The local attitude to dogs and cats

This is one thing that can upset the new arrival on the Costa del Sol. In Spain, dogs are not always kept as pets.

They are generally kept for hunting and you often see cars with a trailer full of dogs going off into the countryside. These dogs have to work and if they do not produce the desired hunting success they may simply end up being thrown out and left to live in the country – campo dogs.

Nowhere have I seen so many apparently abandoned dogs. It breaks my heart sometimes to see beautiful dogs foraging for food in the campo (the countryside). The local animal charity where we live has a wonderful rescue centre in the hills behind the coast, which is basically supported by the expat community, and if you go to this rescue as an animal lover you will want to take all the dogs home but that is just not possible.

It is also an unfortunate fact of life here that many of the abandoned dogs and cats are in that situation because they were owned by expat families who did not live here 12 months of the year and when they returned to their northern European home they simply threw their ‘pet’ dog or cat out on the motorway on the return journey to Malaga airport.

Cats as pets do not seem to be terribly popular with the local population but there are many feral or semi-feral cats all over the coast. I find it so sad that when you go near some of the restaurant areas to see colonies of cats who manage to keep themselves alive by raiding the rubbish bins. Some of them are so beautiful but they are basically wild. There are many individuals here who try to round them up and take them to sympathetic vets who will neuter them for a very small fee so that they stop breeding.

If, like us, you are animal lovers, you may be very tempted to give a home to many of these abandoned animals. Unfortunately this may not be possible unless you have huge amounts of land and an unlimited budget but we do have many friends who now have five or more dogs, all rescued from the campo. At least they are playing a part in looking after some of these unwanted animals.