It’s a “human chain” protest that will link animal lovers the length and breadth of Portugal – and, in the Algarve, it takes place on Sunday (November 24), in front of Silves Câmara building at 4pm.
Elsewhere in the country, protests will be held in Lisbon, Figueira da Foz, Braga, Palmela, Ponta Delgada – in fact, across a whole host of areas where stray animals are destroyed, with no efforts being made by responsible authorities towards sterilisation or fostering and adoption programmes.
It is this “medieval attitude” that the national group, “Cordão Humano”, objects to.
“Every year hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs are destroyed in municipal kennels in the majority of councils,” Armando Frade, of Cordão Humano’s Silves branch explained to the Algarve Resident.
Yet the money spent on catching and destroying strays could so easily be spent more humanely on rehoming and sterilising, he said.
It’s a feeling shared by animal rights campaigner Bridget Hicks who has been active in Portugal for over 50 years and claimed recently that trying to change things for the better for animals here was “like trying to carry water in a sieve”.
