What you need to know about the Animal Welfare Act

dog ownership

Perhaps one of the most talked about topics in dog owners’ circles is owning a dog. Course of Study what to do This will affect not only those who want to own a dog, but also, more importantly, those who share their life with a dog.

What is known about this training course, it will be freewill be valid indefinitely and must be passed by the owner and the pet. According to the text, the course “has the purpose of facilitating the appropriate responsible ownership of animals, this is often due to a lack of knowledge of the handling, care and ownership of animals” and “requirements for the minimum age and weight of the dog”, the content and characteristics of the test will be developed according to the regulation”.

Anyone with a dog before the law goes into effect will have to pass the course within two years.

With your dog, you will need to hire one. third party liability insuranceCovering the persons responsible for the animal in an amount sufficient to cover the possible derived costs to be determined by the Regulation.

cat ownership

With regard to cats, the law sterilize them before they are six months oldExcept for those registered as a breeder on behalf of a breeder registered in the Registry of Pet Breeders.

Article 27 refers to certain prohibitions concerning pets. Among these is the ban on “having dogs and cats on terraces, balconies, roofs, warehouses, basements, courtyards and the like or in vehicles on a regular basis”. But if we continue reading, Article 28 says this about outdoor pets:

“For pets that must be kept in open areas, their owners or managers must take the following precautions, without prejudice to the provisions of the previous article:

a) Use rooms that protect animals from harsh weather conditions.

b) Locate rooms so that they are not exposed to direct sunlight, rain or extreme cold for extended periods of time.

c) Use rooms according to the animal’s size and physiological needs”.

If we go back to article 27, it is necessary to know this. Pets cannot be raised at home.. The only people who can do this will be breeders registered with the Pet Breeders Registry.

When the new law comes into force, It is forbidden to leave any pet unattended for more than three days in a row.. In dogs, this period cannot exceed one day.

If our pet is lost or stolen, it must be reported to the competent authority within forty-eight hours after the incident. If it is not notified within the specified time, it will be considered abandoned unless proven otherwise.

Which animals can be kept as pets and which cannot?

The truth is that this point is still not clearly defined. In the legal text, a set of criteria is specified by which a breed will be included in the list of positive pets, that is, it can be kept at home. This list is still waiting to be written. In some statements, the people responsible for drafting made sure that we weren’t worried about animals considered normal pets, such as ferrets, guinea pigs, hamsters or rabbits, but so far there is no official documentation on this.

Among these criteria, the animal can be kept in captivity sufficiently, there are conditions in the place where it lives that can adequately develop its basic physiological, ethological and ecological needs, not be invasive or that it could pose a serious threat to biodiversity if it escaped.

No individual belonging to a protected wild species may be kept at home. Nor any animal that can assume it is one health hazard or the safety of people and other animals.

Under no circumstances may you own an animal included in this tariff. Spanish catalog of invasive alien species. In this respect, the new law does not change anything; This was already included in 2013’s invasive species regulation, and these include Argentine and Kramer parrots, Florida tortoise, American mink, raccoon or tanuki, which have been used as exotic pets in the past.

If you have an animal that was not on the positive list at the time the law went into effect, that animal will continue to have pet status. If you are in doubt about this, Do not abandon your pet, you can continue to adopt..

The law will take effect six months after it is published in the BOE.

Álvaro Bayón, PhD in Biology from the University of Seville, contributed to this article.