Italy just did something worth celebrating for animal rights. The government created a fund to cover the veterinary care, shelter, and behavioral rehabilitation of dogs rescued from illegal dogfighting operations. This groundbreaking fund takes a large financial burden off the rescue groups and shelters who had been carrying it alone. It's a model other countries should be following, especially the ones where dogfighting remains an ongoing problem. Spain is one of those countries, where the Guardia Civil estimates hundreds of stolen dogs are forced into fighting rings as sparring partners every year, and most never survive it.
Sign the petition urging Spain's government to create its own dedicated fund for the care and rehabilitation of dogs seized from dogfighting.
Dogfighting in Spain has continued to challenge law enforcement, and animal welfare officers who pursue these cases have faced real professional risk for doing so. Police officers who conducted dozens of animal rescues have found themselves reassigned rather than supported.
Meanwhile, the dogs seized in these operations still need urgent veterinary care and long-term behavioral rehabilitation to recover from the trauma they've survived, and shelters are left to absorb those costs with little to no government support.
Italy's fund covers exactly these needs, intake and daily care, veterinary treatment, food, behavioral evaluations, and rehabilitation sessions with trained professionals, for animals seized in dogfighting cases. It's a clear, replicable model.
Spain has the opportunity to give its own rescued dogs the same path to recovery, while making seizures easier to carry out because the shelters that take these dogs in would no longer be doing it at their own expense.
These dogs survived violence they never chose. Sign the petition and demand Spain fund their recovery the way Italy just did.
