or visit http://www.change.org/es/peticiones/en-memoria-de-tyron-in-memory-of-tyron to sign the online petition.
On a happier note, several of the kittens that needed to find homes have now been adopted! There are of course many, many more kittens and puppies which need new homes, so please visit the Pet Project site to find your local refuge. Next week: we will feature the Centro Canino and their hard working volunteers.
An extra point …. we even offered to photograph and categorize the dogs FREE OF CHARGE and put them in the Albums we have circulating all over facebook, to facilitate their adoptions or reunion with worried owners. The answer was NO. We did not ask them to spend money doing it themselves. However at a meeting with the Mayor and 4 of his Counselors on 12th April 2012 the Mayor said they would do it …. and gave me his word there and then .. that the dog Pound would be online by 31st May ….. yes 2012!! It, of course, is not.
Also due to their not being vaccinated, some pups were put into a cage very very recently where there had been Parvo ( I ask you!! ) …. as a result one adopted one died and 5 are fighting for thier little lives at a local Vets. Could the councill employees not have used their heads and put them in a different cage??? Could the Municipal Vet Batiste Alemañy not have vaccinated them ? ( Vaccinations are later charged to the adopting home, as in all Pounds and Refuges ).
We have 2 petitions active. One is physical and needs your signature . The other is now Worldwide, and in 3 days has reached 1,000 signatures. People are interested in what is happening on our well known Island. If you are an animal lover I ask you from the heart to please sign them. This is the only way we can change things. Thank you.
The 5 pups died today. There was no need for this. How many more ????
How sad is that Angela, how very stupid of those people to put the pups into that cage. Thought people had developed more on this island?!!!!!!
LATE NEWS. This has been on TV twice and they questioned the Town Hall, whose only feeble answer was he belonged to a race of dangerous dogs!!!
BEWARE DOG OWNERS IN CALVIA MALLORCA ….. MEASURE YOUR DOGS CHEST!!!!