The Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Medicine (DGAV) has this Wednesday opened applications for state financial support aimed at promoting animal welfare. The €14.5 million fund will be distributed across seven separate schemes, available to local councils and animal protection associations, with applications closing on 13 October.
For reference, mainland Portugal has more than 930,000 stray animals, including an estimated 830,541 cats and 101,015 dogs, according to data from the first National Census of Stray Animals released by the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF).
According to information published on the DGAV website – the body that took over responsibility for animal welfare from the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) on 1 July, applicants may apply under seven different calls for funding. These include investment in infrastructure, veterinary services and food provision, sterilisation campaigns for stray dogs and cats, and the promotion of electronic identification, among other initiatives.
Almost half of the total allocation (€7.6 million) is earmarked for infrastructure investment. This includes official animal shelters, public veterinary hospitals, facilities to support the Capture, Neuter and Return (CNR) programme, legally registered animal welfare associations, kennel parks and mobile veterinary units.
The second-largest package, worth €4 million, will go towards covering sterilisation costs for dogs and cats carried out between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025. The DGAV will reimburse between €25 (for a cat) and €77 (for a female dog), with a ceiling of €40,000 per council or association.
At the lower end, €100,000 has been set aside to reimburse animal welfare associations for veterinary product expenses incurred over the same period, capped at €3,000 per association. A further €200,000 will support the use of electronic identification devices for companion animals.
In addition, the government has launched a €600,000 programme to help create animal facilities within temporary accommodation structures such as women’s shelters, homeless centres and care homes. However, animal welfare associations are excluded from this specific scheme.
The funding announcement follows mounting criticism from the sector. In August, SOS Animal warned that many associations were on the brink of “financial collapse” due to the absence of public support. The group sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture and the Sea demanding urgent answers and criticising the “systematic silence” of the ICNF, which had previously overseen funding.
Sandra Duarte Cardoso, president of SOS Animal, said associations were not even informed about the transfer of responsibility to the DGAV. She stressed the urgency of opening applications, as the eligible expenses date back to the previous year. Without open programmes, she argued, the costs of 2024 and 2025 have been borne solely by the organisations. “There are associations taking on debt after debt, heading towards financial collapse because of the lack of support,” the veterinary surgeon warned in August.
