Those of us who already comb, to a greater or lesser extent, gray hair, have the advertisement of the Affinity Foundation from 1988, in which a black car opened its door, left a mastiff breed dog in the middle of a road and he was leaving as an accusing voice boomed out saying “He would never do it. Don’t give it up.”
This campaign was not only broadcast on television, but the image of the dog with a look full of sadness watching how that car with its supposed family was driving away, flooded the streets of the cities not only in the year of its launch, but has endured over time and can even be seen in many places today.
With this initiative, the aim was to raise awareness about the abandonment of pets, which, more than 30 years later, continues to be a scourge in our country . It has been three decades since this campaign, which especially marked an entire generation of children and adolescents who were given a slap in the face of reality: that of thousands of pets that were abandoned with the arrival of the summer holidays.
An advertisement that for many was the beginning of a greater sensitivity towards animals and a fight to stop their abandonment.
30 years ago there was not the same social conscience for animal welfare, abuse or abandonment. Not to mention “pet friendly” accommodation, beaches or restaurants with which to access with our pets or accessibility to residences or caregivers for our pets. What about identification? Rare was the animal that had the microchip implanted and lucky was the one that, at most, had a little badge that put its name and the owner’s telephone number.
All this was the perfect breeding ground for a family that was going to go on vacation to decide to leave their faithful companion abandoned until now and become a summer “bother”. So, the numbers of abandonment during the summer months or bridges or Easter (or any date that coincides with vacation times), increased exponentially .
But does this still happen today or thanks to the greater involvement of society in the protection of animals has something changed? According to the latest study “‘He would never do it” by the Affinity Foundation on the abandonment, loss and adoption of pets in Spain in 2021, the only rebound that can be seen, as far as dogs are concerned, is at the end the hunting season . The rest of the year, including the summer months, there is no significant difference.
In cats, there is an increase during the arrival of good weather , coinciding with the reproductive stage of felines. Therefore, it cannot be said that the rates of abandonment of “the kings of the internet”, our feline companions, increase with the arrival of the holidays.
And what about the rest of the pets? Once again we have to regret that there is no data on pets other than dogs and cats. It should be remembered that the Affinity Foundation is a private entity that annually prepares its famous “He would never do it” report, thanks to which we can estimate figures for the abandonment of dogs and cats. To date, there are no reports from any public entity , despite the fact that public administrations are responsible for animals in a situation of abandonment, which accounts for the animals that are collected by animal protection centers and animal protection associations.
Although, according to the studies of the Affinity Foundation in recent years, it seems that the rates of abandoned animals do not increase considerably during the summer, we will have to wait to see how it evolves after the “return to normality”.
The pandemic has also affected the relationship we have with pets . The number of families that have pets has increased considerably since 2020, partly due to the situation we were going through: the loneliness we felt during confinement, spending more hours at home thanks to teleworking…
After two years of restrictions, this, 2022, is the first summer in which tourism is really returning to pre-coronavirus levels . Will pets once again be victims of human selfishness? Or will we really be defenders of all the company they have given us in the worst moments and will we seek to spend a family vacation with them?
References:
Dr. Jaume Fatjo. 2021. Study “He would never do it” by the Affinity Foundation on the abandonment, loss and adoption of pets in Spain 2021
