Thank you Ian for pointing out this newspaper article which I read with interest.
My own opinion on this matter of animal welfare is that we had a perfectly good set of arrangements in place prior to the latest elections. IF IT IS NOT BROKEN, THEN WHY MEND IT?
Frankly I am somewhat diss-interested in the conditions at Cereco Dog Pound, we should not be using these facilities at all. Having said that it is good to hear that the facilities do seem to be improving.
After all that has been said on this subject of animal welfare, the lies that Jeff has told us about the relationship with K9 and the whereabouts and future use of our animal ambulance I am totally amazed to read that it has taken him and his collegue Marian 4 months to even visit the Cereco facility!
I like others have noticed an increase in the numbers of stray cats and dogs on our Urbanisation allowing me to conclude that whatever the "Cereco arrangements" are they simply are not working.
Precicely the same as the contract with our parks and gardens contractors, Jeff now admits that the "K9" arrangements were immediately cancelled by the new council, seemingly both agreements were far to expensive, resulting in our urbanisation seeing more and more stray animals and pavements, roads and parks looking like the Australian outback!
For goodness sake if you are intending to cancel contracts then make sure that the new arrangements are in place and function as we would expect them to do?
I know that I have referred to this before, however, I am taking this opportunity to do so again. If we as a community are as strapped for money, as we are being told we are, if fully functional contracts and agreements are being cancelled Willy Nilly only to save money then how do our politicians justify the appointment of 5 advisors to principally Jeff, although we are told that each have duties elsewhere, how do our politicians justify the creation of local offices such as the one in Calle Madrid? Finally I would ask if anyone has seen any positive, indeed any results at all from either our politicians or their advisors since either there election or there being employed?

You are obviously who I think you are Angelique. I for one am pleased that we have an office that we can go to on the Urbanisation. We may not always get the answers we want to hear but at least we can go and talk to someone, which is an improvement on the old council.

Jeff has the right idea in that the Human beings must come first. Animals need looking after but the first priority must be to the people who pay for all this in the first place.
If all animals were chipped then the owners could be prosecuted and the money would come from the ex owners who caused this.

I totally agree with Peter and Jeff,that humans come before all animals,But why isnt any dog owner fined for allowing their dog to mess in public areas,when the c**p they leave behind is so dangerous healthwise to small children

Funnily enough I had a friend over 2 weeks ago and he commented that the area around the Urb is very tidy. Now I’m sure if I had wanted I could have taken him to some areas of the Urb that were not so tidy & litter free but most of this is caused by the residents in these areas.
As for dog’s I have always been a dog lover but as has been said earlier there are greater human needs than pet needs, I would also like the people who let their dogs mess the pavements should be find but then again who is going to enforce it and at what cost.

Can anyone please let me know, why we have to pay for a tag for my Dogs & Cats to San Fulgencio town, when they are micro chipped.

I am not certain of the answer Susan,But I remember reading,that if a stray ends up with the police they will only check for a chip once,if it is not found the animal will be taken by the company who are contracted by the council to take all stray dogs.By having a tag it gives another means for the police to contact the owner
I am not sure that the police actually carry a chip decoder,but i believe they use certain vets to do this,and if the animal is found out of vets working hours,The tag would be a good second
way to locate the owner.
My only worry would be ,is that if the animal does not have a tag the police would assume it is a stray,and it would end up in the Cereco facility,and the owners would have no idea about it.

In reply to Susan, The tag scheme was introduced by the previous governing group so that it would make it easier to identify dogs and owners, as the chip only registers the details of the owner at the time the animal was chipped.
The tag system could assist in reuniting lost pets with their owners.
In reply to weejohnten, Starting in the next few days, the Town Hall is commencing with a program of trying to educate the wayward dog owners, to clean up their dog's mess. This will cover the next few weeks. After this period there will be a period of enforcement and any owners reported by neighbours, witnesses or the Police will be traced and fined.
Did you know that when dog mess is washed away by the rains, it flows into the canals, which irrigate our fields, poison our estuaries and contaminate fish and shell fish populations for a considerable area? The Environmental Protection Agency of America, class dog mess in the same category as oil and chemical spills. So not only does the problem of dog mess, impact on the health and wellbeing of humans and animals it also has a considerable effect on our environment. So if you are one of the ones responsible it is time to clean up your act. If you see others acting irresponsibly, tell them to pick it up. If they don’t, report them.

jeff,Thanks for your in depth reply,It is really good to hear that at last a council is taking seriously the seriousness of dogs mess,You have put it in such a way the people must realise just how serious this issue is to everyone,even the most wayward of dog owners must realise that they may be harming people.I just hope that a few owners are fined.and it is made public the amount they are fined,it is also important to make people aware they are doing the general public a favour in reporting these people to the authorities.

Jeff I am a little concerned that individuals can report their neighbours for dog fouling. This can be a very dangerous practice as it can be used by nasty minded people to get at someone they have a grudge against. Please believe me it does happen. I think the first thing the council need to do is to stop the Spanish people letting their dogs out on their own to foul the paths etc. I know it is their country but they should be asked to toe the line as well. If you go to Almoradi and Dolores you will see more dog mess there than in La marina, and in Almoradi there is about 21,000 spanish people to under 2,000 brits.