Marbella's Triple A animal shelter undergoes a complete renovation

Marbella town hall is undertaking the complete renovation of the Triple A animal shelter with a 1.5 million euro project that aims to modernise the centre that is more than 30 years old. On Tuesday, the Mayor of Marbella, Ángeles Muñoz, and the councillor for Works, Diego López, visited the site, accompanied by the vice-president of the association, Lila Van Tongeren, and Susi Berman, a member of the board of directors, who acted as spokesperson.

At the meeting, the Triple A representatives spoke of the need to make a series of adjustments in order to have more open-air patios. The plans for the new building were made under the previous board of Triple A.

Berman said that "the most important thing is more freedom for the animals because they cannot be kept in cages all their lives". She explained that for the dogs it can “take years to find a family. And with the increase in the number of animals considered as PPT (dangerous dogs), things get more complicated”.

Bergman also said that the board of directors hoped to make amendments to the planned cat house.

"The building is still at the stage where these adjustments can be made and the changes will make a big difference to the welfare of the animals," she said.

The mayor said the work "will be carried out in accordance with the project that was already approved, but also in accordance with the needs that the shelter itself detects".

Project manager, Alberto Gallego, said that the construction work, which is 80 per cent complete, "is at an ideal time to make the cage partitions now that the volumes and spaces can be seen according to the needs of each specific animal and the way they work".

Triple A currently houses 250 dogs and 300 cats. "Originally, there was a dog area of 475 square metres, housing 205 dogs, and now we are providing 607 metres plus 520 metres of yard. We are moving to two dogs per cage," Gallego said. The project manager said the cats would benefit from a much larger space too. "Before there was an area of 135 square metres with 168 felines and this will increase to 257 square metres with 310 animals," he said.