Urgent warning for popular holiday spot as common mistake can get you £1.2k fine

There’s an urgent warning for those holidaying in a popular spot as a common mistake can land you with a £1.2k fine.

With the Easter break in full swing, you might be looking forward to an upcoming trip or perhaps getting your mates round to finally book this year’s getaway.

And often for us Brits there’s many places we’ll often choose from, you know, maybe a visit to Ibiza (or the 'new Ibiza') or a couple days in Portugal or for many, a holiday in Tenerife.

But while people are flying over to the Canary Island from the UK all the time, they might not be aware of a very serious offence that’s often carried out.

Picture the scene, you’ve finished your crisps and Fanta lemon on the balcony, you’ve put on your ‘evening fit’ and you’ve wandered down to a local restaurant to have dinner by the sea.

And while you’re trying to figure out what’s what on the menu, there’s a couple of furry friends around to distract you.

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It’s pretty typical tourist areas for little cats and dogs to be wandering about and often end up snapped for people’s holiday dumps on Instagram.

But it’s not just taking pictures of them that many tourists do, but also feeding them.

However, two residents in Tenerife were recently hit with a fine for £855 each (€1,000) for feeding animals in a public place.

And they weren’t even feeding cute little furry animals, they were feeding pigeons.

"Providing food, of any kind, to any animal found in public places is a serious offence and a lack of respect for other citizens,” José Manuel Bermúdez, Mayor of Santa Cruz told the Canarian Weekly.

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“Therefore, these residents must be penalised to prevent it from happening again, as these acts pose serious public health problems and deteriorate our heritage.”

So while this offence was carried out by residents, take it as your reminder if you’re visiting Tenerife to not be giving food to any cute little animals you find along the way.

Violating the Municipal Ordinance regulating the Protection Ownership of Animals in Santa Cruz by feeding the likes of birds or cats can land fines as high as £1.2k (€1,500).

Millions of Brits visit the island and according to Statista, 5.8 million tourists travelled there in 2022, with almost three million from outside Spain.

So that means in total, there as six times as many yearly tourists as people who actually live in Tenerife, which has a population of 950,000.

Topics: Travel, World News

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_