ANIMAL’S HEALTH AND WELFARE

The Veterinary Medical Service – the Municipal Kennels-Cattery ensures the containment of the prophylaxis of rabies and of other transmittable diseases, the control of stray animals, the implementation of control actions in the scope of the animal’s health and welfare, the prevention of insalubrity situations, as well as of insecurities and illegalities related to the ownership and maintenance of the animals in its respective municipal action area.

In the Municipal Kennels-Cattery of Coimbra (Municipal Center of Official Collection of Companion Animals of Coimbra) are housed the animals which have been collected on the public highways, and based on the good veterinary medicinal practices of kennels and catteries, and in compliance with the legislation in force, the animals for adoption are made available already treated against parasites as well as sterilized.

It is the mandatory location for the official quarantine of aggressive animals without an immunologically valid vaccination against rabies.

The Municipal Kennels-Cattery also collects dead animal bodies.

ASSIGNMENTS:

– Direction and technical coordination of the Official Collection Centre – Municipal Kennels-Cattery;

– Remove/collect animals from the public highways or from households and provide housing, in the scope of the safeguard of the health and welfare conditions of the animal;

– Promote the fight and epidemiological surveillance of animal rabies and of other zoonoses aiming for the prevention of the transmission of infectious diseases to man;

– Raise fines for offences related to animals;

– Ensure the hygiene health inspection and control of the accommodation facilities for animals;

– Assess the conditions and provide feedback on the accommodations of companion animals and livestock species, as well as ensure the monitoring, assessment and the resolution of problems associated with animal welfare, health and public tranquility;

– Assess/inspect the situations that are the cause of anxiety and/or insalubrity provoked by animals;

– Ensure the official control of the hygiene and health as well as of the health and welfare conditions of the animals housed in Circuses;

– Carry out medical-veterinary analysis at the request of police forces and/or by determination of the public prosecution or by any other judicial authorities, whether in the work field of the health, sanity and welfare of the animals, whether in the work field of hygiene and safety of the animal and human food or in the field of veterinary public health;

– Carry out inspections of the Medical Vet Care Centers and of other establishments providing care to animals, namely pet stores, and verify the respective licenses;

– Notify mandatory declaration diseases and take immediate and biosafety urgent measures determined by the National Veterinary Health Authority, upon of detection of cases of diseases of an epizootic character;

– Develop information relating to the nosonecrological movement of animals;

– Collaborate in the realization of the animal census and surveys of interest for the livestock and/or economic fields;

– Ensure the control and health surveillance of fairs, exhibitions and animal contests;

– Promote and carry out activities of training, information and dissemination among the population on matters related to animals and to the protection of animal health and welfare, as well as on the protection of the health and public tranquility, and on the safeguard of people’s, animals’ and goods’ safety;

– Collaborate in articulation with other services of the Municipality in the drafting of Regulations or Municipal ordinances, in the areas of animal health and welfare and in the area of veterinary public hygiene.

SERVICES PROVIDED IN THE MUNICIPAL KENNELS-CATTERY:

– Collection and capture of walking animals, stray or abandoned, after considered all the risk factors which determine the priority in its collection, and considering the capacity of the facilities;

– Promotion of the adoption of companion animals, as well as their restitution;

– Promotion of the deworming and sterilization of all the adopted animals;

– Participation and collaboration in the activity arising out of the System of Identification of Canids and Felines (SICAFE);

– Removal/collection of the dead bodies of the public highway, and its routing for incineration, in the scope of safeguarding Public Health;

– Acceptance of the corpses of companion animals from private households, after the payment of the municipal fee in force;

– Implement the measures of medical and health prophylaxis officially determined by the competent National Veterinary Health Authority on companion animals, including the health campaigns of rabies vaccination and of electronic identification (canids and felines);

– Ensure that the animals suspect to be ill as well as those which are aggressive towards people and other animals are put into quarantine;

– Free check of the electronic identification on the animal and in the databases;

– Registration and customer service (through telephone or face-to-face) about requests of capture or collection/signalization of stray animals or corpses in the region;

– Promotion of the adoption of animals whose owners want or need to put an end to their ownership;

– Implementation of CSDR programs (Capturing-Sterilizing and Deworming – Returning) after checking if the conditions for the effect are met;

– Dissemination and implementation of the program “In Coimbra, the cats go to school”, through informative actions about the program and the availability of sociable kittens, dewormed, vaccinated and sterilized;

– General information about legislation related to companion animals or others, in the scope of the municipal competences.

The fight against animal abandonment is promoted through:

• Awareness of the residents;

• Sterilization of the adopted animals;

• Establishment of CSR programs (capturing, sterilizing and returning) for cats;

• Electronic identification of the animals

HYGIENE AND FOOD SAFETY

With the aim of ensuring compliance with the legal requirements on food safety, audits are carried out to the retail outlets of food products.

ASSIGNMENTS:

– Ensure the hygienic-health control of school meals, preparation places and transport and plating places, within the scope of the municipal competences;

– Ensure the hygiene health inspections of all the food kinds of animal origin and the control of the installations of products of animal origin as well as of the commercial or industrial establishments where food kinds of animal origin and their derivatives may be slaughtered, prepared, produced, grown, manufactured, preserved, stored or sold;

– Carry out the official control of the retail establishments for the sale of meat and other meat products and of the retail establishments for the sale of fishing and aquaculture products;

– Run the official control of the hygiene and health conditions of the municipal markets and fairs;

– Carry out hygienic health inspections to vehicles destined for the transport and sale of food;

– Run Medical-Veterinary analysis at the request of police forces and/or by determination of the Public Ministry or any other judicial authorities, in the framework of the health inspection and the control of the hygiene and safety of food of animal origin;

– Carry out Medical-Veterinary analysis, at the request of private companies and/or residents, in the framework of the health inspection and the control of the hygiene and safety of food of animal origin;

– Collaborate in the preparation of regulations or municipal ordinances, in the field of the hygiene and safety of food of animal origin;

– Ensure all other responsibilities set forth in the law relating to the protection of public health in the scope of hygiene and health as well as of animal health.