IS ANYONE GOING TO SOLVE THE DOG BARKING AND FOULING ISSUE IN THE PORT/MARINA? - Page 3

Kerri wrote on Thu Jul 8, 2021 12:37pm:

You are correct in saying that we should not generalize that it is only the Spanish who mistreat animals.  It is a human condition and a global problem.  Certainly there are many Spanish who are amazing pet owners and who work tirelessly in support of improved laws here in Spain to prot...

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...ect animals from cruelty and neglect.  I know many of them.

From my personal experience in Spain with animal neglect is that the authorities do little, if anything, to protect communities from the noise this neglect causes.  There appears to be little effort made to stop people letting their dogs shit anywhere, even busy sidewalks. 

Also there is this common 'theme' tossed around that Spain is a noisy place and that dogs bark all the time and that is the way it is.  I have had dogs all my life and they do not bark all the time - sometimes yes - all the time definitely not.  Its the caged dogs that have no human contact and the ones left all day every day on terraces and constrained in small apartments that bark in despair all the time, many hungry, thirsty and lonely.  There are laws in place which are not upheld by the authorities. [Perhaps this is because the laws were created by the EU and not by the Spanish authorities directly.]

I do not believe that the acceptance of animal neglect and cruelty should be encouraged under any condition.  Animals need a voice and we who care about them are all they have, wherever in the world they live and whichever culture their human owners come from.

SSJ wrote on Thu Jul 8, 2021 7:38pm:

Agreed entirely.  There are dog owners from all nationalities who are utterly irresponsible and stupid.  To train a dog just seems common sense to me,  we train our children when they are young.  I also agree wholeheartedly with the contributor who said if a dog is continuousl...

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...y barking it is unhappy, yes probably neglected and/or lonely.  

To sum up - I definitely don't blame only the Spanish, not at all.  Most love animals, I find.  However, it is very unusual to hear continuous barking in the UK - due the laws around noise pollution. Owners get 3 warnings and then the animal is taken away.  Regarding dogs fouling the sidewalks - they just don't because there are signs everywhere and fines are served on the spot! 

I have to say - the law is different in Barcelona, where I used to live - the sidewalks were washed every single day - incredibly clean - not a leaf, not one single cigarette butt where I used to live.  The law is the law there and if a dog is seen off the leash, police STOP and issue a fine, no questions asked.  It works extremely well.   I don't remember it being any different in all the 5 years I lived there. 

3melanie wrote on Fri Jul 9, 2021 8:35am:

I am from Canada and we don’t have this problem. The police respond promptly to dog noise complaints. We are returning there, even after getting residency, one if the main reasons is the continuous multi dog barking. As stated earlier,dogs  bark for a reason, and hearing animals in distres...

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...s,day and night has ended our enjoyment of living here. And yes we have tried to remedy this.Also although many of the dogs are owned by non Spanish, the animal cruelty we have witnessed here by some of the  Spanish ,is unacceptable .

Kerri wrote on Fri Jul 9, 2021 10:04am:

Hi Melanie,  I am from Canada too.  Let your dog poop on the sidewalk there and people will ambush you!  There are no stray cats running around neighbourhoodss, dead on the road continuously and all the other terrible things that go on here with animals in plain sight.

Where I live here there are numerous caged dogs belonging to so called Hunters in the hills and valleys around the town - alone, starving, thirsty, desperate! The acceptance of this is abhorrent to me but not to the locals here.  Many nice people are all related to hunters and of course...

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... the powers that be. No amount of denuncia has changed a thing for these poor animals. 

There are so many great things about life here but the animal problem is becoming increasingly tiring and being a foreigner....well enough said.

Barcelona sounds like a nice clean place to live though. :)

SSJ wrote on Fri Feb 11, 2022 11:36am:

Hi Melanie, 

I agree totally.  Poor, desperate animals caged and left in that state is unacceptable.  Don't they have an equal organisation to the RSPCA in the UK?  If this happened in the UK, the owners would be found, fined and refused the right to keep animals for life! 

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Regarding life in Barcelona.  I lived there for 5 years.  The dogs/animals are the same but worse is the politics surrounding the divide between Catalunyans and Spanish.  We were not liked if we spoke Castellano and we were certainly not helped - my daughter had to leave her physio treatment as the therapist refused to talk to her in any language but Catalan - even all the medical signs etc were in Catalan and even product labels and receipts in the supermarkets were Catalan!  I don't even want to return to visit! 

3melanie wrote on Fri Jul 9, 2021 8:35am:

I am from Canada and we don’t have this problem. The police respond promptly to dog noise complaints. We are returning there, even after getting residency, one if the main reasons is the continuous multi dog barking. As stated earlier,dogs  bark for a reason, and hearing animals in distres...

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...s,day and night has ended our enjoyment of living here. And yes we have tried to remedy this.Also although many of the dogs are owned by non Spanish, the animal cruelty we have witnessed here by some of the  Spanish ,is unacceptable .

MoandBella wrote on Wed Nov 23, 2022 12:57am:

i live in a spanish village and the amount of dog barking some days and evenings and during the night is off the scale. I have moments of sadness every single day because of the unhappy dogs left to bark relentlessly.  There are several here that bark for hours and hours with barely any rest...

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....  They are stressed, bored, lonely sad and so on and I as an animal lover get upset by it everyday. if parts of Spain deal with the problem, why cant all parts.

Kerri wrote on Wed Nov 23, 2022 7:47am:

Unfortunately there are no authorities dealing with this problem (except for the Animal Rights organizations!!). The problem is that so called 'hunters' keep these dogs in cages, alone, cold, with barely what you can call shelter, stale bread to eat and full of their own feces.  So yes, they...

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... are extremely stressed.  Its a heart breaking situation for cultures that are not used to this type of animal treatment being ok for everyone.  Even people who have their own dogs and love them, look the other way at the suffering of these dogs.

There are no laws to protect these dogs because they are, as I said "so called hunters" dogs.  They are part of the Spanish culture and no one can tell me differently because I have been up one side of this issue and down the other for years.  I have reported this to Seprona, who came out, a few minor - but good - adjustments were made. I have reported it to the Ayuntamiento who ignored it because the council are all related to the families that own the land that these dogs are kept on.

Short story:  Nothing will be done to stop this abuse/neglect of dogs until the Spanish people recognize it as abuse/neglect and decide to put their weight against it.  Bringing our foreign idea of sentient beings into the equation is, unfortunately, a waste of time.

Maybe it will take the next generation of Spanish people with a different education and more foreigners around to bring this issue repeatedly to light but truly change will take place when the Spanish themselves open their hearts to the suffering of these animals and pressurize the authorities to take action.  Sorry to have to write all this but it must be said.

I replaced my doors at huge cost to block out the barking.  It was that or move.

MoandBella wrote on Wed Nov 23, 2022 8:47am:

Its why I am moving.  I agree that authorities being related to families etc is common in a small village. I moved to Spain on the understanding it was the law to keep dogs inside and quiet between night time hours or you were fined....but boy that is so not true here and I and the dogs have...

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... suffered for 18 months 😔