FESTIVE TRIP TO THE SLOPES: DON’T MISS OUR 4-PAGE XMAS SPECIAL ON THE SIERRA NEVADA INSIDE
The
O LIVE P RESS
Your expat
voice in Spain
COSTA BLANCA SUR / MURCIA FREE Vol. 4 Issue 105 www.theolivepress.es December 14th - January 11th 2024
Winter warmer
UNITED AT CHRISTMAS
FOR the third time this year, Spain has seen a monthly temperature record smashed, after the mercury reached 29.9ºC in Malaga. Valencia has not been untouched by the unseasonably high temperatures, reaching 27ºC on Monday. The hot weather is 2ºC higher than the previous record for December. Although in most places winter temperatures started to settle in yesterday the warm weather will continue in Valencia, with highs of 19ºC this week. This week’s record was reported by state meteorological service Aemet via its social media accounts. “This is the highest temperature registered in the month of December in peninsular Spain since records began,” said spokesman Ruben del Campo. The warm conditions were caused by a mass of hot air sweeping over the Iberian peninsula yesterday. “It’s one of the warmest masses of air to have ever overflown Spain at this point in December,” added Campo. Spain suffered four heatwaves this year, with Cordoba seeing a shocking high of 39.2C in October. This year is already the hottest on record on a global scale. Scientists widely attribute this phenomenon to climate change caused by human activity.
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BRITISH and Scandinavian expats will lead the crowds at Friday's 'Carols in the Square' concert organised by Torrevieja council. The popular event - now in its 21st year - will be held once again on the Plaza de la Constitucion stage with a 6.00pm start. The concert normally attracts hundreds of people representing Torrevieja's 100-plus nationalities and there is a greater international flavour about this year's festive celebration. The music will come from the instrumental group from the city's Francisco Casanovas
conservatory and an ensemble put together from the Torrevieja Symphony Orchestra. The singers will include members of the British expat Crescendo Choir; the Scandinavian School Costa Blanca choir; and the elementary school choir from the Francisco Casanovas conservatory. There will also be performances from the White and Green Rociero Choir and the Sette Voci group. The event will be attended by Torrevieja mayor, Eduardo Dolon, and other leading figures from the council.
Savage attack Hunting dogs break into Brit’s Costa Blanca home and kill his pet before police tell him ‘it’s only a cat’ A BRITISH pensioner has been left heartbroken after hunting dogs stormed into his house and savagely killed his ‘beautiful’ cat Gnocchi. Former Army serviceman Clive Smith, 59, was woken with a jolt at 1.30am to find the two-year-old rescue cat lying in blood on the conservatory floor. Worse, when he called the police he was told ‘it’s just a cat’ and there was ‘nothing’ they could do. Incredibly, one officer told him that ‘if the dogs attack again’, he should lock them in his house and call the 112 emerg e ncy service
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and wait for them to arrive. “I’m literally still shaking from the ordeal, it’s left me riddled with anxiety and stress,” explained Clive, who bought his three-bedroom villa in Altea, four years ago. “The police attitude was disgusting… when they said it was ‘only a cat’ I replied: ‘what if it was a child or a vulnerable person?’ “The hunters here act with impunity and think they are above the law, it’s a disgrace, never in my life did I think something like this would happen to me. “We are surrounded by beautiful forests which are supposed to be protected, but you often see hunters with huge dogs and torches coming in t h e
RIPPED APART: Gnocchi was killed by two white hunting dogs
dead of night.” The horror incident happened in the early hours of December 4, when he woke up hearing several loud bangs coming from the conservatory on the upstairs terrace of the property he shares with his wife Shami, 50. The couple leave the door ‘ever so slightly ajar’ to allow air in, but put big weights against it which make it very difficult to open. Their property is also surrounded by high walls and is ‘well-secured’. Clive said as he approached the conservatory he saw two huge white dogs ‘jumping around’. The ‘wolflike’ animals had burst through the door, damaging it in the process. He recalled: “They were enormous, I’m 6ft and they were at least up to my hip. I grabbed a beach towel and whipped it towards them and shouted See page 15 but that only made them come for me, I was scared for my life.
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“I had to run behind a door while still shouting and trying to hit them with the towel and eventually they left. “I walked to the other end of the conservatory where I saw our poor beautiful Gnocchi dead on the floor.” Clive said the Guardia Civil arrived a few hours later to tell him there was nothing they could do as the dogs ‘had done nothing wrong’ in the eyes of the law. It comes after Spain brought in tough new legislation on ‘animal welfare’ this year, but made no changes in regards to hunting dogs. Holding back tears, Clive added: “They said the best we could do if we found the owners - would be to sue for the damage done to the door. “It seems to me that hunters here have a carte blanche right to do whatever they want, it has to change.” The couple, who live between Alicante and York, buried Gnocchi in their back garden.