Trying to deal with animal welfare in Tenerife has always been a bit… all over the place.
Plenty of people doing good work. Plenty of effort. But not much structure holding it all together.
That might finally be changing.
A proper plan… at last
The Cabildo has now approved a new project called Tierra Azul. It’s going to be built up in the north, between La Laguna and Tacoronte.
And it’s not just another shelter.
This is being lined up as a proper, island-wide animal protection centre. The sort of thing that probably should’ve existed years ago.
At the moment, most of the responsibility sits with individual municipalities. Some manage fine. Others… not so much. And a lot of it ends up falling on volunteers picking up the slack.
That only works for so long.
Linking north and south
What’s different here is that Tierra Azul won’t be working on its own.
It’s being tied in with Tierra Blanca down in Fasnia, which already supports more than 20 municipalities. So instead of everyone doing their own thing, the idea is to create a joined-up network across the island.
Which makes sense. Tenerife isn’t huge, but the way things are run sometimes, you’d think every town was operating on its own little island.
The aim is to take pressure off local councils and deal with animal abandonment in a more coordinated way.
Bigger, and a bit more serious
The scale of it is worth mentioning.
The site will cover around 15,000 square metres and have capacity for over 680 dogs and 400 cats. That’s not small by any standard.
But it’s not just about numbers.
They’re planning veterinary care, clinical treatment, management of feline colonies, adoption programmes, education, volunteer initiatives… the full setup.
So less of a holding space, more of an actual system.
The reality of it
If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know animal abandonment is still an issue.
Not everywhere, and not constantly, but it’s there. And like a lot of things on the island, the response has often relied on good people doing their best rather than a clear, structured approach.
This looks like an attempt to fix that.
But… and there’s always a but… these things sound great at the beginning.
The real test is what happens once it’s up and running. Budgets, management, day-to-day operations… that’s where projects either work or quietly fall apart.
The bottom line
On paper, Tierra Azul is exactly what Tenerife needs.
Less patchwork. More coordination. Less reliance on goodwill, more of an actual service.
If it’s run properly, it could make a real difference. Not just for the animals, but for the people who’ve been dealing with this for years behind the scenes.
If not, it risks becoming another good idea that didn’t quite deliver.
Let’s see how it plays out.
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