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1984 - 2010
The Canary Islands’ biggest fortnightly English newspaper read by thousands of tourists & residents Edition # 630 /
19th November - 3rd December 2010
/ 1.80€ at Newsagents / www.islandconnections.eu / www.newscanarias.net
Live Arico/Ostrich farm face off
Unicef
“Not guilty!”
(l-r) Eugenio di Mommio Juan Vicens
T
he owner of the ostrich farm located alongside Live Arico dog refuge in Granadilla has made a further accusation against the installation, claiming that two more ostrich chicks were killed by a dog (or dogs) from the refuge on Sunday November 14th.
Juan Vicens told local press, “this is the third time my birds have been attacked by dogs from the refuge, which operates without a licence yet the authorities have not lifted a finger so far”. He added that he would be taking further legal action (there has already been one adjourned court case following earlier allegations) against Live Arico and Granadilla council over the attacks, which, he says, are ruining his livelihood. In our previous issue we reported that Vicens has claimed that since Live Arico opened their refuge beside his ostrich farm and restaurant he has lost, he calculates
Christmas 2010
up to €60,000 as the chicks that are hatching are weak and not surviving. He says the presence of the dogs is disturbing his birds greatly, and has claimed that at times the noise levels from the refuge are unbearable, day and night. Live Arico founder Eugenio di Mommio has completely rejected the accusation that any one of his or the refuge’s dogs was responsible for any bird deaths on the Sunday
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in question, and the local police haven’t taken any of his dogs away following the attack. (Vicens countered by stating to Island Connections “of course, an assassin doesn’t admit his guilt”). When we called to the refuge following the initial complaints a few weeks ago Eugenio readily admitted that his dog had taken part in one attack, the dog was chipped in his name and is already
back with him, but says there is no way that his dogs were involved in the latest incident. Regarding claims that the refuge is not in possession of all the proper licensing he told us that all the paper work is proceeding, they are working to erect an electric fence around the zone, and complete the work that will qualify the refuge for all the required ‘zoological’ authorisation needed. It would appear that this is a stor y that won’t go away, but neither side seem any nearer to reaching an amicable accord. A live ‘face off’ on Canarian television didn’t do anything to bring the issue closer to resolution, and contributors to the Tenerife Forum, Twitter and Facebook continue to keep this one going. Vicens says that one of them has to go – and he will wait to see which one the courts decide to close. Watch this space.
Suffer little children A
n extremely worrying report by Unicef claims that four out of 10 children in the Canaries are living in poverty. In the report, Infancia en España 20102011, the Spanish situation as a whole is revealed as unhealthy and getting worse. In the last five years since the previous investigation, the percentage of children in Spain living in poverty has increased from 23 per cent to 24.1 per cent. This puts Spain at the tail end of the European Union with only Rumania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Italy reporting a worse showing. The Canaries are at the head of the shame list in Spain registering the highest level of child poverty. Marta Arias, a co-writer of the report, explained, “to be a poor child in Spain doesn’t necessarily mean being hungry, but it does mean that there is more possibility of being undernourished; it doesn’t mean no access to education, but it does mean that parents will probably have problems facing educational costs and that the children are more likely to give up studying; it doesn’t mean that they can’t go to the doctor, but it does mean that they will have problems to pay for some treatments”. Unicef Spain are asking that a minimum of 1.4 per cent of the gross national product be used in social programmes for children, that a national plan to fight child poverty be drawn up to clarify the real needs and find answers to them, and asks for a consensus of, “all the social and political forces”.
Unesco awards
Prizes
Page 55
Two Canarian hotels rewarded for excellence in environmental intitiatives
Page 3
Justin Harman
football
CD Tenerife
away point but no respite from relegation fears
Ireland’s Ambassador to Pages 6-7 Spain, interviewed
Pages 21-36
Guide
Pages 8-9
The Sports Megastore 8.000m2
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