Andrea Hansen obtains the 2022 Animal Welfare Award

Andrea Sabine Hansen has won the 2022 Animal Welfare Award established by the Official College of Veterinarians of Las Palmas. The award will be presented to him at the dinner of the patron saint of the veterinary profession, Saint Francis of Assisi, on October 1 at the Alfredo Kraus auditorium. The winner, who was chosen by a majority of veterinarians, won from a total of six candidates.

 

 Andrea Hansen is president of the non-profit association Arycan, which she founded in 2006, but it was more than thirty years ago when she began to get involved in the problem of homeless animals mainly on the island of Gran Canaria. Arycan began with the aim of helping the most disadvantaged animals in Gran Canaria, so at first it began with adoptions of animals from the Bañaderos Shelter (now Albergue Insular de Animales de Gran Canaria).

 

 

 

 

  This task has become an active collaboration that has greatly improved the operation of this shelter. For more than ten years, it made about one hundred annual adoptions of animals that were sent to Germany to their new home. Over the years, seeing the great problem of animal abandonment that exists on the island, Andrea began to organize activities related to the sterilization of animals to reduce the population and abandonment.

 

  In 2013 and 2014, it managed to carry out the most significant mass castration campaigns in recent decades in the archipelago. These specific actions evolved into a continuous activity, achieving the hiring of a veterinarian that represented a vital change in the philosophy and operation of the Shelter. Her selfless involvement in the daily work at the Insular Shelter made her a fundamental piece, as it represented a turning point: she allowed each adopted animal to be sterilized, a decisive step in achieving a reduction in animal abandonment.

 

  From 2015 to 2017 Arycan took care of all the castrations at the Shelter and began applying the CER (capture/neuter/return) method. In this period Arycan sterilized more than 3.300 animals. In recent years, her characteristic entrepreneurial spirit, her absolute motivation and her perseverance led her to go one step further: since 2018 she has been very actively involved in the problem of urban feline colonies, registered in different municipalities on the island. , providing training to both their managers and city councils on the CER method.

 

 In addition, it has carried out more than 5.200 castrations (CER) between 2018 and 2021, in collaboration with the Gran Canaria Island Animal Shelter and with the two veterinarians it currently has hired. During his career he has also been concerned with training and raising awareness among the population of Gran Canaria, giving talks in schools, guided tours at the shelter and has given teaching support to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, allowing its students carry out supervised internships and end-of-degree projects.

 

  Andrea is a constant person, with very clear and realistic objectives, with admirable patience, sensitivity and know-how. She has spent more than thirty years in a constant fight for the well-being of the animals of Gran Canaria, focusing on four fundamental actions: adoptions, sterilizations, training and awareness. She currently follows the same line of work without putting a limit on her dedication.

 

  The other five candidates for the award were the Animal Association of Ingenio and Minerva Artiles Castellano, María Aurora Saavedra Suárez, Temple Grandin, Cruz Roja and the Official College of Veterinarians of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.