Alicante collects nearly a hundred abandoned animals from the streets each month

The municipal shelter in Alicante has taken in 1,115 animals between January 2024 and June 2025. In the first six months of this year, 402 animals arrived at the facilities, of which 221 were dogs and 75 were cats. The average monthly intake is 95 animals, according to data from the Alicante City Council.

In the case of cats, it should be noted that since 2015 they have not been collected in the city unless they are sick, in danger, or found in sensitive areas that may pose a problem according to current regulations. Since 2016, Alicante has been working with the capture, sterilisation, and release method, as well as capture, sterilisation, and return.

This service will continue for at least two more years because the Local Government Board plans to award the contract for the collection and adoption service at the municipal shelter to the Alicante Society for the Protection of Animals and Plants for 289,187 euros this Tuesday.

The Councillor for Health and Animal Protection, Cristina Cutanda, has highlighted the importance of this service, which is responsible for "removing abandoned or ownerless animals from public roads and placing them in appropriate facilities, with the aim of preventing risk situations in public health and animal welfare, ensuring their care, and promoting and managing the adoption of these animals."

The service also includes awareness talks on responsible pet ownership in educational centres and notes that "among the new responsibilities" for municipalities established by Law 7/2023, of March 28, on the Protection of Animal Rights and Welfare, and Law 2/2023, of March 13, of the Generalitat, on the Protection, Welfare, and Ownership of Companion Animals and other Animal Welfare measures, is the "obligation" to provide a 24-hour service throughout the year. The Alicante local administration has emphasised that in this regard, it is "ahead," as it has already been providing this service since 2019.