Rubbish in the sea killing sea creatures, SPAD inundated, Car Checks, Carnival Plea
Blog for Wednesday 30th January, 2008
Source : Diário de Notícias 30/1/2008
Some sad stories in todays news, starting off with some distressing news and photographs of sea creatures in trouble as a result of getting caught up in or eating human rubbish discarded in the sea. The pictures show a turtle totally incapacitated after getting caught up in discarded fishing netting, but the story also goes on to explain the often fatal impacts of human rubbish on other sea creatures such as seals and dolphins.
The other is about the number of animals ending up with SPAD, with January already one of the worst months ever. In January 2007, SPAD received 110 homeless animals, whilst already this month it has received 211, mostly dogs. SPAD is always stuck for space to keep animals, and for other resources, and things just seem to get worse. It may be that SPAD is a victim of it’s own publicity, as their work gets good coverage in the media, and people are now taking homeless animals to SPAD instead of leaving them roaming the streets. Also, many of the
admissions come from holiday makers, who are not used to seeing stray animals roaming the streets in their own countries.
If you can help SPAD in any way, details are on the website in the ‘Resources & Information’ section.
Yesterday morning ‘Operation Stop’ using 30 police offices, stopped and checked 385 drivers and vehicles. Aside from one arrest, there were 47 minor offences, 10 serious, and 2 very serious. The operation which started at 7.30 in the morning was unannounced, and as well as catching many drivers by surprise, it also caused traffic congestion in Funchal and in surrounding areas.
If anyone is going to Carnival this weekend (or any of the other days) and has any photographs they would be prepared to submit to madeira4u, I would be grateful. I will create a dedicated page as I did for the new year celebrations.
