The future Animal Welfare Law equates hunting, herding and livestock dogs with domestic animals

The new Animal Welfare Law promoted by the

continues its administrative journey before it reaches Congress to be debated and, where appropriate, voted in favor of its entry into force.

After the preliminary draft was approved in the

on February 18, one of the most important procedures passed this Tuesday, the end of the period for presenting allegations from the different organizations and associations that are considered affected, in this case both the

, entities that the Artemisan Foundation has also joined, which has registered a 14-page document.

Also, among others, the Association of Regional Rehalas Hunting and Freedom (ARRECAL) together with thousands of hunters, to whom the RFEC -which has been opposed with the elaboration of a 60-page text- has provided them with the initial document of said allegations.

The new regulation, if it goes ahead, includes that hunting dogs and those dedicated to grazing and livestock be treated in the same way as if they were domestic animals, so their owners will have to register as breeders, also in the in case you want to cross them.

At least that is the intention contained in the preliminary draft led by the department of Minister

secretary of Podemos-, despite the fact that the

had proposed as an alternative to promote the drafting of its own regulations for dogs hunting and rehalas, adapted to the circumstances of these activities in order to promote "a sustainable hunting activity".

For the moment, the socialist minister

he has not succeeded.

At the beginning of this week, the leaders of the RFEC and the ONC met with members of the Executive of the Socialist Party (PSOE), who "committed", according to the hunters' representatives, to exclude auxiliary animals from hunting of said draft law.

In other words, dogs, calling birds, falconry birds and ferrets would not be cataloged in this way, according to the socialists, although now they will have to debate it, and impose themselves if that is the case, with their government colleagues... The PSOE has also committed to setting up a working table to address other issues of special interest that affect the hunting sector with future regulations, such as catches due to silvestrism.

"The demonstration of March 20 in Madrid in the rural world has been a turning point," warns

president of the RFEC, who stresses that 80% of those who attended the event came from the hunters' group.

"And that message has come through clearly, both at a political level and at a social level," says Gallardo, who considers that this regulation that is to be implemented "is not from the PSOE" but rather bears the signature of Podemos, a party to which accuses of drafting some texts that will lead to a "clear legal insecurity" caused by "ignorance of the rural world and from the purest ideological sectarianism to implement a new social model that we oppose head on."

As stated in the preliminary draft, "the current circumstances of the integration of animals into society and the heterogeneous regional regulations on the protection and welfare of wild companion animals in captivity establish the need for basic regulations for the entire national territory in terms of protection and animal welfare.

And it is also added in the text that "some fundamental measures will be established, such as the control and registration of the breeding and sale of companion animals through criteria aimed at avoiding overexploitation, uncontrolled breeding and sale and promoting the education and training of the society to avoid the proliferation of dropouts".

The minister herself, in statements to TVE as soon as the starting signal for the preparation of the new regulations was approved in the Council of Ministers, pointed out that anyone who treats animals well "can rest easy", including hunters who treat animals well dogs: "Everyone knows that

we need all animals in this country to enjoy the same protection, regardless of where they live or what they do," he stressed.

On the contrary, for Manuel Gallardo, it would be a matter of forcing people to establish an "exclusively affective" relationship with animals, disdaining their "usefulness" and only betting on "an animalistic ideology that claims that animals are at the height of human beings, and a society that loves animals more than people is a sick society," he explains.

For hunters, it is not understood that an animal should be educated exclusively in respect for another animal: "A greyhound will always run behind a hare and, if we cannot train it like this, hunting will cease to exist, just as the we know because -he adds- game animals are not pets", he wields.

In this sense, the president of the

considers that the new regulations are drawn up by those responsible "who do not know how the rural world works" and only put benefits for "the urban, asphalt animal world, which has nothing to do with do neither with hunting nor with the world in the villages".

It is also highlighted by the technical director of the RFEC,

who warns that, if the new law is approved, it would be forced "to train the animals from 18 months, when all the studies, including that of the Special Hunting School, they point out that if it is not done between 8 and 14 months, it will go badly...".

For Herrera, it is also "true outrageous" to "sterilize" all pet animals if their owner is not an officially registered breeder: "Animals have a vital function, which is to reproduce, and if they don't It has been shown that there are changes in character, in behavior..." not to mention the high costs that would be incurred by the expenses derived from the surgical interventions to which they would be forced to undergo.

Thus, it describes that 90% of the breeds that breed in Spain have been maintained over time by "non-professional" people, who have offspring to give them away, in their case, "to a family member, a friend..." and that also "are already registered", because -remember- it is mandatory that each dog has a chip in which all their data is included.

On the contrary, said legislation prohibits the unauthorized breeding of any animal, which, according to hunters, would endanger the conservation of indigenous and traditional hunting breeds.

Thus, if approved, an owner will not be able to breed puppies from his dog, so there would be a high risk of "disappearance" of those breeds that have no commercial demand, such as the bellhound.

Therefore, "only from the deep ignorance of the animal world and from the most urban radicalism" -he underlines- "can this law be approved, which does not even distinguish between dogs that are found in the mountains to defend livestock from wolves, from of a rehala to hunt, of those of a ferret that has been dedicated, even before the Romans, to hunting rabbits...", indicates this specialist.

In this line, the allegations presented by the RFEC to the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 indicate that the text "would directly mean the end of hunting as we know it since it would directly affect all auxiliary animals used for hunting: dogs , claim birds, falconry birds, ferrets...".

On the other hand, certain types of hunting will be prevented because any action that could cause the death of animals would be prohibited, that is, it would not be possible to hunt with a dog in case of an accident, nor with falconry birds.

In this sense, "falconry is endangered", which is Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO ("this type of bird could not be raised"), warns Manuel Gallardo.

In another order of things, the bill prevents the transport of more than five hunting dogs, affects sports rehalos and all the transport of hunting dogs, "including the one that two friends can carry out any weekend they get together to carry out this activity," points out Juan Herrera, who recalls that if on the one hand sylvestrism is prohibited, on the other there is total freedom of movement and lack of control of feline colonies of feral and wandering cats, "which are protected when there are studies that point that these animals have a great predatory effect on millions of birds".

Against this preliminary project, a commission of Sports Federations of Sports with Animals has been created within the Spanish Sports Association because many sports federations would see their activity in danger, such as the RFEC itself, the Spanish Federation of Fishing and Casting, the Spanish Greyhound Federation, the Royal Spanish Equestrian Federation, the Royal Spanish Federation of Flying Shooting, the Royal Spanish Federation of Pigeon Culture, the Royal Spanish Pigeon Federation or the Spanish Federation of Underwater Activities, and has the support of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE).

The bill is also rejected by the College of Veterinarians, which denounces having been excluded from the project and considers the compulsory castration of animals an "aberration", in addition to denouncing the "animalistic bias" of the law.

They also value the fundamental role of veterinary clinics "as the first step between society and the authorities to spread the rights of animals and detect possible violations of the regulations that protect them", although this work has not been taken into account. in the draft text.

The regulations also have the rejection of the Iberian Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the National Association of Doma Vaquera, the Association of the Companion Animal Sector, Reunited Circuses or the Spanish Association of Industry and Commerce of the Animal Sector of Company, among others: "This Ministry should withdraw the text because hunting or Animal Welfare is not its responsibility, which is already regulated by the autonomous communities, for which it invades competences", highlights Manuel Gallardo, who urges those responsible for the processing of the law meet with the groups that do have to do with the sector to look for other alternatives.

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