TenerifeDogs.com have recently received some emails equiring about videos showing cruelty to, and abuse of dogs which has allegedly been happening in a refuge for stray dogs in Tenerife.
Perhaps because TenerifeDogs is a website that is very easily found on the internet, people from all over the world have been getting in touch for more information, and even asking if the website might be linked to these videos in some way. I just would like to say that TenerifeDogs.com is neither a refuge, nor an animal rights campaigning group, but a website that aims to help ALL the local refuges to find new homes for as many dogs as possible.
We have seen these videos and they do show some horrendous scenes of cruelty and dogs being kept in appallingly overcrowded conditions. Because of this, there have been some comments that suggest that it is typical of the way that Spanish people treat their dogs.
This is a dangerous generalisation, and a bit like saying that because there is evidence * of cruelty in some care homes in the UK, then British people must be child abusers (
* eg the recent video broadcast on BBC news of abuse in a children's home near Bristol). Unfortunately cruelty, abuse, and appallingly bad management can and do happen anywhere and everywhere in the world (or to put it another way; "sheet happens !").
I gather that the UK care home has now closed and will only re-open with a change of name and new staff. The people involved in the abuse are no longer there, and will probably be prosecuted, which is clearly the only way that the home could start afresh.
A solution has also recently been found for the Live Arico dog refuge, involving a change of management and re-location to a new site.
There have been problems at LA for quite a few years. In 2010 after a visit, we posted on this website
(LINK) that the dogs were in a bit of a sad state. The reason we wrote about this was not to take sides, but to pose some questions for all those involved to think about carefully:
1. Is it better for dogs to live in overcrowded (and potentially worse) conditions in rescue kennels, or are they better off on the street fending for themselves ?
2. If LA were to be closed down, then where would the dogs go ? Presumably a lot of them would have too be put down, so is this a viable option ? nb of course some dogs from LA do indeed find homes eventually.
3. Then there's the difficult and controversial issue of Euthanasia. Is it better to keep alive say an elderly dog with a terminal illness ? or a dog which is aggressive / potentially vicious and is very unlikely to find a home ? Keeping it alive might well be detrimental to the other dogs in the kennels. Is it more cruel to keep a dog alive when it can have no real quality of life, than it is to 'put it to sleep' ?
So, these were the questions that we posed in 2010, and if you go to the
link, you'll see that it started a very full and open debate.
Unfortunately the problems weren't solved, and in fact, as the videos allegedly show, only got worse. But at least this is now out in the open, and as mentioned, a solution has been found. The LA dogs are now being looked after by Fedcapap
LINK at a new refuge in Fasnia. TenerifeDogs wishes them well, and hopes that this situation never happens again !
We will continue to do our bit to help find good homes for as many dogs as possible, and also to try and get people to be responsible dog owners.
.....I will not put any comments up that have bad language or are not worded in a reasoned way....
