Animal defense groups have accused the Canary Islands Government on Thursday of budgeting more than 273,000 euros to hire a company that captures and executes feral cats and ferrets, and has announced that they are studying legal actions to stop "this slaughter."
The associations Amigos de los Animales El Juaclo, SOS Felina and the animal rights party have met with representatives of the Canarian Executive to defend alternative ethical and effective methods to control feral animal populations, states PACMA in a statement, in which it refers to the decision of the autonomous government to use "execution" as a control method.
The statement indicates that the Government of the Canary Islands has established a budget of more than 273,000 euros to place non-selective trap cages, capture cats and ferrets and execute them with lethal injection or a compressed air weapon.
"The Gesplan company will be the executor of the massacre of these animals, a cruelty that animal associations are radically opposed and will try to avoid", adds the Animalist Party Against Animal Abuse (PACMA).
This week a telematic meeting was held between representatives of the Asociación Amigos de los Animales El Juaclo, with the assistance of SOS Felina and the animal rights party as specialized advice, and members of the Environment and Gesplan area, with the objective of of animal rights to advocate non-harmful alternative methods for the control of cat and ferret populations.
However, the groups say, the Canarian Government refuses even to evaluate them and PACMA accuses the regional Executive of systematically opting for violent and lethal methods to manage the populations, since in August 2020 the same company, Gesplan, was awarded a contract of 599,263.74 euros to eradicate animals that they consider invasive on the island of Tenerife.
The animal organizations criticize the whole procedure, since "they have not even carried out an official census , which is always the first step to find out the population of any species."
In addition to doubting this procedure, they highlight the administrative and legal irregularities, since "cats are not included in the catalog of invasive species , they must be protected under a regulation applicable to stray or abandoned animals, even those referred to as 'feral'" , they assure from the animalistic party.
"The death of animals is never the solution , there are alternative, ethical, non-harmful and effective methods and we will continue to press for them to be applied in the Canary Islands and in all territories", conclude the animal rights groups.
