Tom Powell
A GROUND-breaking new animal sanctuary in Ronda is not just tackling cruelty and neglect, but also their causes.
Asociacion Rondena Proteccion Animales (ARPA) aims to fight the underlying problem of why animals are mistreated in the first place by running a full programme of educational activities for groups of children and adults alike.
Owners Aurelio Ottolenghi and Irene Orozco Careras have been rescuing abandoned animals for decades, vaccinating and micro-chipping them before finding them loving homes.
Irene explained: “Today it is impossible to rescue all the animals that need rescuing and find them families – and that’s totally disheartening!
“Therefore it is our responsibility to change the situation, and it’s going to take an awful lot of work.”
ARPA has developed an educational programme, called Human-Animal Symbiosis, which aims to change the way people think about animals.
They are also planning to introduce various activities, such as animal-assisted therapies, a farm school, canine psychology, and a dog park, that will generate a small income to help the running costs of the sanctuary.
For more information visit http://arpsimbiosis.jimbo.com or email patersons2001@hotmail.com
Thank you ARPA, I wish you good luck in all you do.
I hope the new owner activities include training on how to stop their new pet dogs barking all the time like so many around here.
Always good to hear of more aid for animals in Spain. However would prefer to see properly constituted charities doing it. Look what happened to the one on the coast that was closed down recently.