On March 16, the Animal Welfare Law was approved in Congress and today, March 29, it has been published in the State official newsletter. After many controversies and doubts about including or not hunting dogs, finally these have not been included.
This standard is aimed at domestic and wild animals in captivity and seeks to end abandonment, mistreatment and guarantee zero sacrifice. In addition, one of the most significant points is the tougher penalties for mistreatment, with fines ranging from 500 to 200,000 euros in the most serious cases.
What is the positive list of animals?
A novelty contained in this Law is the ‘positive list’ of animals that can be kept at home, therefore they will appear as pets. The Official State Gazette includes in its chapter III what is related to the breeding, trade, identification, transmission and transport of animals.
For this reason, it includes the ‘positive list’ section, emphasizing that it has been created with the objective of regulating species that can be pets being prohibited the “possession, reproduction, trade, sale, offer for the purpose of sale, exchange or donation and import or export as a companion animal of individuals of species not included in the law”.
A pet is understood as a domestic or wild animal in captivity, kept by humans, mainly in the home, provided that it can be kept in good welfare conditions, respects its ethological needs, can adapt to captivity and that its possession It is not intended for consumption or the use of its productions or any industrial use or any other commercial or lucrative purpose.
The animals that are on the positive list are:
- Dogs, cats and ferrets
- Falconry birds and aquarium animals not included in the catalog of invasive exotic species or protected wild species, both at the state and regional level, or wild fauna not naturally present in Spain.
These will be the animals that you will not be able to have at home
The Animal Welfare Law has been promoted by the Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra, who has prohibited the possession of certain animals in homes, due to the difficulty of their care, aggressive behavior, poisonous behavior or that can transmit diseases.
Some of the animals that will be prohibited at home are rabbits, mice, parrots, turtles, spiders, hedgehogs, Vietnamese pigs and exotic reptiles, among others.
