Postal address
Apartado de Correos no 307
07080 Palma de Mallorca
Illes Balears, España
High security at the Centro Canino
As you may have read, the new site of the Centro Canino has been vandalised and broken into several times.
In 2005, an intruder murdered a solitary stray dog that had been found on a golf course. Everyone was appalled. We were shocked that in this day and age, on an island as civilised as Mallorca, there could be a person – or people – who so hate animals that they would break into a private building, spray graffiti, try to start a fire and then poison and hang a poor, small defenceless dog. Yet, security-wise, this is what we are up against.
So for obvious reasons we take the security of our new centre very, very seriously. Additional funding has been sought and found to pay for the best active security that money can by.
Additional funding? Yes, we did not have the funds to pay for top quality security devices out of our ordinary funds, and in any case, when someone – such as yourself – is good and kind enough to donate money to animal rescue, they want and deserve their money to be spent on animal welfare, not on security systems and electronic apparatus.
A generous supporter of the Centro Canino was kind enough to pledge the funds to pay for our new security system and we take great pride in saying that their money has been well spent and the centre now has a superb security system. Not too complicated, but utilising the latest technology to ensure the safety of our animals and our buildings. The next time the ‘intruder’ decides to strike, we’ll be prepared.
We cannot openly discuss all the security measures which have been put in place; that could perhaps aid a planned break-in, but briefly as well as having one or two people living on the site, available between 6pm to 8am to attend to any part of the site in Es-Pilari within 60 seconds of an alarm going off, we have:
- Fully weatherproofed high-quality colour night vision infra-red cameras positioned around the entire site. They can record in perfect darkness, from a distance of up to 40 metres and provide superb clear images of any intruder if/when necessary. If someone breaks into the centre, his face will be shown to the police immediately and in all the Mallorcan newspapers within 24-48 hours.
- Movement detectors on relevant parts of the centre, which are unoccupied at night. If anyone is where they shouldn’t be, we’ll know about it within a minute, the police will know about it at the same moment we do.
- Magnetic contacts are on certain doors and windows, anyone opening a door or window when the alarm is set, will set off the alarm.
- Pressure mats have been installed where appropriate.
- Our fully monitored alarm system, which automatically rings through to a call centre in Madrid, controls the movement detectors, pressure mats and infra-red receivers. The call centre is manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from Madrid and they take the appropriate action – police, fire, or inform our on-site security.
- In addition, the CCTV (close circuit television) cameras are linked to a dvr (digital video recorder, with real-time display and high-quality composite video output) system.
- Fire alarms and ionisation smoke detectors have also been installed.
Finally, via the CCTV cameras, we have full web-cam surveillance, which automatically sends text messages to all members of the committee of the Centro Canino and all of the day staff.
Members and staff that have wap (wireless application protocol) enabled telephones will also receive short video clips of what the cameras show going on at the centre. As well as immediately informing the police and staff who actually live at the centre, and are on site overnight – we can immediately go to the centre and ensure everything is as it should be.
Our dedication to the animals in our care is huge. There are additional security measures being taken which we will not discuss here.
To sum up – none of the expense of the additional security has been paid from our supporters’ generous donations; it has been paid as a one-off donation (with monthly extra donations to pay for the regular costs) given by an anonymous supporter from England.
The security system is thorough and technologically advanced. The fact that we have live-in through-the-night security is of utmost importance.
The centre is open 8am to 6pm; security is in place 6pm to 8am. Alarms and infra-red cameras are our eyes and ears in the dark; the police will know we have an intruder within moments of any break in. When it comes to security for our animals, the key word is ‘Quality.’