Dear Editor,
Each week, hundreds of expats work tirelessly and voluntarily to care for animals in the Algarve and pictures appear each week of dogs etc, needing homes which many respond to taking on a dog.
And the GNR’s response to this act of kindness to a Portuguese animal’s rescue? To fine owners for not carrying the dog’s papers everywhere! Perhaps Faro’s, GNR commander Sr. Jose Pimenta would like to comment? Or is the GNR ONLY there to collect fines; to park at roundabouts , stopping traffic for papers/fines?
And will this attitude to dog owners extend to hunters, to the hundreds of rural Portuguese who tie their dogs to a post for life, or gypsies with their dogs (and their car papers?) Will they also be fined? Or is it discrimination, expats who care are targeted, as they are seen as an easy target, rich (sorry, many are poor, pensioners).
One does wonder. For now there are moves to charge tourists for being here. Well that will only be Portuguese or Spanish because as Sr. Silva (Albufeira) and others, feel, there are no non-Portuguese residents/tourists, so why provide for them; signs, info., etc? (I also know many Portuguese who are even more critical of this blindness, attitude than I am.) So before any idea of taxing tourists, perhaps you should send Sr. Silva (and others,) a copy of the article you ran on Iceland last week. They rely on tourists, as does the Algarve but are more remote and I quote from that article:” Although the Icelandic language is impenetrable, virtually everyone speaks excellent English. All signage (roads, museum, menus etc.) is in English.” Compare with the Algarve, all Albufeira tourist signs in Portuguese only. Silves castle information boards, archeological signage in Portuguese only (on roads,) web sites, Faro International (!) folk fair, Fatacil, Silves medieval fair, all in Portuguese. Sorry Sr. Silva, (and others,) change your negative attitude first; and Commander Pimenta!
D.TAYLOR-SMITH
By email
