SPANISH DOG SENTENCED TO DEATH BECAUSE MASTER CONTRACTED EBOLA

Husband of nurse who is hospitalized with Ebola, and animal welfare groups, fight to keep Excalibur alive

It seems to me that Spanish health officials were afflicted with a knee-jerk panic attack when they ordered that Excalibur be put down. Thousands of people have come to the defense of the condemned animal.

DON’T SACRIFICE OUR DOG! HUSBAND OF SPANISH NURSE INFECTED WITH EBOLA ATTACKS HEALTH CHIEFS FOR GETTING COURT ORDER TO PUT THEIR DOG DOWN

Mail Online
October 7, 2014

Last night the pet dog at the centre of a growing Ebola row in Spain took a new twist as it emerged its owner had ceded possession to an animal welfare group which is now trying to save it.

Health chiefs in Madrid obtained a court order to sacrifice Excalibur and sent police to the home of nurse Teresa Romero Ramos, who has been diagnosed with the deadly disease, and her husband Javier Limon Romero.

They were understood to be planning to gain entry to the property in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcon last night so they could take it away and put it down.

But a lawyer working for Madrid-based animal welfare group Mascoteros Solidarios rushed to the couple's flat to try to prevent the animal sacrifice.

The move came after Javier, who has been quarantined in a Madrid hospital with his wife, handed his pet dog over to the organisation's president Carlos Rodriguez, a vet and well-known radio presenter in Spain.

The association confirmed in a press release tonight: 'Teresa Romero's husband Javier, has ceded the custody of his dog to Carlos Rodriguez through a WhatsApp message while he is in Carlos III Hospital in Madrid.

'The dog, Excalibur, is currently inside the family home in Alcorcon. Several animal welfare groups and private individuals have mobilised following Javier's message over social networking sites about the plans to sacrifice the animal.'

Thousands of people had last night signed an online petition to save the dog.

Mascoteros Solidarios spokesman Beatriz Ramos said: 'We're not suggesting doing anything that endangers public health.

'All we want is for the authorities to consider the option of treating this animal like a human being and putting it into quarantine.

'This dog has been interacting with other animals over the past few days who in turn will have have been interacting with their owners.

'It's something that needs to be studied and we don't believe that just putting the animal down is the answer.'

Madrid health chiefs said the animal was a health risk and could transmit the Ebola virus to humans.

They said in a statement: 'The only way of eliminating the existing risk of the transmission of the illness is by putting the animal which has been in contact with the virus to sleep.'

Earloier today Javier, who lives in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcon, raged: 'Before leaving hospital I left several buckets of water out for it as well as filling the bath with water, along with a 15 kilo sack of food.

'I also left the door to the terrace open so it could do it necessities.'

He added: 'It seems unfair to me that because of a mistake they've made, they want to solve this the easy way.

'A dog doesn't have to infect a person and vice versa.

'If this problem worries them so much I think they should look for another type of alternative solution, such as putting the dog in quarantine and observation like they've done with me. Or perhaps they feel they should sacrifice me just in case. Of course a dog is easier, it doesn't matter as much.'