Son Reus volunteers ask for resignations: "They have turned it into a prison"

PalmA group of Son Reus volunteers has launched a public campaign to denounce the situation at Palma's animal shelter. They claim that the animals' conditions have severely deteriorated and demand the resignation of those responsible for the facility.

The initiative, driven by the collective Los Ángeles de Son Reus through a petition on Change.org, targets Sebastià Pujol, Director of Animal Welfare in Cort, and Carlos Llopis, provisional director of the center. They accuse them of managing the space without animal welfare criteria: "It has ceased to be a refuge and has become a prison".

Dogs that go months without going for a walk

According to their complaints, the animals' situation has severely deteriorated in recent months. They claim that there are dogs that go months without being taken for walks, that muzzles are imposed without prior adaptation, and that punishments such as isolation are applied. They also warn of deficiencies in the cleanliness of the facilities, insufficient food rations, and episodes of stress among the animals.

Tensions with management

The complaint is not limited to the animals. Volunteers also criticize the treatment received from the center's management. They assure that various people have been expelled from volunteering without a file or justification, even though some had been collaborating for years in the care and socialization of the animals. Furthermore, they denounce that they have been prohibited from accessing the center even as citizens, despite it being a public facility.

According to their explanations, these decisions have been made in a context of "constant tensions" and with threats from the management.

A closed ship

Among the situations they denounce, they also point out that one of the center's sheds remains padlocked from the outside with a sign indicating that “this door must always remain closed”, despite being a passageway for volunteers and potential adopters.

The campaign demands, in addition to resignations, an external audit of the center, the reinstatement of expelled volunteers, and the implementation of individualized protocols for each animal. Furthermore, the promoters have forwarded the complaints to the Palma City Council and have sent an open letter to the mayor, Jaime Martínez, and to the municipal groups to demand urgent changes in the center's management.

Other entities join

Adopta Voluntarios de Son Reus, another entity involved in the defense of the center's animals, has described the situation as "pathetic" in line with Ángeles de Son Reus. The association denounces that the current management is carried out in an authoritarian manner and without considering the experience of the volunteers, whom they consider essential to guarantee the animals' well-being. "A kind of dictatorship has been established, to put it clearly: they don't take us into account and, without us, the dogs wouldn't even go for a walk," remarked one of the volunteers. In this regard, they warn that the progressive exclusion of volunteers may further aggravate the animals' conditions and demand that they be reintegrated into the center's usual operations.