Despite the recent laws passed and the disposition of the authorities to prevent the animal abusegroups and foundations dedicated to the care of pets and wild animals point out that more work is needed in several regions.
According to information from Special Group for the Fight Against Animal Abuse (Gelma)from 2021 to date, there are 1,777 complaints of abuse in process by investigation.
It is a low figure if one takes into account that between 2020 and 2021 the Gelma achieved 173 accusations and 71 convictions for the crime of animal abuse throughout the country.
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animal rights activist Andrea Padilla points out that despite the low figures, it is noted that complaints have grown thanks to the channels that exist today for this, however, distrust in justice remains high.
“Something has been achieved, but it is still a very weak system and mistrust in justice does not cease,” Padilla points out. Something can be achieved from public policies, but in other municipalities the ineffectiveness is gigantic”.
Part of the distrust that persists is due to the fact that in many municipalities the routes are not defined or at the moment the animal welfare centers, protection and attention spaces that, according to Law 2054 of 2020, must be guaranteed in the Territorial Planning Plans (POT) of each district or municipality.
According to the Law, “an area must be guaranteed in which to build the animal welfare center, municipal shelter for fauna or public shelter whose dimensions will be determined by the number of homeless animals established through a survey.”
The foregoing, according to Padilla’s complaint, is not being done in several cities, although resources or spaces have already been announced where they will be in the capital cities.
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The special group for the fight against animal abuse of the Prosecutor’s Office (Gelma) monitors these cases.
Photo:Attorney General’s Office
lack of vigilance
Cundinamarca, Santander, Bogota, Nariño and Boyaca These are the areas of the country where more complaints of animal abuse are recorded according to information from Gelma.
Padilla points out that Bogota has an Animal Care Unit, but that a formal work for a wellness center has not yet been delivered. Apart from that, an ecological house will open in April, but he believes that it will not be enough.
“That is a nonexistent reality,” Padilla denounces. Mayors say they have no money or that they have already started, but the reality is different”.
On Bucaramangafor example, the mayor of the city, Juan Carlos Cardenasannounced in December that with an investment of some 800 million pesos, work began to adapt the animal welfare center in the city.
“We hope next year to finish the work and start its operation,” said the
president through his social networks–. More than 180 dogs, cats and animals in our city will benefit. We promised and we are fulfilling it. Bucaramanga keeps moving forward”.
However, Orlando Beltrán, director and founder of the adam foundation for animal care in the city, denounces that the rates of animal abuse have grown alarmingly in the city and its metropolitan area and the center that will be built will not be enough.
“You have to start working with the minors, who are the future,” says Beltrán. The wellness center is not being built and what is planned is very small, the law requires a larger space. For me, this is a handout.”
Thanks to the citizen’s complaint, a man who abused his pet will have an exemplary sanction.
In turn, Ángela Ortega, director of the Fundación Paz Animal, in Pasto, explains that in the capital of Nariño the attention center began to function and this improves the quality of life of the animals, but in other municipalities there are no capacities to allocate these resources.
“People are more supportive, there is more public ridicule,” explains Angela. There is a lack of work because we cannot access vulnerable sectors of the city due to the danger.”
Angela adds that in Nariño the most worrying situation for her it is the one on the Pacific coast, where animal overpopulation is overflowing.
“On Tumaco I have known that there is so much overpopulation that people on motorcycles already do ‘competitions’ to see which animal they run over and scores are given for that –complaint–. Although there is a center here in Pasto, the sanctions are still weak and in areas such as the coast there is no one to watch over them.”
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Meanwhile, other major cities in the country have not yet started with the necessary works to put these spaces into operation.
In Cali, the administration indicated that the work is still at 40 percent and will operate in the west of the Valle del Cauca capital.
It has been complex, since the land belonged to the Universidad del Valle, on La Bandera hill, and has been rejected by some neighbors who have even filed popular actions in the last six years, when the procedures began to be processed.
The investment in works is worth about 14,000 million pesos, in charge of the Animal Welfare Consortium. The purchase of the land Valley University it cost 775 million.
The place has an area of more than 4,700 square meters. And it will function as a surveillance center, zoonosis control and animal protection.
On the other hand is Barranquillawhere currently the District has not yet advanced in the works of the construction project of the Animal Welfare Centerin the district of Juan Mina.
Socialization and review of designs and budget have recently been carried out.
The building, projected at 2,596 square meters, will have health care and shelters for more than 100 cats and dogs, along with 3 mangers for horses.
Different cases have Medellín and Santa Rosa, in Bolívarwhere wellness centers have been operating for several years and have been shaped over the years to offer a better service.
The Pearl, in Medellin, was inaugurated on September 14, 2006 and is located in the district of Altavista, in the southwest. Since then, it has been a refuge for abandoned dogs and cats. In addition to food and health, there is a process of adopting animals.
It is the largest pet shelter in the department of Antiochcreated by the Environment Secretary of the Medellin’s town hall in which the protection and care programs for companion animals are being strengthened and which by 2021 had an investment of 17,000 million pesos.
According to information from the Mayor’s Office, in 2021 they were rescued 2,871 pets on the street or that they suffered some kind of mistreatment. Of these, 256 required surgical interventions and special care.
Communes 7 (Robledo), 10 (La Candelaria) and 3 (Manrique) are the sectors where the largest cases of rescue of pets in vulnerable conditions have been recorded.
Currently there is 1,437 animalsbetween felines and canines, available for adoption processes, waiting for families who want to give them a new opportunity and provide a new home.
In Santa Rosa, an hour and a half from the historic center of Cartagena, the past Government built and put into operation El Guardian, which operates as a public veterinary hospital center with a high technical and scientific level.
El Guardian had an investment of 3,500 million pesos. This animal care center, a pioneer in the Caribbean region, has the capacity to care for 200 dogs and 200 cats that have been abandoned. Cartagena, Santa Rosa, San Estanislao, Villanueva, Arjona, Turbaco, Santa Catalina, San Cristóbal, Clemencia and Soplaviento.
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Use of social networks
Another complex point is Boyacá, where authorities point out that the non-existence of these care centers hinder care routes. This is why people have made the decision to spread the cases through social networks.
Cases of animal abuse already have different channels for complaints.
In October 2021 it became known, for example, the outrageous case of a dog in Savoy that was skinned.
The case is still under investigation, which for many citizens is unfortunate, because the day the events occurred, the person responsible was identified and all the resources were available for a prompt conviction.
Sources of Animal defenders in Boyacá They point out that the construction of Animal Welfare Centers would greatly help care in the region, however, they assured that thanks to the campaigns and some attention channels, complaints have grown, because the community finds more lights to do it as well as in networks social.
Another way is through schools, as is the case of Byron Mauricio Lerma, a lawyer who designed in Popayán the animalistic chaira primer that began to be implemented in educational institutions in the capital of Cauca.
“For now it is held back by local administration issues,” explains Byron. But it’s all one educational primer that is implemented in classes, for example, in English, where they talk about care and how to adopt, but with sentences in that language, it is a useful process that we hope to bring to the Fundación Universitaria de Popayán”.
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Due to the arrival of covid-19, the educational material has been reduced and the investment has been nil, but Byron hopes that little by little the animalist education primer can grow beyond Popayan and contribute to an attention and care that, for him, does not yet exist in all administrations.
NATION WRITING
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On twitter: @ColombiaET
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