The four municipalities of the metropolitan area of Tenerife and the Canarian Association of Animal and Plant Protection Associations have requested an urgent meeting so that the Cabildo de Tenerife intervenes in the management of Valle Colino, which, they affirm, is overwhelmed.
This decision was agreed during a meeting between the Councilor for Animal Welfare of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, Carlos Tarife, with the representatives of La Laguna, El Rosario and Tegueste and the managers of the regional shelter, since they all form the inter-administrative commission that finances Valle Colino.
The participants in the meeting have requested an urgent meeting with the Cabildo, if possible in the first fortnight of September, according to a statement from the Tenerife capital City Council.
In this regard, the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, values ”the commitment” that the City Council maintains with animal protection and, specifically, with the contribution that the corporation makes to the Valle Colino County Shelter, but even so, the deficiencies in the center due to the increasing entry of pets “make it unfeasible to maintain this situation without greater involvement of other supra-municipal administrations”.
The Councilor for Animal Welfare of the capital City Council, Carlos Tarife, believes that “the Cabildo must get wet and manage Valle Colino, as it currently does with the other two animal centers in the north and south of the island ”.
He adds that it is not only a question of providing financing and improving the facilities, since the center is currently overwhelmed and there is not enough space to keep the animals in the best conditions, so the Cabildo must be involved as an insular institution, says the mayor.
According to the City Council, this position has been endorsed by the representatives of Valle Colino, who indicate that it is “very difficult for them to collect animals from the streets because there is not enough space to house them, which creates problems of coexistence between them.” In addition, they point out that last year they collected more than 2,000 cats and 1,200 dogs.
This situation has led those responsible for the County Shelter to consider the possibility of charging for adoptions to cover the costs of collecting the animals and extraordinary expenses.
At this meeting, the members of the inter-administrative commission also agreed to advance 80% of the economic item of the agreement relating to this year, which has an endowment of 467,600 euros and which is 3% higher than the previous one, adds the Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
