There has been collaboration for twenty years. The foundation provides expert reports in cases of animal mistreatment, while it looks after animals that have been seized for a variety of criminal reasons - police operations against drug traffickers, money laundering and the illegal trading and possession of certain animals. It is currently involved in a number of cases under investigation by courts in Majorca and Ibiza. The foundation notes that, since 2016 and at the request of courts, it has taken in 237 fighting cockerels and thirty horses. It says that it has spent the past eighteen months trying to get the justice ministry to understand that looking after these animals comes at a cost. An unaffordable debt has therefore been accumulated.
The government maintains that it is unable to pay until courts have set sentences. The foundation argues that under civil prosecution law this is not entirely correct and that the justice ministry has adopted a negative attitude. An animal, the foundation stresses, is not like a car that has been seized and which can be parked for three years and need no attention. The animals eat each day. They have to be cleaned. Some need veterinary services. No one at the justice ministry or in the courts is interested in the day-to-day welfare and health of the animals, the foundation alleges.
What will happen, Natura Parc asks, when it can no longer admit animals that have been seized. "Who will take care of them then?"
