Animal rights group seeks policy to avoid more Metro pet deaths

The head of one of the largest animal rights groups in Madrid on Tuesday requested a meeting with Metro officials to try to create a policy aimed at rescuing pets trapped in the subway system so as to prevent future incidents like the one in which a lost greyhound was apparently hit by a train over the weekend.

Chesús Yuste, coordinator for the Parliamentary Association for the Defense of Animals (APDDA), said that similar cooperation between animal rights volunteers and Metro officials in Barcelona already existed. Several animals have been successfully rescued from the Catalan capital’s subway system, the coordinator said.

“The dog ended up dying because there was no interest in rescuing her, and because of the lack of sensibility on behalf of company officials,” Yuste said in a statement.

The female greyhound was found dead on Sunday after she escaped from her owner and became trapped in the tunnels of Line Six between the Sainz de Baranda and Ibiza stations.

Volunteers from several animal rights groups accused Metro officials of refusing to allow them to search the tunnels after the train service ended on either Friday or Saturday nights. Several members of the local organizations rode the trains for several hours trying to see if they could see the animal.

The dog was captured on video by passengers using their cellphones running in front of one oncoming train.

It wasn’t until Sunday when Metro officials released a statement saying they had found the dog dead in one of the tunnels.

Yuste said that in countries such as Italy laws have been passed making it a crime not to help an injured animal.

“It is a question of awareness and willingness,” the APDDA official said.