It’s no longer the municipal kennels in Motril just taking in stray dogs, but also finding homes for abandoned horses and donkeys.

Such are the numbers already that the Town Hall are having stables built within the municipal kennels installations.

The home for abandoned animals opened at the end of 2012 and was focused on abandoned dogs, giving them a second opportunity, but with the crisis leaving no money to put food on the kitchen table, let along in the family pet’s food bowl, other animals were soon arriving: cats, chickens… even snakes, but now the problem is these larger animals.

When people had more money than sense, they probably thought that a cuddly foal or a quaint donkey was an ideal pet for their little daughter but when the animal grew and the economy shrunk, they were shown the door. Yes, they probably thought, they could always sell it and get their money back if their kid grew out of the “present” but they didn’t count on nobody having the extra cash to take it off their hands.

Last February, for example, the Policía Local found several horses roaming free along the Rambla de las Brujas. In March they found more on the Port Road and in April abandoned along Ronda Sur – that’s the road that connects the Al Campo roundabout to the port road.

And it goes on and on (like this article) with some more being brought in during July, October and December.

Now, those that had chips implanted were returned to their owners, accompanied by a fine, but the rest ended up at the municipal animal refuge. A total of seven animals passed through the installations: horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. Three were returned to their owners, three were stolen from the installations, so that only one, a mare, remains.

However on the fallow arable land behind Playa Granada there are 15 horses on the loose, pending that the Junta decides what must happen to them – abandoned horses are in a completely different legal bracket to domestic animals.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)