Alex Trelinski
THE VALENCIAN COMMUNITY’S emergency 112 number has received 11,177 calls this year up to August 15 about animals.
Over half of the calls- 58%- were about lost and abandoned animals and also include reports of mistreatment, pets that have become trapped, and aggressive behaviour.
24% of calls have been related to protected species that are discovered trapped in hard-to-access places or have been injured, while 9% of callers have reported bee or wasp nests or swarms on buildings or on public roads.
Up to 1% of callers reported alleged violations of the law over game hunting and illegal fishing.
The region says that people spotting marine animals, alive or dead, both on beaches and in coastal waters, attracted 2% of the call total- including sightings of whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, or jellyfish.
Unsurprisingly, incidents increase over the summer months with 66 reports handled in June and 48 in July.
In line with the summer, July saw the largest number of incident reports with 2,426 calls followed by June with 2,439.
In terms of provinces, Valencia dealt with 5,134 calls, followed by Alicante on 4,650 and Castellon with 1,447.
The 112 call team has a set of rules for each type of animal report with information then passed on for action to the Guardia Civil or local police forces as well as wildlife and marine recovery centres across the region in addition to the Oceanographic Foundation.
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