The Guardia Civil in Salobreña are investigating a pensioner for alleged animal cruelty through abandonment after being reported by SOS Animales Salobreña.

According to the Salobreña branch of this animal refuge association, the 68-year-old man threw his badly injured dog into a clump of wild sugar cane down on the vega and abandoned it there.

SOS Animales contacted the Guardia Civil, Environmental Protection Department, Seprona, to say that they had recovered the dog from where he had been left and had taken it to a veterinary surgeon for treatment.

According to the said vet, the animal showed signs of extreme neglect; it had numerous ulcers infected with maggots and very overgrown claws on its paws. At present the dog is being looked after by the association  following treatment.

Officers from Seprona obtained the idendity of the owner, who is a resident of Santa Fe but who spends his summer holidays in Salobreña. According to the police he freely admitted that, as the dog could hardly move one morning and “had maggots all over the place” he had decided to leave it amongst the wild cane so that it would die.

The Spanish Criminal Code stipulates a sentence of between one month and six months as well as a fine for anybody who abandons an animal in a state in which its life could be in peril.

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