Joshua Parfitt
A BRITISH expat who has fought for eight years to rescue dogs trapped in a ‘hellhole’ says town hall councillors do nothing due to their friendship with the owner.
Grace Boas, 63, said there are six podenco hunting dogs stuck in an abandoned house ‘without windows’ on Cami Sant Miquel, near Benimeit, in Teulada.
She said the dogs live surrounded by ‘excrement and worms’ and they ‘never leave’ the property.
“I walk my dogs there every day and they bark non-stop,” Grace, who is secretary of PLUTO Protectora Animales, told the Olive Press.
“Four denuncias, two instancias and a complaint to the EU Commission have been made against their owner, Fernando Serrat, but nothing ever changes,” she explained.
Grace believes nothing has been done is that Serrat’s daughter is the director of the Auditori Teulada and ‘good friends’ with former health councillor Rosa Ana Caselles and former mayor Carlos Linares.
A series of letters addressed to both politicians pleading for ‘a solution’ have gone unanswered.
“We want to give these dogs a life of liberty, without fleas, worms, poor nutrition and horrific conditions,” read one letter to Linares.
She was recently told by Serrat’s daughter that she failed to ‘understand Spanish culture’.
“But is this really culture? It’s certainly not European behaviour, or shouldn’t be,” added Grace, who retired to Spain 15 years for health reasons.
She believes that the keen hunter Serrat, aged 77, is now ‘incapable’ of caring for his six dogs.
However there is hope on the horizon with both Linares and Caselles no longer in power after May’s elections.
She hopes new councillor for Animal Welfare Adrian Ruiz will be more ‘animal friendly’.
“The maltreatment of animals really upsets me,” added Boas, who narrowly missed a seat on Teulada council with the PSOE in the recent elections.
“I’m really praying something can finally be done.”
