The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 will offer free veterinary attention or reduced prices for people in vulnerability situations that live with pets and cannot assume those costs due to economic problems.
This initiative is part of the ‘Best Friends’ program, developed by FAADA (Foundation for Advice and Action in Defense of Animals) with the financing of the General Directorate of Animal Rights and presented Tuesday at an act in Madrid. This program aims to expand social protection coverage to vulnerable people.
In addition, it will train social workers in the specific care required by vulnerable people who have company animals, giving guidelines on how to handle the situations they can face and what types of resources are available to carry out adequate management in These cases.
“Novel approaches”
The Secretary of State for Social Rights, Rosa Martínez, highlighted in the presentation of the program that public policies “require novel approaches that put people and their needs in the center.”
He mentioned as an example that program, since it makes visible and includes the companion animals of vulnerable people “within the rights that we must guarantee them and as a fundamental part of their life projects.”
“Spanish society is also changing, in its conception of care and how we should protect families,” said Martínez, who alluded to initiatives like this including pets as a fundamental part of the family nucleus, “especially for Those who, in situations of vulnerability such as withouthogarism or loneliness, face greater material and emotional difficulties ».
The ‘Best Friends’ program was born in Barcelona in 2016 as a project to make visible the link between people and animals in vulnerability, and extended to the state level in 2023, when the Ministry of Social Rights signed a collaboration agreement with FAADA , the foundation that promoted this initiative.
«We aspire that the attention we receive from the protection systems not only is quality, but also respects our preferences and wills. And we are aware that company animals are part of all this, ”said Martínez.
The presentation of the program was attended by José Ramón Becerra, General Director of Animal Rights, and NOE Terrasa, responsible for the social program of domestic animals in Faada.
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