Shelters Rescue Displaced Animals
Workers at an animal shelter in Madrid have described a frantic race to save dozens of dogs and cats displaced by the wildfires tearing through central Spain.
Footage shows staff at the Majadahonda Comprehensive Canine Centre (CICAM) caring for new arrivals evacuated from shelters and sanctuaries in fire-hit parts of Madrid and Avila.
“We started receiving calls on Friday and immediately offered our facilities to take in animals until we reached the capacity we had available,” said CICAM director Guillermo Arranz.
Arranz said the animals arrived exhausted and highly stressed after volunteers coordinated emergency transfers through social media and messaging groups.
Animals Arrive Under Stress
“Most of them are much calmer now, but to give you an idea of how stressed they were when they first arrived, almost all of them had diarrhoea,” he said.
“Everything happened very quickly,” Arranz explained. “The animals arrived exhausted, but we had no health records, no vaccination booklets and no information about their vaccination status.”
As a precaution, the new arrivals are being held in quarantine while veterinarians assess their condition.
Veterinarian Teresa said volunteers had worked for hours without stopping as they ferried animals away from danger.
Wildfires Trigger Emergency Response
“They told us they had been doing it all day, since around 12:30, without even stopping to eat, constantly moving from one place to another transporting dogs,” she said.
The evacuations come as Spain battles what authorities have described as the largest wildfire in the country’s recorded history.
Speaking on Wednesday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain had activated the highest level of emergency response to wildfires for the first time, placing the national government in charge of a unified operation across Madrid and Avila.
Article by Viory
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