The PSOE registers the amendment so that the Animal Welfare Law applies "exclusively" to pets

Patxi López, spokesperson for the PSOE in Congress, this Tuesday at a press conference. Eduardo Parra (Europa Press)

Peace with the hunting sector, the third with the most licenses in Spain (334,635 in 2020 according to the Higher Sports Council), only behind football (1,074,567) and basketball (376,352), and with enormous influence in half of the provinces of Spain, it urges the PSOE.

And that is saying a lot in a political course with regional and municipal elections in May and general elections at the end of 2023. The main government party wants to close the crisis with this group as soon as possible as a result of the Animal Welfare Law and for that reason it has registered this Tuesday the amendment to which it had committed itself last week to exclude hunting dogs and other animals that perform specific tasks (sports, herding, rescue or security tasks with the Armed Forces) from the future standard,

always attending to their obligations and care.

Hunting dogs, rehalas and auxiliary hunting animals "will have their own legislation as established in the National Hunting Management Strategy", includes the amendment that was registered shortly before noon by Isaura Leal, new general secretary of the Socialist Group in the Congress for its incorporation into the Bill for the protection, rights and welfare of animals that will be addressed in the Commission on Social Rights and Comprehensive Disability Policies.

The PSOE argues in the document to which EL PAÍS has had access that "the welfare regulations applicable to companion animals must be separated from those others traditionally called production animals, or linked to professional activities."

"In this way, the new law will apply exclusively to pets that are kept in the family home and live there with their owners," he specifies in his amendment, which collides with the positions of United We Can.

The General Directorate for Animal Rights has been responsible for drafting the law and reports to the Ministry of Social Rights, which is headed by the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra.

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“The social and functional reality of the use of working animals, auxiliary animals or animals with a social function encounters serious problems for its sustainability and development, as it is generically included in the regulations for the protection of companion animals (animals that, according to the European Convention on the Protection of pet animals, ratified by Spain on June 23, 2017, would be those that are kept or intended to be kept by man, particularly in his own home, to serve as recreation and keep him company), whose main activity is not to keep company, nor do they usually reside at home”, alleges the PSOE.

His position clashes head-on with that of United We Can, which maintains that in this way animal abuse is not combated, an extreme that the socialists do not share.

“Mistreatment is mistreatment regardless of what the animal does.

Or is the PSOE in favor of hanging a dog from a tree, firing a shotgun at it and dragging it to the ground bleeding to death, or burying puppies in quicklime because they are hunting dogs? parliamentary spokesman for United We Can.

The socialists observe that animals that are not considered as companions "already find their legal accommodation and due protection in the current regulations", and specifically cite Law 32/2007, for the care of animals, in their exploitation, transport, experimentation and sacrifice.

"Likewise, this amendment and approach is in line with the regulation of the European Union, without neglecting the welfare requirements for these animals contained in Law 32/2007 and in the regulations of the autonomous communities", is added in the amendment.

Another reason that the PSOE gives for the revision of the text initially agreed with United We Can is to avoid conflicts of competence between the Government and the territories.

“The Bill in its current wording would introduce a distortion factor at the time of its application by the autonomous communities (competent exclusively in matters of animal protection, in accordance with the Constitutional Block, for all the recent Foral Law 18/ 2022, of June 13, partially modifying Provincial Law 19/2019, of April 4, on the protection of pets in Navarra, as well as exclusive powers in matters of sport, article 148.1.19 of the Constitution Spanish)”, states the amendment.

Proof of the importance that the PSOE attaches to the modification of future legislation in a consensual manner with the hunting sector is that it has communicated to the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation (RFEC) the registration of the amendment to the "Animal Law" , as the organization of hunters calls it.

The autonomous hunting federations will analyze the content of the amendment, which according to the RFEC "seems to conform to the demands made" from the sector.

The parliamentary process is still open and will be resolved in the coming weeks.

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