After being notified about the violent death of four wild mares in the Galician town of Oia (Pontevedra), Francisco Fernández Marugán, acting Ombudsman of Spain, has begun an intervention against the regional government of Galicia (Consejería de Presidencia de la Xunta de Galicia).
In particular, the Institution has demanded the Xunta to inform about the circumstances surrounding these animals abuse, for it is believed they were beaten to death.
The four mares were rare specimens, known as garranos, they were wild but they had an owner who currently lives in the mountains and annually organizes the traditional “rapas das bestas” in Galicia.
Moreover, the Ombudsman wants to know the jurisdiction that protects this millenary specimen in danger of extinction, as there is no clear agreement whether they are considered wild animals or animals for cattle.
As the Institution underlies in their letter to the Xunta, if they are considered wild animals they should be under the Law of Natural Heritage and Biodiversity (Ley del Patrimonio Natural y de la Biodiversidad), while if they are considered animals for cattle their jurisdiction lies under the Real Decree 804/2011, in which the animal husbandry, sanitation and wellbeing in equine exploitations is regulated, and it stablishes the equine health program (common to other equine specimens).
Animal wellbeing
Every year the Institution receives numerous complaints regarding animal wellbeing. Citizens’ concern for the care and wellbeing of animals, both domestic and wild ones, is ever growing, as so prove the complaints received by this instruction from environmental associations reporting several damages to the existent biodiversity.
Good examples that portray the actions of this Institution are the interventions regarding the jurisdiction of exotic invasive specimens, or the use of diclofenac as a veterinary compound for cattle industry. Other interventions that can be highlighted have to deal with the fact that said environmental associations are still unrecognised as interested in sanctioning procedures by the Administration, which makes them unable to fully participate in the proceeding.
