Party Vibe

Not all Catholics think animals have no souls (I was baptised as one) [1], even in my Catholic schools in the 1980s they taught us that God told us to look after all the creatures and there was a lot of nature education (though they tended not to do the “birds and bees” quite as much).

TBH the lack of animal welfare in ES and GR is much more likely because the poor blighters are all skint and on the verge of civil war yet again! Its a big difference even across Europe. I can’t actually remember the last time I encountered a genuinely stray/lost creature and I am always travelling between urban and rural areas.

I did find a cow in the country roads once whilst cycling so I asked some old people who were looking at it whether I should call 999/112 (like 911) or anyone else had (so the emergency services can make sure it does not get onto the faster town highways) but they told me the farmer was their friend and they had already called him on his mobile.

If I see a wandering dog usually its owner is nearby. In some mainland Northern European countries as well as free healthcare for people they have animal ambulances (part funded by donations and the council) and literally any roaming creature is picked up and taken to the vet (many pets have ID chips and their owners can be traced).

There is a “crazy cat couple” by me who get given a van by the animal charity and catch and rehome all the stray cats and kittens. They used to have a halfway house for cats but the adults go elsewhere and they only keep kittens now – the adult cats clawed a hole in the cat man’s shed, broke out and terrorised all the other cats in the estate and trashed people gardens. Cats usually do this sort of stuff at night, and they would return back through the hole they made so they would get fed in the morning.

so it took a while for the neighbourhood safety team and the Council (along with the cat man and his wife) to work out what had happened, as of course they count the cats at feeding time and didn’t realise any were missing :laugh_at:

[1] A Catholic, not an animal though I have been known to meow with cats and howl with dogs, you can do this in Northern Europe, it is not viewed as that abnormal :laugh_at:

@The Psyentist 530194 wrote:

I have to disagree with this as I used to frequently go to Spain on holidays in the 90s when the tourism was still keeping the countries economy afloat and the situation was very much the same as it is now.

the economy was never that “afloat” in those countries, nor were they that democratic even during the good times. OK people had “jobs” but it was all though corruption and overinflation of the headcounts needed. In any case money just poured out of these countries into safer investments in Northern Europe and the richer local people themselves themselves did it (hence todays problems with the Eurozone).

There have been problems brewing up in Southern European nations since before WW II, Spain wasn’t even a democratic nation within my living memory. When the fascists ran out of power and energy (not even sure if they were defeated as such) they were forgiven and unpunished and now they are taking that country back to the dark times again.

The point I am making is that religion is used here as an excuse, same as how some people try and excuse having a war and blowing up others because of their religion. (ironically local spanish criminals sold the Muslim terrorists the explosives required for the Madrid bombing and that was when the economy was in a better state).

The real reason is that certain people simply want to have a position of power and dominance or are fighting a resource war. The way the Spanish treat their immigrants from poorer countries is equally bad as the animal rights issues, similar things happening in Greece with support for hard right wing organisations and direct action against immigrants in the streets (animal rights and human rights are interlinked).

The reason you may be seeing more strays unfortunately is linked to the economy.

Stray animals have been a problem for centuries (even more so when livestock keeping was more widespread), even if you don’t have the expensive mainland European shelter networks there was a stray animal catcher etc and a local pound (and a lot of dogs especially still are caught and put down).

but with the budget cuts across many countries the animal control staff have been downsized or laid off and there is no one to catch the strays!

@DeezNuts 530216 wrote:

I haven’t ever seen a stray animal in England I don’t think.

where you live if they can escape being knocked down on the roads they are liable to be caught and taken to a vet or shelter – TBH the same applies for most relatively affluent areas of Southern and Eastern England.

As cats are not confined to houses and can go semi feral a lot easier its not always easy to work out if a cat is a stray or a pet, and a roaming dog is usually noticed and caught.

The only place I’ve seen roaming strays is in Malaysia and even there they are starting to capture and rehome them.