The spokesperson for Lanzarote en Pie - Sí Podemos in the Arrecife City Council, Leticia Padilla, has once again criticized the management of the municipal kennel and has reiterated her complaint about the alleged elimination of the animal collection service, which was already denied by the councilor of the area.
"It is important to record the reality and dismantle the policy of photos and headlines that the City Council is carrying out. We are talking about the life and well-being of our pets, a matter serious enough to lie for partisan reasons," says Padilla, who assures that "after consulting police reports, the formation has evidence that the councilor is lying when she claims that the service is still operational."
It was on September 2 when the purple formation sent a statement "expressing its concern about the revocation of the order that allowed the Animal Protection Unit of the Arrecife Local Police to attend to the services of the municipal kennel," and assuring that this had implied the elimination of the collection service. The next day, the government group responded by explaining that the only thing that had been done was to revoke the decree that had to be signed while the veterinarian was on leave, since when he returned to his position he was the one who was in charge of the kennel again. Thus, he denied Podemos' complaint and accused him of "alarming" the population with "confusing information," pointing out that the agents did continue to take care of the collection of animals.
"The councilor is lying"
Now, ten days later, the purple formation has sent a new statement in which it assures that there are "several reports that detail how the Local Police has had to rescue animals urgently after the Health Department ignored their warnings." According to Leticia Padilla, "the Councilor for Health and Consumption is lying when she says that the service continues to function normally," because "the police reports make very clear the serious deficiencies that exist and are the responsibility of the current government group."
Those reports that Padilla claims to have seen would relate, according to her, "several police actions carried out by the Animal and Environmental Protection Unit in which the Health Department did not respond to emergency calls." "In one of them, the agents literally state that 'they are currently dismissed from the functions of collecting animals by this City Council and lack vehicles and means to carry out the tasks entrusted to Animal Protection,'" the councilor maintains. In addition, she states that "they also warn that with this latest provision of the Mayor's Office, they are unable to exercise the functions entrusted, currently there is no 24-hour animal collection (...) and there is no place to locate the animals."
"There are cases in which agents are forced to transfer abandoned animals in private cars of volunteers to the facilities of the Sara protector," Padilla insists. "In addition, the agents no longer have the keys to the municipal kennel, so outside the veterinarian's working hours, the animals cannot be transferred to those facilities, leaving a municipal obligation enshrined in law and ordinances in the hands of volunteerism."
"Veterinary emergencies unattended"
To this, the councilor of Lanzarote en Pie ? Sí Podemos adds that "according to the Unit's reports, there is currently no contract with any veterinary clinic that attends to emergency services in cases of injured animals, nor is there an agreement with the animal shelter for the same purpose, resulting in the death of animals run over on public roads despite the efforts of police officers."
"The agents were doing a really good job and their involvement was remarkable, we do not understand the motivation of the councilor in the face of such irresponsibility," adds the spokesperson for the formation.
