Twenty abandoned dogs, seven of which had already starved to death, were discovered in an empty, luxury villa in the Urbanización Cortijo del Aire in Albolote.

The animal protection group, Asociacion Amigos de Animales, had received an email from a local there, alerting them to the presence of the animals, saying, “There are at least eight dogs that have been locked up in the house for at least three weeks.” Two members of the association went around to investigate but for all their experience with mistreated animals, they were little prepared for what greeted them.

When they arrived at the chalet, which is on 2,000 sq/m of land, they found 13 dogs which were just taught skin over bones and the remains six dead ones that had evidently starved to death, but which had been semi devoured by their companions.

Yet, the authorities had been aware of the presence of abandoned animals there because the Albolote municipal police had received numerous telephone complaints and had in response been around to the chalet a couple of times, but not on one occasion did they enter or even investigate the state of the animals. It is because of this inexplicable behavior that the animal association is studying the possibility of taking the local police to court.

The animal volunteers had no problem entering because somebody had knocked a hole in an outside wall. They went down to the cellar and found six carcasses and two dogs that had fed themselves on the remains of the others. From upstairs they could hear pitiful whining and whimpering, so fearing what new sight would greet them they went up and found eight dogs which were little more than walking skeletons.

“The worst part,” said one of the volunteers, “was the lack of water. We put down a bucket of water and the dogs ripped into each other to get at it,” such was their desperate thirst.

Thanks to statements from the neighbours, the volunteers were able to piece together how the animals come to be where they were and in the state that they had found them. The problems started a couple of years ago when the owner of this very large house died. Since then, it remained locked up, falling into disrepair.

Squatters came and went. Other ‘tenants’ were youths that used the house for parties – this is probably where some satanic drawings originated. Finally a group of three squatters took up residency; a man and two women, (mother and daughter). They had brought with them several mongrels. Occasionally the neighbours heard rows but apart from that their stay was without incidents. However, the number of canine companions grew.

The neighbours phoned in to complain, but the police said that they could do nothing unless they received an official complaint from the house owners. And that’s how it went on, with the dog numbers increasing and nobody in authority doing anything about it. However, two or three weeks ago the man left. The two women were seen at the house for a couple of days more, but in the end they left too.

Then the pitiful howling began, the phone calls to the police increased but nothing was done… until the two volunteers did what the police should have done three weeks ago.

(News: Albolote, Granada, Andalucia)