Vulnerable pet parents in Barcelona get free veterinary assistance for animals
In 2016, the Foundation for Advice and Action in Defense of Animals (FAADA) launched the #MejoresAmigos program with the aim of making visible the link between people and animals in vulnerable situations. The program offered social services and resources to help people better care for their pets.
Today, the social division of the foundation attends to more than 1,500 annual requests for cases of people in vulnerable situations. And in the last six years, the team has provided care to more than 400 animals of homeless people in Catalonia. The foundation works with the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), which has published research studies on animals as a source of social and family support for people in vulnerable situations and new family models.
The growing need to respond to families with animals throughout Spain has led the entity this year to establish a collaborative agreement with the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030.
As part of the agreement, the program will:
- Offer free veterinary assistance to the animals of people who can prove a situation of vulnerability.
- Advise and accompany the municipal social services workers in the management of related cases.
- Offer tools and training to professionals who accompany people with pets in vulnerable situations.
The agreement provides the program with a subsidy of approximately $169,000 that will be managed by FAADA to offer free veterinary assistance.
People served through the program include those with animals in a homeless situation, victims of gender violence with animals (who are not yet covered by the Viopet program), people with animals who reside in low-income housing, elderly people with minimum pensions who live with an animal and people with animals who, although they have a home, live in a situation of economic vulnerability.
Veterinary services included in the program:
- Vaccination
- Spay or neuter
- De-worming
- Euthanasia and cremation.
About FAADA
We are a private independent non-profit foundation which has been active since 2004. At first our main activity was sponsoring, adopting and rescuing wild animals and pets. As a result of the experience, we acquired as professionals in the sector, in 2012 we decided to begin a process of internal transformation. We knew that the time had come to put our knowledge and resources towards getting to the root of the problems in the most strategic way, taking action in social, legal and educational areas. Learn more at: https://faada.org/en
This article was originally published in Portal Veterinaria.
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