Most people dream of retiring to a life in the sun, many consider running a business. Spain is one of the top destinations and that’s just what Vivienne Wharton decided to do in 2007. As Founder of ACTIN, she recently stepped down as President and had time to chat to me about life in Spain.

I asked her why she chose the Cartagena area of Murcia, as Spain is such a large country! ‘It was really by accident. My best friend had moved here and whilst I was visiting her I came across Tara Casa, which was perfect for my plans to create a retreat. I hadn’t planned on living in Spain full time but to commute for the retreats. But as often happens, life doesn’t always take the path you plan. The previous owners abandoned their 2 dogs at the house and so the move to Tara Casa became permanent’.

Like a lot of animal lovers in Spain, it is virtually impossible to turn a blind eye to the abandonment and cruelty which exists on the doorstep, especially dogs and cats but also for horses and donkeys. Living among the beautiful almond groves, Viv had the same problem.

‘I found so many abandoned and mistreated dogs locally that it was taking up all my time to look after them, trying to find homes for them. I needed help and so started using social networking, quite successfully in the early days.’

Murcia is one of the worst regions for neglect of animals so in 2011 Viv founded Animal Welfare Support Murcia getting a support team together through networking locally.

During all this work, Viv was also running retreats for Pilates, Yoga and holidays for dog lovers. It is a stunning area when the almond is in blossom and, together with partner Dan who teaches mosaic, trips into the mountains to see the eagles or a day on a local golf course, Viv found it overwhelming trying to run a successful business and work in dog rescue.

‘As there were so many people doing dog rescue, I decided to do what no-one else was doing and tackle the problem at root. So I formed ACTIN in 2012, (Animal Care Treatment International Network), which I started by making a post asking if people were interested in the problems of animal welfare in Spain as opposed to just the rescue side. I held a meeting at my home in January 2012 and over 20 people came. Our principal aims were and continue to be to improve and change laws on animal welfare, educate people and authorities, promote sterilisation especially of dogs and cats and to bring to light just how bad the problem was. I felt I couldn’t live completely happily in Spain and not do anything. A number of people were interested in joining the initiative, including Nico Dog Rescue who has always supported us.’

About the same time as ACTIN was formed, Viv also learnt about some animal-loving lawyers in the area and she approached Raquel Lopez Teruel of DeAnimals for her help with some of the cruelty cases ACTIN did not have the legal knowledge to tackle alone. ‘When Raquel started, it was a bit like a practice run and as she learnt more, we learnt more and now she is a well recognised authority on animal welfare cases in the region. She is also bringing education to the authorities about animal welfare law by organising courses which are attended by police officers, judges, other lawyers and those working in animal rescue. ACTIN has been able to sponsor her.’

In October 2015 I was excited to be invited to speak about the plight of the galgos and podencos at the PAES conference, so I asked Viv about that as it must have taken an enormous amount of organisation. ‘It was an idea I had and with Lyn Baines of Cruz Azul we decided to use the conference to launch PAES Proteccion Animales Espana and from there it became a joint venture between Actin, Cruz Azul and San Animal. Between us all we researched and invited speakers.

When I first visited Viv in 2013, I experienced her work with dog rescue. Three dogs had been kept on the roof of an apartment block, their elderly owner had passed away. Actin successfully negotiated with the son that the association take the dogs into their care. Our first task was to visit the local vet for the dogs to have a health check and one in particular, which was nicknamed Rasta, to have a serious clip. 2 1/21bs of matted hair had been removed by the time we arrived back to collect the dogs and take them to some kennels in temporary care. The dogs were successfully rehomed and I asked Viv if there were any particular success stories she would like to mention. ‘I think our best success was with Cruz Azul in the rescue of the pedigree dogs and cats from the hoarder…we successfully homed all of the dogs, with very little support from donations but a lot of support from animal rescue in general’.

Creating and running ACTIN alongside running a Retreat business has involved a tremendous commitment so in May 2016, after giving it a lot of thought, Viv decided to focus more on her business and help local abandoned dogs. ACTIN Vice President Nicki Hasting has now taken on the mantle of President and along with Barry Caulfield of SCAN, they will take ACTIN forward without the distraction of animal rescue. Viv says, ‘they have some excellent plans which I believe include holding another conference but just focussing on the work of Raquel of DeAnimals and her work with Spanish animal welfare laws’. The next PAES Conference will be on 25th-26th February 2017 and is a collaboration between ACTIN and Raquel from DeAnimals. It is entitled “Challenging the Iceberg” and aims to look at the legal side of animal welfare in order to tackle the problems that lead to animal abandonment, over-populaton and cruelty. Further information will be announced on the ACTIN and PAES websites.

Please support ACTIN to continue their work in animal welfare. They recently had a case of George the farm dog, who ran up a vet bill of over 2,000 euros with an illness that finally overtook him and sadly he died. They still have some dogs that are proving difficult to home. Dilly is a beautiful girl but doesn’t like other dogs. Then there is Ronnie with her 9 pups rescued from a chain with another adult dog; the pups were all safely taken to another rescue but Ronnie is still in need of a home and is basically very shy. Then there are Thelma and Louie, a brother and sister rescued from a motorway 3 years ago and, Tom a Mastin, who was abandoned outside Viv’s home. Many of the rescued dogs are abandoned in Viv’s village, which is part of the reason she found the rescue side very difficult. And this has not changed. Viv is looking for volunteers now to help her with running ACTIN rescue, and as ACTIN founder she continues to work closely with the new committee.

Louie – looking for a family