The Guardia Civil has investigated 58 dog-rescue owners for having illegally mutilated 1,111 dogs (ear & tails docking) in Andalucia.
A vet from Úbeda (Jaén) was arrested as the alleged forging of animal ID documents in order to give legal coverage by including ‘pre-existing’ ear and tail mutilations on documents for the owners of hunting dogs.
The police investigation began in August 2022, when Seprona carried out two inspections of a dog run in the towns Picena and Domingo Pérez (Granada). The officers found 26 dogs with their tails and ears cut off and their health records included the annotation “ear and tail cut due to functionality under anesthesia.” These notes were signed and sealed by a veterinarian from Úbeda without any other document appearing specifying the veterinary causes for these surgical operations.
In turn, another Seprona patrol in Cazalla de la Sierra (Sevilla) found several tracks of dogs with the same mutilations. In this case, the officers were suspicious because the dogs were puppies and the intervention date that appeared on their records was very distant in time, and the injuries they presented were incompatible since they looked very recent.
The Seprona patrols from Granada and Seville decided to coordinate their efforts and while the Granada patrol inspected the eastern part of Andalusia, the Sevillian patrol inspected the western part.
In total, more than 2,000 dogs were inspected and 1,111 dogs were reported mutilated illegally by their owners.
Hence the 58 arrests in connection with this practice, 15 of whom in the province of Granada, 18 in Jaén, 12 in Seville, six in Córdoba, four in Almería and three in Málaga.
The ear and tail amputation in hunting dogs was wide spread, supposedly to prevent brambles or other bushes from harming the animals during hunting. But this surgical practice has completely prohibited since February, 2018, when the ratification an EC Convention on the Pet Protection came into force in Spain.
Causing an injury to a pet is punishable by up to 18 months in prison or a 12-month fine at a certain amount per day.
(News/Noticias: Granada, Andalucia)