Handling on wheels

Today we bring you a news item that talks about the protest carried out by animal rights groups, which are supported by the animal protection law on the PSOE amendment, which aims to prevent the Animal Welfare Law from being applied to hunting dogs and other working animals in the countryside. This protest consists of buses driving around the city with a sign with a hanging greyhound on it in protest against animal abuse in hunting.

We have to ask ourselves what kind of people we are and how we manage the lives of animals that are in our charge. We are lucky enough to have several dogs in the Young Wild family and we can assure you that they live as we do, they help us and on hunting days, they eat what we eat....

We are masters of our actions and that the just pay for the sinners, a premise that unfortunately we see more and more in this country, fills us with tremendous displeasure.

The Royal Spanish Hunting Federation has managed to get the PSOE to present this month, in Congress, four amendments to the text drafted by Social Rights. Amongst the proposals they propose to include, the aim is to prevent this law from being applied to "hunting dogs, rehalas and auxiliary hunting animals".

The premise of the new law states that animal mistreatment does not depend on whether it is an animal destined for a work activity or a domestic companion. This should not be a bad thing, but if we take into account that the same people consider hunting and stockbreeding activities as animal abuse, this law shows the disconnection they have with the environment they pretend to "protect".

The amendment was achieved on Tuesday 13 September. It argues that "the social and functional reality of the use of working animals, auxiliary animals or animals with a social function encounters serious problems for their sustainability and development, as they are generically included in the regulations for the protection of companion animals". Among the rest of the amendments, the socialist party also advocates removing the ban on "clay pigeon shooting" from the text.

Therefore, the PSOE's text proposes not only to eliminate animals in the hunting sector, but also other creatures used in "specific activities" for sporting purposes, such as "falconry birds, shepherd and livestock guardian dogs" and in "professional activities", "such as rescue dogs, pets used in assisted interventions or animals belonging to the Security Forces or the Armed Forces". In these cases, they point out that they do advocate that "the provisions of Article 24 on general obligations and Article 27 on prohibitions" should apply to them. "Hunting dogs, rehalas and auxiliary hunting animals will also be excluded, as they will have their own legislation according to what is established in the National Hunting Management Strategy".

The big difference between the groups that support one cause or another is that on behalf of the countryside there were nearly half a million people protesting against the new law last 20M, and now we will see how many people attend the rally called by the Parliamentary Association in Defence of Animal Rights to protest against the PSOE's amendments on 30 September.

Those who live by and for the vote are realising that failing rural Spain could cost them dearly.