"Here, yes"
In 1995, the Affinity Foundation carried out a survey at a national level in order to find out what pets’ owner thought about all the barriers that made it difficult for them to enjoy themselves together with their pets in public spaces and transport.
In 2005, so as to bring data up to date, 3.000 pets’ owners were polled again; the new results were compared with those of the survey carried out ten years earlier and the main conclusions were:
- Spanish families continue to suffer discrimination when they want to enjoy themselves in their pets’ company in public spaces and transport.
- 80% of pets’ owners state that they have resigned themselves to the presence of the barriers, imposed on them by society or public Administrations, which are restricting their freedom of movement.
- The pets’ owners who participated in the survey said that they would like to encounter fewer impediments when moving around with their pets and to be able to gain access to any place with them.
- Pets’ owners are absolutely willing to have their dogs muzzled and on leads and to carry their cats in bags or boxes, as well as to have the vaccination report card on them when travelling by bus or by Underground, as people are allowed to do in the rest of Europe.
- Almost 80% of them state that they have resigned themselves to the presence of the barriers, imposed on them by society or public Administrations, which are restricting their freedom of movement.
- On the other hand, 86% of pets’ owners believe that the use of urban and interurban public transport would increase if there were no barriers preventing them to get on with their pets.
- Finally, the survey points out that 9 out of 10 pets’ owners consider that existing prohibitions preventing the use of transport by people with pets are not appropriate for a developed country.
Holiday periods
Following the 2005 Here, yes campaign, the number of pets’ owners who put up at a hotel during holiday periods has spectacularly increased by 25% in relation to 1995 and it presently amounts to 47,1%. 37,2% of pets’ owners spend their holidays in their summer residence, 25,7% of them rent an apartment, 15% more stay at a camping site, 4,2% put up at rural tourism boarding houses, and the remaining 4% stay in friends’ or relatives’ houses.
Even though 11,8% of pets’ owners say that they never go away on holiday, the number of those who do go away has notably increased over the last ten years. Among the latter, 71,1% take their pets along, good news if you take into account the fact that this percentage has increased by 12 points in relation to the results of the survey that was carried out in 1995. The profile of those who take their pets along more often is that of the families that spend their holidays in their summer residence, in rented apartments, at camping sites or in rural tourism boarding houses, whereas those who put up at a hotel have to look for other options, such as taking their pets to some friends’ or relatives’ houses, finding a home where they can be looked after or leaving them alone at home under some kind of surveillance.
Grounds for the 2005 Here, yes survey
In 1995, the Affinity Foundation carried out a survey based on 5.000 questionnaires to be filled in by people living with pets, and aimed at assessing their opinions concerning the barriers they have to face up to in their everyday life. The results showed the helplessness the pets’ owners felt as they were seeing their freedom restricted in everyday situations such as the use of public transport because trains, the Underground as well as urban and interurban buses did not allow passengers accompanied by pets.
Ten years alter that first survey, the Affinity Foundation decided to carry out the same survey again in order to obtain comparative results and, once more, to help making the voice of pet owning families more articulate.
At the present time, the situation continues to be unjustifiable, more particularly if we compare the state of affairs in Spain with what is going on in most European countries in which this kind of discrimination does not exist. Such an unjust treatment has been condemned by experts in Constitutional Law who stress that RENFE, the Spanish National Railway Company, along with the Underground and bus companies are hindering the freedom of circulation officially recognized by the 1978 Spanish Constitution when they prohibit people accompanied by pets from using public transport. Only the Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat de Catalunya, the Catalan railway company, admits animals of all sizes on all their routes, in suburban as well as regional trains.
