AMAL, the association of 16 borough councils, has signalled the way forwards for two new ‘mega-kennels’, to house animals from the west (Barlavento) and eastern (Sotovento) Algarve.
Last Friday saw agreement for a financial study “into the viability of the project”.
According to national tabloid Correio da Manhã, the need for new infrastructures comes as a result of the “elevated number of animals that (still) exist in the region”.
The plan is that these new “intermunicipal kennels” would take in strays, treat them and then make them “available for adoption”.
As has been widely publicised, 2018 will see a new policy outlawing so-called ‘kill-kennels’ in Portugal and so likely to lead to even more animals requiring homing (click here).
CM explains that AMAL “already has a location for the Sotavento kennel”, in Alcoutim, which the local mayor hopes will bring more employment to his interior region and “centrality in a question that concerns us all”.
The new infrastructure will be designed to take strays from Loulé and Alcoutim, while the Barlavento kennel will be aimed at easing abandoned animal problems from eight borough councils (Albufeira to Aljezur).
The question now is where to site the Barlavento’s new mega-kennel.
AMAL has stressed that its study into the project will have to define “as one of its priorities” the form of intermunicipal management which will work in “articulation with the associated movement for the defence of animals in the region”.
