On 15th January 2025, more than a hundred people obstructed the entrance to the animal sanctuary La Manada Cántabra, in Oruña de Piélagos, Cantabria, Spain. They aimed to prevent five cows and their calves, who were seized in 2022 from a farm by the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of the Civil Guard, from being returned to the farmer according to a court ruling.
In March 2022, SEPRONA seized cows from a cattle farm in Sarón because, according to them, they were living in deplorable conditions. SEPRONA contacted La Manada Cántabra sanctuary which sheltered and rehabilitated them. However, the Court of Instruction number 1 of Medio Cudeyo ruled that “there were no indications of animal abuse” and decided to file the case, which implies that the animals must now be returned to the farmer. La Manada Cántabra appealed the sentence twice, but nothing changed.
On the day SEPRONA planned to remove the cows from the sanctuary, they met many activists who had travelled far to prevent this from happening. From 10 a.m. that day, citizens from different parts of Spain, including members of other animal shelters such as La Candela in Seville, Frente L.A. in Lugo (Galicia) and Salvando Peludos in Madrid, gathered in this animal shelter, some of them even chained, under the cry of “These cows are not touched.” Consequently, SEPRONA agents left the place, but they could return another day. The court that ordered the animals to be returned to the farmer will have to decide what to do and whether to try to pick up the animals again.
Patricia López, one of the founders of this sanctuary, told the EFE agency that these animals have been cared for for three years in their facilities after arriving in “a state of malnutrition” and that they are claiming extrajudicially the amount of 150,000 euros from the owner of the cows as maintenance. He also said, “All this depends on the judge, who has also sentenced these animals and we don’t know what she is going to do; now at the moment they are not taking them; for the moment they have managed to stop.”
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