The excessive humanization of pets in a society that treats them as family members “can lead to practices that do not respect their physical and psychological well-being” due to a tendency to “forget their natural needs and behaviors” are, because later they are all animals. French platform spokesperson Andrea Milla warned that Lend me your puppy, which already has 70,000 users in Spain and “facilitates a shared care system between owners who need help with their dog and people who want to meet the dogs”, so that a person without a pet can work full-time. “to experience the responsibility of owning a pet.” ,
In this way, volunteers can learn firsthand how to properly treat an animal, before one who is often mistaken for an object is taken away for “impulsive adoption”, when ” The dog is a living creature with needs and feelings, not an object that can be given as a gift. This impulse is felt at the beginning of the year, even on today’s date, when San Anton – the patron saint of animals – The day is celebrated, translates into the abandonment of pets given as gifts at Christmas, with more than 288,000 dogs and cats collected by shelters in Spain in 2022, according to the latest study by the Affinity Foundation. Was.
Eva Ortin, head of marketing and communications at pet health insurer Santevet, told EFE that the availability of animal care is one of the reasons for abandonment, but it also has an economic cost.
Although there are officially 31 million pets in Spain, Ortín recalled that “the percentage of animals with insurance is still very low”, so the person who wants to adopt one should take into account the need to invest in this sense. should keep. Furthermore, it is necessary to collect information on all aspects related to their care and health, not only shelter or food, but also “their daily routine or specific needs such as illnesses”.
In this sense, Mila has stated that “promoting public health insurance for pets would be beneficial and would make veterinary expenses easier for owners, promoting responsibility in pet care,” which is why she Has defended the creation of a government program “to make these services more accessible.” Regarding how the application of the new animal welfare law is affecting her, she considered that it is “an important step towards their protection”, although Spanish society has made “significant progress in respect for animals, we still have to Big challenges have to be faced”.
Ortin also highlights this new regulation as “an advance” and, although “the biggest objective of the law is to fight against animal abuse and abandonment”, it has generated other benefits such as “for example the range The disappearance of the “potentially dangerous dog” which harmed some dog breeds.