The Sara animal and plant protection society has closed the first semester of 2014 with "worrying" figures. At the moment, it houses a total of 388 animals, a figure that exceeds its "maximum ideal" capacity by more than 100. "Helping ourselves with several foster homes and other juggling acts, we reach a limit that we cannot exceed. But this is nothing new, we have been exceeding our capacity for several years now and, unfortunately, the situation is not improving," they explain from this group.
Only in the first semester of this year, a total of 236 dogs and 163 cats have entered Sara's shelter. If the data is compared with that of the previous year, 20 percent more cats and 8 percent fewer dogs have arrived at the facility. "That decrease is only due to the lack of space, which, because we don't have enough adoptions, we don't have available spaces for new animals," they lament.
In addition, the "massive" entry of animals generates "many more expenses." "All these expenses, together with the greater number of animals and the reduction in income, are making it increasingly difficult for us to continue forward," they warn.
Added to this is that every day Sara receives more notices from both citizens and the Police of emergencies of animals run over, lost or that have been mistreated. "Every day they arrive in worse conditions and every day we receive litters of abandoned animals," they point out. Although the protector "has no obligation to respond to emergency calls", it does so voluntarily "out of love and respect for animals".
575 animals sterilized
Despite all the difficulties, Sara assures that they will continue fighting for their animal project and for a part of their work such as sterilizations, "a fundamental pillar of the association". Precisely, in this first semester of 2014, the group has sterilized a total of 575 animals, "a great record so far".
At the beginning of this year, it carried out a sterilization campaign for stray cats, with the support of the European Protector ETN, which traveled to Sara's facilities to sterilize, in just over a week, almost 200 wild stray cats. Most of these stray cats came from the municipalities of Teguise and Tinajo.
From the animal shelter they invite all residents of Lanzarote to attend the events they organize and to support the group by becoming members, with a contribution of 5 euros per month, which "can be of great help". "Grain by grain, we will help all the animals that need us," says Ana Belén Domínguez, spokesperson for Sara.
