Do the Spanish treat animals badly?

Dogs and Cats in Spain the reality

Many expats bring their dogs and cats with them when they move to Spain.  Most breeds will adapt to the hotter Summers.  You can buy cooling mats and coats if yours is struggling. Take your dogs out for walks late in the evening and make the walks much shorter when it is hot.  Just like you they get tired more easily..  Once here you may notice some differences between how things are with dogs and cats in your home country and here in Spain.  Here is a run down of some common differences

Hunting dogs v pets

Spanish people tend to have small dogs as pets, large ones as guard dogs and then there are hunting dogs which are kept to hunt rabbit, boar and more.   The three get quite different treatment.  Pets probably will come indoors and be much the same as dogs where you are from.  Some people like to let their dogs roam free though so it is pretty common to see a random dog walking along a street, path or village.

Guard dogs have a job to do.  Bark to keep out unwanted visitors.  They are often treated more as a tool so outside living with basic accommodation.  Barking is seen as them doing their job so you will rarely hear anyone shush a barking guard dog.

Hunting dogs often don’t have much human interaction.  Their sole purpose is to hunt.  They do get let loose once their usefulness has ended (or worse) sometimes. 

Both guard dogs and hunting dogs will be on the slim side.  My black labrador x podenco was 19 kilos when we collected her.  Her stable weight now is 22 kilos which is a light covering of flesh over the ribs.

Don’t interfere unless you know that dogs are being harmed through complete neglect or being hit.  In these cases you can report the dogs to Seprona at your local Guardia.

Dangerous dogs

Spain has a whole list of breeds it considers dangerous plus a set of rules to apply if the breed is unknown, these include: size, jaw type, neck size and more.  A licence from the townhall is needed for dangerous breeds.  You will also need to keep them muzzled and on a lead.

If you have more than 5 pets you will need a licence too.

Strays and Abandoned Animals

Dogs wander off, are pushed out of cars or puppies bagged up and thrown in the trash.  Cats too.  Neutering is not a big thing in Spain.  Some cannot afford it, many others don’t believe in it.  Many towns now have TNR programmes for cats.  Trap Neuter Return where they capture stray cats, neuter them and return them to where they were found.

There are many rescue centres who care for lost and abandoned animals.  Most are small teams, there is no RSPCA equivalent here.  So if you would like a dog or cat please consider getting one from a rescue.

What  Do I do if I Find a Puppy or Kitten

If you do find a puppy or kitten moderate it’s temperature.  Often they are cold so hold them close to you, skin on skin is good to warm them slowly.  If it is hot allow it to cool down slowly.

Puppy and kitten milk are readily available at vets, many animal rescue charity shops will have some you can have and you can order it online.  Do not give cat milk to puppies.  Cows milk is not very good for either – goats milk at a push.  They will need milk up to around 4 or 5 weeks old.

You can age puppies and kittens by whether they have an umbilical cord still attached/ pronounced belly button (very very young).   Are their ears still quite folded and eyes shut – from a few days to 3 weeks ish old.  Google has a myriad of ageing guides and how to feed them.

By all means give your local rescue centre a call.  If you can foster it until a more permanent home can be found, that would be awesome.  Having bottle fed 8 kittens from 3 litters I can say that it is hugely rewarding watching them grow.


Moving On


It may be unbelievable to you but people move on and leave their animals at home with minimal water, food or shelter.  So if you hear an animal crying please do investigate.

If you aren’t certain that you can commit to 15-20 years of looking after an animal, either take in an older one or don’t do it at all.  If you fancy caring for dogs or cats short term you can foster or be a walker/ stroker in a local rescue.

In a nutshell things are different here.  Spanish folk don’t tend to treat dogs or cats that much different to other animals whereas we tend to put them on pedestals.