Live Arico - Whats your point of view..?

2/9/2012 - Since writing this post Live Arico have now been closed down and the dogs are under the care of Fecapap and a new Refuge in Fasnai.

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The photos in this post  were sent to me by a volunteer who helps out  at the Live Arico rescue centre,  and one was originally posted on the Tenerife forum 

I recently visited the centre and I honestly have to say that the kennels and the dogs generally are in a bit of a sad state. Live Arico say that they are doing the best that they can with very limited recourses, but some people have expressed the opinion that it would be better for the dogs if the centre were to be shut down.

The purpose of this post is 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 Live Arico 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 Live Arico 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 those are just a few of the difficult questions involved in this complex issue. Tenerife Dogs website aims to try and take a balanced point of view and puts the interests of the dogs above anything else. We would urge everyone to look for solutions that are in the dogs best interests, not to look for the negative but to facilitate positivity.

For instance, we would suggest that if anybody is thinking of getting a dog, adopting from Live Arico means one less dog living in difficult, overcrowded conditions.

Tenerife Dogs hopes to able to continue to support Live Arico by publicising fund-raising events and encouraging donations of time & money, so that conditions can be improved for the doggies, but we feel that it's our duty to raise issues which might not be very dog-friendly - as we have done in past stories here 

We would welcome your thoughts - you can post them in the comments section.

Quote from - Sue Havenhand, Vice President of live Arico (LAAP)

We at Live Arico are more than aware of the dire situation in the present location. It is not fit for the purpose and is overcrowded, which is why we have been desperately searching for a piece of land for some considerable time. Although this is now almost a reality, wheels turn very slowly here and all we can do is sit it out and wait. A further complication is that the refuge is now not even safe following a rock fall due to recent heavy rains.

Despite conditions at the refuge however, I still do not believe that dogs roaming the streets is a better option. At least with Eugenio they are fed and have a possibility of rehoming. Many of our dogs were sent to Germany for rehoming last year, and their happy end tales can be read on www.livearico.de , it is lovely to see them running in gardens and enjoying themselves.

Eugenio has provided a service to the Ayuntamientos in the south for several years, and is the first port of call for the police and authorities when dealing with abandoned animals, so he does have more animals than the other refuges, yet sadly has probably the worst location for a refuge.

We are currently working hard to bring about change, and we believe a change of location will be the beginning of a better situation for the dogs.

With regard to euthanasia, Live Arico shares the ethos of the Dogs Trust, who "never put a healthy dog to sleep".We thank Tenerife Dogs for bringing our plight to a wider audience, and can only say again, please consider a Live Arico dog for your pet.