Regional Government opens applications for support to animal protection associations and official collection centres
The Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and Forestry, through the Regional Directorate for Agriculture, opens Tuesday, January 28, the application period for the allocation of financial support to animal protection associations and Official Collection Centres (CRO). This measure falls within the Regional Government's strategy to improve the welfare of pets.
In the case of animal protection associations, the public support is intended to cover the costs incurred with vaccination, sterilisation, deworming, electronic identification, feeding and veterinarian care provided to stray animals.
In the case of Official Collection Centre, the support, granted this year for the first time, aims to cover the costs of sterilising the animals at their care.
An order published today in the Official Journal states that the access to application forms and their submission should be made online. The registration period is open until February 6.
If we compare the last year of the previous legislative term, 2016, we can see that the Plan's allocation for animal welfare has grown 10 times, from 20 thousand to 200 thousand Euros.
This year, there is a 20% increase in the maximum amount of support to be granted to animal protection associations, a clear sign of encouragement and recognition for the work that these partner entities of the Regional Government carry out on several islands.
The Government also plans to launch this year a computer platform in the Azores later this year that will allow any citizen to report animal cruelty online as well as the regional database containing the mandatory registration of all animals, interconnected with the national platform, under the designation Register of Companion Animals and Stray Animals (RACE).
All the measures under way are an important contribution of the Regional Government to the compliance with the legislation in force, which bans the euthanasia of pets and stray animals in the Azores from 2022 onwards.