Just read this on David’s Blog which doesn’t sound very encouraging:
Roquetas town hall has taken advantage of a renegotiation with the private company that runs its stray animal shelter to cut its budget in half, this year to only €75,000, as part of its 2009 Austerity Budget.
As a result, the management company intends to drop the time it keeps animals from 27 days to only 10 days, before they are put down. The centre will now also charge the public a flat rate of €20 to pick up animals or collect strays. The centre will also slash its opening hours, which means that if the local police or firemen catch an animal they will have to keep them in cages until the shelter opens, sometimes over the weekend.
The manager of the shelter, Miguel Castillo, points out that these cuts are the only way to keep going, and reminds us that each animal costs Roquetas del Mar an average of €70.
He’s also setup a blog where he updates us with pictures of cute animals and news from the shelter.
I tink in the Newe Year we will touch base with Miguel and see what he does.
With the new call to “Austerity” in the 2009 town hall budgets expect to see a lot more of this sort of thing – most shelters are run privately, but as the contracts come up for renegotiation the mayors will do whatever they can to slash the spending
I fear you may be right 🙁 Everything we do is self funded or funded by volunteers and fund raising events. Is good to know about these shelters though.