Flanders has 30 new animal shelters at 1 yearPlaced at 09:29h in animals, Flemish Parliament by Stella VansummerenLast year the Flemish government delivered 30 recognitions for animal shelters.

At the same time, 20 were also deleted. So there is a very strong outflow of about 125 Flemish asylums. This is evident from the answer of Flemish Minister of Animal Welfare Ben Weyts to a written question from Open Vld MP Gwenny De Vroe. It is also noticeable that not every asylum centre has been monitored since the regionalisation of animal welfare in 2014. The minister expressed this ambition in 2014, but to this day there are animal shelters that have not yet received a visit from the inspection. Gwenny De Vroe hopes that this will happen in the short term and stresses the positive finality: "Checks are needed to ensure the welfare of our asylum animals. The first objective is not to sanction asylum. After all, many animal shelters do a fantastic job and they deserve kudos. But we have to severely punish those who cause animal suffering after control." The Flemish MEP asked this question out of concern that the welfare of dogs and cats in asylum centres is guaranteed. "These animals have to miss a warm home, then it makes sense that they get good care in the animal shelter where they stay in the animal shelter," says Gwenny De Vroe. "Moreover, we know that so many hundreds of volunteers are committed to these animals with the best of intentions. I therefore do not question their proper functioning. But as everywhere, enforcement is a culmination of a balanced policy. In addition, Minister Weyts announced in The Interest of Limburg in October 2014: 'I want all the institutions to check at least once by next year.'" I regret that De Vroe now notes that this ambition was not yet realised after 5 years: "In his response to my current question, Minister Weyts states that not every asylum has been controlled since the regionalisation of animal welfare competence. I can understand that it will not be possible to control more than 100 asylum centres in one year with an inspection that had not yet received reinforcements. But shortly afterwards, the Flemish government released resources to recruit extra people. This reinforces my hope that in the foreseeable future we will be able to fulfil the ambition to control every animal shelter in Flanders. In 2019, 38 asylums were checked, and some more than once. That's about one in three. So hopeful." Achieving ambition is somewhat complicated by the strong inflows and outflows of recognised asylum centres in Flanders. For example, 20 approvals were removed in 2019, but 30 animal shelters were added in the same year. And this at a total of about 125 Flemish asylums at the end of last year. As regards the number of complaints, the Flemish government received 90 last year, some of which were acting on the same asylum centre. Those 90 complaints resulted in 31 checks and 80 minutes, of which only 2 were delivered to the public prosecutor's office. Flemish MP Gwenny De Vroe (Open Vld) would like minister Ben Weyts to explain more about these figures: "Few reports and only 2 referrals to the public prosecutor's office can be good news, for example because many of the complaints are unjustified were or that it was minor breaches. In order to clarify this, I will further question the Minister about the seriousness of the infringements identified and the reasons why only a limited number of pv's ended up at the public prosecutor's office. This is in order to ensure the welfare of our asylum animals."