Portugal currently has 3.1 million registered pets and since 2021 more than 800 thousand have been registered, in a universe that receives around 12 million euros in state support this year, was announced today.

These figures were revealed today on the occasion of the 2nd Conference on Animal Welfare, organized by the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) and which took place at the Alfândega Congress Center in Porto.

According to that State body, in 2022 support for animal welfare increased to 12 million euros, while in 2021 it was around eight million, which allowed the creation of 47 new collection centers, along with the modernization and renovation of 24 existing installations.

The data released today in a note sent to the Lusa agency, show that in the last year alone, around 800 thousand were registered in the Companion Animal Information System (SIAC), with the number of sterilizations in the last year having increased by 64.12% , for 28,990 animals.

The most sterilized animals were cats (10,840) and cats (6,560), followed by bitches (6,511) and dogs (5,079).

The information sent mentions that the 800,000 pets registered in the SIAC “is one of the clearest indicators of the need for social and legislative evolution in terms of animal welfare, to reinforce the response to the problems that still exist in this field”.

According to the same note, during the 2nd conference held today in Porto, some of the measures that have been put into practice in areas such as the guarantee of protection of companion animals or control plans for the accommodation of companion animals were addressed. , and to implement these strategies, “the state support made available in 2022 can amount to up to 12 million euros”.

The ICNF adds that the analysis of support for 2021 concluded that of the 10.7 million euros of funds made available for animal welfare projects, around 8.1 million were allocated.

Provisional data for 2022, also released at the conference, indicate that, since the creation of the Department of Companion Animal Welfare, in 2021, 522 visits to existing animal accommodations have been carried out by the ICNF and 304 registrations have been issued for the creation of new ones. spaces.

During this period, 291 complaints were filed with the ICNF, mostly related to the omission of care in the accommodation.