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If you're an animal lover, this one will put a smile on your face. The Spanish government has launched a new grant programme worth almost €4 million to support animal shelters and local councils in caring for abandoned animals and managing feral cat colonies across the country.

 

The funding comes from the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 and is split between two areas. Animal shelters will receive just under €2 million (€1,994,971 to be precise), while local councils and regional bodies have just under €1.95 million available to them for managing community cat colonies in their areas.

 

For shelters, the money is aimed at strengthening the rescue, veterinary care and rehoming work that so many of them carry out day in, day out, often relying heavily on volunteers and donations to keep the lights on. It's hoped that this funding will make a real difference to the animals in their care.

 

The grants for local authorities are focused specifically on feral cat colony management, an increasingly important issue in towns and cities across Spain. Under the Animal Welfare Law, councils are required to manage these colonies in a humane and sustainable way, which in practice means trap-neuter-return programmes, keeping registers of colony cats and making sure their health and welfare are looked after. This funding will help councils, particularly smaller ones with limited resources, to do exactly that.

 

Throughout Spain, there’s always enormous demand for this kind of support. In the last round of grants, more than 2,000 projects were submitted by shelters and local organisations, requesting a combined total of around €55 million, far exceeding the available budget. That figure was up nearly 15% on 2024, which tells you everything about how seriously animal welfare is being taken across the country.

 

The previous round of funding allocated around €4.8 million, so this latest round is slightly lower, but it's still a meaningful commitment and very welcome news for the thousands of animals and the people who look after them.

 

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