One crime against animals per day: this is how abusers are pursued

BarcelonaA case of horse abuse was solved as if it were a crime. At the enclosure where it was attacked, the Mossos d'Esquadra found a tool stained with blood, and this was the key to solving the case. The horse belonged to a very specific breed and had its genetic profile officially registered in a database. By comparing this information, the police were able to confirm that the animal's DNA matched the one found on the tool. That had been the weapon with which it was abused. This is an example of the investigations that the Environment division of the Mossos has to face more frequently.

Currently, more than one crime against animals is reported per day. According to data accessed by ARA, the Mossos have recorded 231 cases up to the month of August. In all of 2025, the police were aware of 251 cases, and in 2024, there were 162. This is an increase that the division's sub-inspector, Gemma Ribera, mainly attributes to two elements: a change in the Penal Code that facilitates police work and greater social awareness regarding animal welfare.

Ribera explains that, before the 2023 reform, the regulations required that injuries cause serious damage to the animal's health to be considered a criminal offense. However, it was a very broad and subjective legal concept, which required complex veterinary expert reports and the interpretation of judges or prosecutors to determine if it constituted a crime. Now, the new wording is inspired by the crime of assault on people and establishes that any injury requiring veterinary treatment is one, which facilitates the interpretation of the criminal offense.

In fact, until 2023, the law protected domestic, companion, or human-custody animals, but left out wild animals. The sub-inspector illustrates this with a real example of two foxes. First, they investigated a case of cruelty against a wild fox in the wild, but the criminal complaint did not proceed because the old regulations did not protect wild animals. Shortly after, they handled the case of a fox that had been captured, locked in a cage, and abused. Now, since the animal was under human custody, it was considered a crime. With the 2023 reform, criminal protection is established for all vertebrate animals, regardless of whether they are wild or living in the wild.

These changes have allowed the Mossos to better investigate more cases of crimes against animals. These range, according to Ribera, from aggression to neglect –not providing food or water, for example–, abandonment with a clear vital risk to the animal, death, and even cases of vicarious violence; that is, injuring or killing the animal with the direct intention of causing psychological harm or suffering to the partner.

Detection of behaviors

The emergence of the new crime explains part of the increase in registered crimes, but also the evolution of society. "People's sensitivity is different. Now, behaviors that were previously considered normal are detected as potential mistreatment," explains Ribera. In fact, the vast majority of alerts they receive come from neighbors who, for example, see a dog tied up or locked on a balcony for a long time, or from relatives who see that an animal is not in dignified conditions. "More and more, and especially in urban environments, the animal is already part of families as one more member," points out the deputy inspector.

In this sense, he states that he continues to detect differences in the treatment of animals in urban and rural environments, although they are decreasing. "We must move away from the concept that the urban animal is the one in perfect condition and the one in the rural world is not. There are animals that are for work," he points out. To the point that he states that, sometimes, domestic animals in cities, when they are kept indoors a lot or go out little, can live in worse conditions than a dog on a farm, even if it is dirty or sleeps outside.

The cases of mistreatment that are investigated the most are those affecting dogs and cats. By way of example, in Barcelona there is one dog for every ten inhabitants. Lately, however, cases affecting other animals, such as horses, have begun to rise. These latter cases represent a great logistical challenge, since the priority of the police, Ribera explains, is to preserve the health of the animal and, if necessary, remove custody from the owner and take it to a safe place while the investigation proceeds.

Indicator guide

Public safety officers, the police officers usually seen patrolling the streets, are the first to arrive at the house or the environment where the animal is located. All of them have a welfare indicator guide designed by the Veterinary College of Catalonia, which allows agents to objectively evaluate both the physical state of the animal (open wounds, fractures, dehydration) and the environmental conditions (access to water, food, cleanliness, or exposure to extreme temperatures). If it is necessary to remove the animal's custody, the entity in charge of taking it in is the City Council. When dealing with large animals such as horses, the police coordinate the relocation with the Department of Agriculture.

The Environment Division, with specialized units in all police regions of the country, is the one in charge of the most complex or difficult-to-prove cases. Its headquarters are in Sabadell, where large-scale cases or those involving structured networks are also handled, such as the Bitxets case, which two years ago managed to free more than 400 puppies from the tentacles of a gang that was exploiting and mistreating them.

Often, police investigations do not differ much from homicide cases: necropsies are performed to establish the causes of an animal's death, ballistics studies are conducted when there is evidence that it was killed with a firearm –if hunting is not regulated and the corresponding permits are not held, it is a crime– and, as seen in the case of the horse, DNA tests as well.