Dog on the Playa de La Tejita, with Montaña Roja. Photo Jose Mesa |
Dog beaches in Tenerife could soon be a reality. The Canarian Coalition-Canary Nationalist Party (CC-PNC) group in the Island Council has managed to create a Canine Beaches Plan, so that this entity and the municipalities will coordinate to provide the island with more spaces for pets. The nationalist councillor Antolín Bueno has indicated in a note that "we have managed to get the Cabildo, in collaboration with the municipalities, to commit to designing and executing a plan for the implementation of dog beaches for the use and enjoyment of dogs and their owners, distributed throughout the geography of Tenerife“.
With this plan, the insular corporation will have a budget item to help those councils that require it to cover the expenses for the adaptation, equipment and signage of these beaches for dogs.
Bueno explained that there are currently only three dog-friendly beaches in Tenerife, which are El Callao/Las Bajas (Arona), Puertito de Güímar beach and El Confital beach (Granadilla de Abona).
“They are insufficient to meet the current high demand and, in addition, they are concentrated in the southern part of the island, so all the island's municipalities must be involved in establishing, to the extent possible, spaces for pets," he adds.
In this regard, it should be noted that according to the Zoocan census (Canary Animal Identification Registry) there are 250,957 dogs in Tenerife.
The motion presented by the CC-PNC has had the contribution of other political formations, which have proposed the adoption of the agreement to urge the island's councils to modify the current municipal ordinances for the use and enjoyment of the beaches and, incorporating access to beaches for pets, in the following Insular Council for Animal Protection and Welfare.
Likewise, the Cabildo, in collaboration with the consistories, will study the implementation of a computer application that gathers all the necessary information for visits to the beaches for dogs, their services, rules of use and animal welfare, as well as any other complementary information.