A law court in Santa Fe (Granada) has found a woman guilty of animal cruelty for having neglected her dogs on her property in Vegas de Genil.

According to the Town Hall of Vegas del Genil, this court sentence is pioneering in Spain as it was its Board of Animal Welfare, the Environment and Urban Planning that brought the charge in January 2020.

The guilty woman was sentenced to pay a fine of 540 euros.

The situation was brought to the notice of the Town Hall by the Grupo de Voluntarios de Protección Animal de Vegas del Genil, which works in collaboration with the Town Hall. The GVPA, together with the Policía Local found the dogs on an empty, fenced in, plot in a lamentable state of malnutrion and ill health.

For months following this one of the members of the GVPA provided food and water for the dogs. However, after the Town Hall got directly involved, the two dogs disappeared and their whereabouts or physical condition are not known.

“This Town Hall is not going to allow anybody to neglect their animals and we shall impose fines via Administrative Procedure as well as through criminal proceedings on any resident that mistreats or neglects their animals with the aim of disqualifying them from owning pets,” said the councillor in charge of the said board.

The Councillor thanked the Asociación de Abogados Granadinos por el Medio Ambiente y los Derechos de los Animales, which is the sole such legal entity in Eastern Andalucía, giving expressed gratitude to David Sánchez Chaves, the lawyer who represented them in court.

(Vegas de Genil, Vega, Granada, Andalucia)