Many times dogs or cats are welcomed and adopted without taking into account that caring for them can be expensive, since visits to the veterinarian can involve a significant outlay. A consultation with a veterinarian at home can cost up to 90 euros, a normal consultation starts at 15 euros in the cheapest cases, and emergency visits cost up to more than 60 euros. Obviously, without counting more specific treatments, medication or veterinary tests. These expenses, which many families could not afford, resulted in a lack of care for the health of these animals. However, with the implementation of the Animal Welfare Law, aid for free veterinary care is contemplated.
To help people in vulnerable situations take proper care of their pets, a series of financial incentives have been launched so that visiting the veterinarian is not a problem. Pets are, or should be, another member of the family unit. Their care is important and in recent months great steps have been taken in our country to improve the well-being of companion animals.
The ‘Best Friends’ Programme, which has been launched by the Foundation for Advice and Protection in Defense of Animals in Social Control Comp Hos and Agenda 2030, Wants to Reduce Animal Suffering Incidental to the Need to Take Our Pets to the veterinarian when necessary. Due to the cost of the veterinarian, which not everyone can afford, the program intends to care for animal welfare and protect the bond between people in vulnerable situations and their animals, allowing them to take them to the veterinarian for free.
Beneficiaries of aid for free veterinary care
This aid consists, therefore, of giving people with a vulnerable economic situation the possibility of taking their pets to the veterinarian when necessary without having to bear any cost. The beneficiaries of this free veterinary assistance aid are:
People who are homeless or homeless. Victims of gender violence who are not covered by the Viopet program. People who live in substandard housing. Older people alone. People who live in precarious conditions, even if they have a home.
The companion animals included in this assistance will be, in addition to dogs and cats, all those with which the person has and demonstrates an attachment situation, in addition to the animal in question living with the person.
How to request free veterinary assistance
The processing and management of the aid will be carried out through social services and FAADA. Obviously, in order to enjoy free veterinary assistance once help has been requested, this association will analyze each case so that it can be demonstrated that, indeed, there is an emotional and positive bond between the applicant and their pet.
Thus, the procedure must be registered through the Best Friends program, where the request for support and the certificate of the vulnerability situation must be presented. The application and therefore the activation of the entire procedure must be carried out through the municipal social services of the place of residence or at the town hall.
It will be the FAADA that will be responsible for paying for the veterinary services once they have been enjoyed, and this association will also be the one that will look for the veterinary center where you can go with the pet that needs it. The services contemplated in this program are: vaccination, identification, sterilization, deworming, justified euthanasia and incineration of the animal.
