Money will be used to sterilise stray animals
Portimão has pledged €40,000 to three local animal associations to help them with their everyday expenses and fund a series of cat and dog sterilisation campaigns.
As in previous years, the support will be provided via collaboration protocols, with €15,000 each going to Associação Amigos do Canil de Portimão (AACP) and Associação de Proteção do Animal do Algarve (APAA), while €10,000 will be provided to Associação de Defesa de Animais de Portimão (ADAP).
According to the local council, each association will be using the money to “purchase essential goods or services to carry out their animal protection campaigns”.
AACP will also use part of the money to sterilise the cats and dogs that arrive at the municipal kennel, while ADAP is expecting to sterilise 100 animals from colonies around the town and APAA is planning to sterilise around 200 cats and dogs. APAA will also use €5,000 of the council support to purchase food for the animal colonies identified by the local council.
The council said that its initiative was inspired by “the efforts carried out by these associations, namely when it comes to sterilisation campaigns to reduce the number of stray animals” in the borough.
The protocols were signed by Portimão mayor Isilda Gomes and the representatives of the three associations – Mónica Alexandra Vitela (ADAP), Patricia Nieuwe (AACP) and Jennifer Clarke (APAA) – as well as municipal vet Osvaldo Mateus.
Animal abandonment remains a serious issue in Portugal, with PSP police registering nearly 10,000 crimes of animal abandonment or abuse in the last five years.
According to the Nature and Forest Conservation Institute (ICNF), a total of 43,600 cats and dogs were taken in by municipal kennels in 2021 – an especially worrying number considering that most kennels (if not all) are almost always at full capacity.
