The ban on dogs and cats being killed in Madrid has led to overcrowded shelters.

MADRID
The prohibition of the killing of animals in Madrid leads to overcrowded shelters.

The Comunidad de Madrid has, just like Catalonia last year, introduced a new animal protection law which states that it is forbidden to kill dogs and cats in the shelters in the federal state. Thanks to this prohibition, dogs and cats that are not adopted or returned to their owners within 10 days are no longer allowed to be killed. That is obviously good news but it also has adverse consequences.

The new autonomous animal protection law of the Comunidad de Madrid is good news for the hundreds of dogs and cats that can not be killed every year, only because they are in an asylum or shelter and are not adopted within 10 days. It is a major step forward for the Madrid region, with which it joins the short list of two states, including Catalonia.

But not killing hundreds of dogs and cats also has adverse consequences for the occupation of the already crowded shelters in the Comunidad de Madrid. It is these shelters that are now sending out warnings indicating that the present situation is alarming.

The new animal protection law of the Madrid region does prevent the killing of animals and has stricter penalties for animal traffickers but nothing has been included in the law to prevent the growth of pets. That is to say, one must tackle the problem right from the start by counteracting and / or better controlling the number of new born pets.

For example, the shelters suggest that it should be prohibited for unauthorized breeders to breed dogs and cats. But the autonomous state of Madrid does not want to know anything about it because this is hard to forbid this by law. Instead, the financial assistance will be increased from 1 to 2.2 million euros, so that new reception centers can be built or capacity for existing asylums can be increased.

According to the latest data, the number of animals residing in asylum and reception centers has increased by about 1,000 after the entry into force of the anti-killing legislation. In 2016, there were 4,143 dogs and cats in shelters, and in 2017 that rose to 5,148 animals. However, the number of abandoned animals also decreased by 7.5% while the number of adopted animals increased by 10%.

Source: Written by Remco Stoffer on behalf of SpainSites.nl.