The Countdown for the Benalmádena Shelter After 35 Years

In 1989, Fidelio, the animal shelter in Benalmádena, was established. It was made possible thanks to the precarious transfer of a municipal plot in Benalmádena Pueblo ... and the will, determination, and effort of Helen Elizabeth Williams and a group of volunteers who manually built the accommodation for all the city's abandoned dogs. After more than 35 years, Fidelio is forced to give up its space. The local City Council has begun to make room for the Hispano-Chinese Friendship Park, a project on a surface of more than 24,000 square meters that includes gardens, Buddhist temples, and a cemetery, which requires the plot occupied by the shelter.

What was the star project of Benalmádena in the last edition of the Madrid Tourism Fair (Fitur) has thus crossed paths with Fidelio. On July 30, the City Council announced the signing of an agreement by which the entity committed to "free up the" municipal space it occupied and they offered "its relocation to other municipal lands, which have a technical feasibility report for use as a zoological nucleus," located in the Santángelo area.

The agreement marked the beginning of the countdown for Fidelio. The shelter has since then one year to leave the facilities and find a foster home for the more than 30 dogs it hosts. The City Council regretted in the statement through which the announcement was made that the entity had decided to "withdraw from activity and dissolve the shelter, due to various reasons, including the upcoming retirement of its president." But members of the organization reply: "What happens is that Helen, the president, was forced to sign the agreement, and feels that what she has built over all these years is being destroyed and she no longer has the strength to continue and start over from scratch."

A group of volunteers has started a petition campaign that already has more than 3,600 supports to keep the shelter open "as long as there is no alternative"

Therefore, a group of volunteers from the entity has started a signature collection campaign on the platform change.org, where they already have 3,628 supports, and have launched a support and dissemination initiative on social networks. The volunteers ask to "keep Fidelio open as long as there is no alternative," to continue "rescuing and collecting any type of animals without any restrictions" and for "the municipal government to explain what their action plan is."

No new admissions

The last two claims are made as they ensure that the City Council does not allow them to collect more abandoned dogs because the goal set by the City Council, and in which it has promised to collaborate with awareness campaigns and open house days, is to find a foster home for the dogs that are currently in the facilities of Benalmádena Pueblo. "But we already know what will happen, the most problematic and older dogs, no one will take them in," says Yana Harris, one of the more than 60 fixed volunteers of the entity, who also complains that the plot offered in Santángelo does not meet the necessary conditions.

The government team assures that it is making an "unreserved commitment" to create a shelter, and that it maintains a contract for this purpose with the Paraíso center, a zoosanitary nucleus that last month hosted more than 30 animals collected in Benalmádena. "In Fidelio no more animals are admitted, there are empty cages, and I myself called the Local Police to pick up a dog and they did not give me a solution; so if this is the situation at least what should be done is not to destroy a refuge that cost so much to build, allow the continued collection of animals and postpone the change of location until there was an alternative," claims Harris.