WARNING.....status inspired by compassion, anger and desperation. If you bother to read this then thank you, its written in the early hours, with anticipation and fear of returning to my lovely home (in the Cartegena area) which is sadly in the frontline of a cruel, dispassionate and heartless place for animals.
Do I have to be nice and sweet for you to read my words and listen, or can I be honest and truthful and speak with the passion and anger I am feeling? I have had 10 days respite from it, 10 days reminding myself, that where I come from, seeing animals treated with love, care and respect is normal. Yes I know UK has problems but not on the scale of Spain, nowhere near it. If you live in UK, or some other countries, you live in a civilised place, where there is a general feeling of disgust against animal abuse and there are authorities who help to bring awareness and enforcement of animal welfare laws.
I live in a country and in particular, a rural village where the general feeling is acceptance of animal abuse, this is on a wide scale in Spain, it is a massive country, with a culture that finds torture of bulls acceptable, and working animals to be nothing, so what are pets worth to them?
There is no authority to help that is dedicated to animal welfare, no enforcement of anti cruelty laws and the existing laws need reforming anyway.
There are no definitive guidelines to reporting abuse; rescuers depending on their local area and attitude of the Police, will be confused and desperate when faced with a case.
Do you know what living in the frontline, faced with these daily problems does for the psyche of a rescuer, constantly lambasted with problems like that? I don't live in my village of choice, in fact I did not have a clue of what to expect when I moved there and now my circumstances mean I have little choice but to stay.
Sadly, I have heard some say damning things about people who work hard in rescue. If you believe that people will work tirelessly for nothing, for ego, for money, because they want to be something big, or are bored, or want to be noticed, or any of the other ridiculous things I have heard in my time here, then believe it...but get off my FB page. I can think of far better and more lucrative ways to spend my time if I wanted to make money, boost my ego, or be popular. Those that look for sinister reasons have no place here.... yes of course there are a few that abuse and exploit for their own ends, you wont find them on my friends list though and I make damn sure before I judge anyone, that I know the truth.
No one should use Facebook to play judge and jury, I am sick of hearing about those that are criticised unfairly...it makes our job harder and it turns away those that may have helped us more... Trust me when I tell you that those that do abuse the system are few and far between and are easy to spot, I have been around here long enough now on these pages and anyone who knows my background, my ethos and values, will also know how important it is that I only associate with justness and fairness.
But enough said about that, we have no time for that and I have learnt now that many things are better ignored than fanning the flames. Tomorrow I return to my village, back to the pain of hearing cries of dogs, shouts of angry men, starved puppies, abandoned unwanted pets, sick dogs, chained dogs, cries of the anxious screaming hunting dogs every weekend, skinny starved horses and donkeys, all surrounding me and I not being able to do enough for fear of retribution.
For those that avert their eyes and close their ears to the pain you see on here for animals, I understand but if you were here on the frontline, what would you do, something, or bury your head and pretend it isn't happening? I sometimes wish I could do that, my life would be so much easier. But I have stuck my neck out and taken it on, so all I ask is for help. For the animals sake, all people who care, pull together and help each other to do this.
I have been here 6 years living with the misery of animal abuse and trying to do something. The best I could do, the best thing I could think of, was to set up Actin association, that may one day be an authority in fighting and investigating abuse, or to be instrumental in that goal. But how without help? It is a massive task and needs a huge injection of people, support, ideas, finance, sponsorship.....I have ideas, along with some my fantastic committee members and a fearless vice President, Estefania. We need more of you, there is power in numbers and knowledge.
Go on our website, find out what we are doing, join us as a member....I didn't plan for this and neither did many, most of us have to earn a living to survive, most of us yearn for peace and a normal life...not this, we didn't ask for this but more importantly neither did the animals, so what choice have we got?
Website is ... http://www.actin-spain.com
To join as a member .. http://www.actin-spain.com/members-area/
AUCTION ON FACEBOOK.
It would be very much appreciated if you are using Facebook if you'd check out our auction page. Auctions will be run from time to time to help raise funds for the association. Funds are needed to help some of the animals that are rescued and towards campaigns
Kind people donate items to make funds for ACTIN-SPAIN.
Auction on Facebook is .. https://www.facebook.com/pages/ACTIN-Spain-Auctions/541956122486269?ref=ts&fref=ts
For further info ... please email admin@actin-spain.com
