We are increasingly ARISTOPETERS. That is something we love and that fills us with joy. We don't know each other, but we have a common love that means, deep down, we share much more than we imagine. Unfortunately, what we don't share, in most cases, is the legal framework.
In Spain, the registration of companion animals is an autonomous competence. There is no single national register, as in other countries. Therefore, the role of the Spanish Network for Companion Animal Identification, commonly known as REIAC, is very limited. This, logically, has a series of consequences. Starting with the fact that it is very difficult to obtain real figures for the number of registered and identified companion animals throughout the national territory.
That's why we have to resort to studies prepared for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment. According to data from the latest one, prepared in November 2015, in Spain there are 7,438,689 registered ARISTODOGS, 430,683 ARISTOCATS and 48,456 other species of pets (birds, fish, poultry and small mammals, such as ferrets, hamsters...).
If we zoom in on the report, we see that Andalusia is the community with the most registered ARISTOPETS: 2,164,686 ARISTODOGS, 119,367 ARISTOCATS and 27,624 animals of other species. Followed by Madrid, with 1,132,936 ARISTODOGS and 139,109 ARISTOCATS; Catalonia and the Valencian Community. At the opposite extreme is Navarre, which is the community with the fewest ARISTODOGS (only 151,256) and Extremadura, which is the region with the fewest ARISTOCATS and other species of animals: 1,930 and 325 respectively.
The entities responsible for registration warn, on the one hand, that when the animal dies, the owner usually does not communicate the deregistration, unless it occurs in the veterinary clinic itself. Therefore, there may be many registrations that actually correspond to animals that have already died. On the other hand, they report that ARISTODOG registration is more widespread than ARISTOCAT registration. In part, this is due to the fact that the cat is a domestic animal, which does not usually go out, so the need for identification in case of loss loses strength. Likewise, in cities there is more awareness of the importance of proper registration than in towns, since in many towns the custom of animals roaming freely still persists. For all this, this type of data should be taken with a pinch of salt.
What cannot be taken with a pinch of salt is the lack of consensus and uniformity among companion animal registration and identification systems. Because it affects us and our best friends.
– There are 17 different animal protection laws. Each one regulates different aspects and establishes different rules, ranging from the species whose identification is mandatory to the mandatory nature of vaccines.
– There are 17 different databases. Each community has its own independent database, unrelated to the others. The fields collected in said database, of course, also vary.
– There is no homogeneity regarding procedures or regulations. For example, in Madrid, a dog is considered abandoned if its owner does not claim it within ten days. While in Andalusia, this period is reduced to five.
There is also no homogeneity in the management of registrations. In some communities, management is carried out by the administration itself, while in others it is carried out by the College of Veterinarians.
This generates endless complications and a desperate level of paperwork and bureaucracy. However, the most serious thing happens when an ARISTOPET gets lost in an autonomous community where it is not registered. These cases can become a real hell due to the loss itself, but also due to the helplessness it generates...
a) The lack of contact between registers. It can make it impossible to transfer data, as these are private databases and the entities that manage them are not obliged to provide information due to the Data Protection Law.
b) The difficulty in contacting owners, as they are under different legal frameworks. Furthermore, if contact details are not updated, they may not receive the corresponding notifications and their animal may be declared abandoned. This, in addition to the harm it causes to the ARISTOPET, entails significant legal repercussions.
For all these reasons, until this is resolved, we recommend that you have your ARISTOPETS properly registered, with perfectly updated data. As for us, let it not be said that we didn't try. In this post we explain how to do it.
