Unidos por Lanzarote y La Graciosa (UPL) proposes the creation of the first Island Veterinary Voucher, a program aimed at helping families in Lanzarote and La Graciosa to face certain veterinary expenses and, especially, to protect those who are experiencing financial difficulties.
The party proposes taking the model that the Cabildo itself uses with Consume Lanzarote as a reference, adapting it to animal welfare through a program that combines public contribution and owner responsibility.
The spokesperson for UPL, Laureano Álvarez, explains that “there are families who love their animals, take care of them and are responsible, but for whom a vaccine, getting a microchip, or facing an unexpected illness can represent a very significant economic effort. We do not want any family in Lanzarote to have to choose between filling the fridge or taking their dog or cat to the vet when it needs it.”
The proposal, initially named “Lanzarote Cares – Island Veterinary Voucher,” would have two differentiated lines. The first would be a Preventive Veterinary Voucher, inspired by Consume Lanzarote, through which citizens could purchase, for example, a 60 euro voucher by paying 30, with the Cabildo contributing the other 30 euros. These vouchers could only be used in affiliated veterinary clinics for previously determined procedures such as vaccination, microchip identification, registration, deworming, preventive check-ups, and other procedures related to responsible ownership.
“We are talking about helping citizens to correctly comply with the sanitary obligations and care of their animals. If we demand responsibility, we can also incentivize that responsibility,” explains Álvarez.
The second line would be a Social Veterinary Voucher, exclusively for low-income families and accredited vulnerable situations. In these cases, the aid could generally reach 80% of the veterinary expense and exceptionally reach higher percentages in particularly serious situations. This voucher would allow for assistance with consultations, lab tests, diagnostic tests, treatments, medication, surgeries, hospitalizations, or veterinary emergencies, always under objective criteria and with corresponding controls.
The proposal also includes the creation of an Island Veterinary Emergency Fund, “Think of an elderly person with a small pension whose dog needs an intervention of 700 or 800 euros. For many people, it is simply impossible to afford it overnight. And that animal has probably been part of their family for ten years,” says Álvarez.
In exceptional situations, after a veterinary report and proof of economic situation, the fund would allow financing a very important part of the intervention. The money would not be given directly to the owner. The aid would be paid or compensated directly to the affiliated veterinary clinics once the service has been performed and justified, thus guaranteeing the control and traceability of public money.
Pilot program
Unidos por Lanzarote proposes to study a pilot program of 250,000 euros annually, an amount equivalent to half of the 500,000 euros that the Cabildo has allocated to the new edition of Consume Lanzarote. The initial proposal would distribute 150,000 euros for the Preventive Veterinary Voucher, 75,000 for the Social Veterinary Voucher, and 25,000 euros for the Veterinary Emergency Fund. The system would also allow multiplying the effect of public investment. The 150,000 euros allocated to the preventive voucher, through a 50% co-financing model, could mobilize approximately 300,000 euros in veterinary services.
Adding the social and emergency lines, a public investment of 250,000 euros could mobilize around 400,000 euros in veterinary care and local economic activity.
For Unidos por Lanzarote, animal welfare policies must evolve, “Animal welfare cannot only mean acting when an animal has already been abandoned. We also have to work to prevent that abandonment from happening,” argues Álvarez.
The islandist party believes that providing preventive help to a family going through economic difficulties can avoid later situations of health neglect or even abandonment. “A dog or a cat does not stop needing attention because its owner has lost their job, has a small pension, or is going through a bad economic time.”
Therefore, the program would establish objective economic criteria and collaboration with the Social Services of the town councils to determine situations of vulnerability. Veterinary clinics in Lanzarote could voluntarily join the program, without exclusivity and guaranteeing that the citizen could freely choose among the participating centers.
Unidos por Lanzarote will request that the most appropriate formula for launching the program be studied legally and that the Cabildo, the seven town councils, veterinary professionals, and entities linked to animal welfare participate in its design.
“We do not want to simply make a promise. We want to put a viable, budgeted, controlled proposal on the table that can become a real public policy,” says Álvarez.
UPL argues that animal welfare must occupy its own space within the island's policies in the coming years. “Lanzarote is changing and families are too. Today, thousands of households on our island live with dogs and cats that are part of their lives. Administrations must also adapt to this reality. An island that cares for its animals is an island that also cares for its people. We want Lanzarote to be a benchmark in animal welfare, but we want to achieve it with real policies, not just with words. Taking care of them is also taking care of our families,” concludes Laureano Álvarez.
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