World Dog Day: these are the laws that protect dogs in Spain

The mandatory dog ownership course and the civil liability insurance provided for in Law 7/2023 already exist in the law itself, but their practical application is still pending the state regulatory development. The Government has prepared a Draft Royal Decree regulating Law 7/2023, submitted for public consultation and hearing and notified to the EU, which specifies both requirements, but this regulation has not yet been approved or published in the Official State Gazette (BOE). Therefore, as of July 2026, there is still no current state regulation detailing how the course will be, who will provide it, nor the final amount and conditions of the mandatory insurance for all dogs.

What Law 7/2023 currently says about the course and insurance

Law 7/2023, of March 28, is in force and can be fully consulted in the BOE (text of Law 7/2023), with a subsequent correction of errors (correction of errors).

The legal text establishes, among other points:

• That persons who are going to be dog owners must take a dog ownership training course, valid indefinitely, whose content will be determined by regulation.
• That the dog owner must maintain throughout the animal's life a civil liability insurance for damages to third parties, whose minimum amount and conditions will also be set by regulation.
• That those who breed or transfer dogs must verify, if applicable, that the future owner has taken this course, expressly referring to the corresponding article of the mandatory course.

In other words, the obligation is already in the law, but Law 7/2023 itself refers to a subsequent regulation to specify the course content, requirements, adaptation periods, and insurance amount.

Draft Regulation: content and status

The regulatory development is articulated in a Draft Royal Decree approving the regulation of Law 7/2023. This draft has undergone:

• Prior public consultation, announced on the Ministry of Social Rights website (Ministry public consultations).
• Public hearing and information, with the full text available in PDF format (draft Regulation of Law 7/2023), processed between June and July 2025.
• Notification to the EU TRIS system, as a technical project subject to a community standstill period (TRIS file of the draft regulation).

This draft explicitly identifies, among others, the following development blocks of Law 7/2023:

• “Development of mandatory civil liability insurance for dogs, basic criteria in responsible ownership training for dog owners…” (justification memorandum of the draft).
• A Chapter II, “Civil liability insurance”, whose article 7 provides that every dog owner must have insurance coverage of no less than 100,000 euros, except in the case of potentially dangerous dogs, which are governed by their specific regulations. It also indicates that the insurance must be contracted within a maximum period of 48 hours from the registration of ownership in the corresponding registry.
• Various provisions and annexes requiring possession of the certificate of having passed the training course for certain operations (for example, in adoption contracts or transfers, where it is expressly mentioned that, when mandatory, the future owner must have this certificate).
• Several transitional provisions, setting deadlines for contracting the insurance and obtaining the dog ownership course, as well as for accrediting the new qualifications required of entities and professionals. These deadlines, however, are still part of a draft text, not approved.

The draft itself includes an annex comparing existing regional regulations and noting that some autonomous communities already require a course and/or insurance for dog ownership, while others do not regulate it, which is used as justification to harmonize minimum requirements at the state level.

Already approved regulations linked to Law 7/2023 (but not about course and insurance)

Apart from this general regulation, other partial development regulations of Law 7/2023 have been approved:

• Order PJC/549/2025, of May 29, regulating the composition and operation of the State Animal Protection Council and the Scientific and Technical Committee, in execution of articles 5 and 6 of the law (BOE 31/05/2025).
• Resolution of December 22, 2025 of the Directorate General for Animal Rights, on the seat of animal behavior professionals in said Council (resolution on Council seats).
• Royal Decree 69/2026, of February 4, regulating organizational aspects in animal welfare for animals kept for agricultural and aquaculture purposes, not directly related to the course or insurance for companion dogs (Royal Decree 69/2026 and its Council of Ministers reference).

None of these regulations yet specify the mandatory course or the general insurance for all dogs, which remain reserved for the future regulation.

Practical conclusion as of July 2026

With the available information, as of today:

• The legal obligation exists in Law 7/2023, but its practical conditions depend on a regulatory Royal Decree still in draft phase.
• The draft regulation is advanced (public consultation and hearing completed and TRIS notification done), but its approval or publication in the BOE is not recorded, so there is no official and definitive schedule yet for the entry into force of the mandatory course or the standardized state insurance.
• Consequently, the specific enforceability of the course and insurance still depends, for now, on what the autonomous communities and municipal ordinances regulate, until the state regulation is approved and comes into force.

The autonomous communities have a central role in animal protection: the Constitution allows them to assume management of the environment, agriculture and livestock, hunting and freshwater fishing, and health, and on that basis state laws set common minimums while leaving the communities the normative development, inspection, and sanctioning. For companion animals and captive wildlife, Law 7/2023 configures the State as basic legislator and the communities as detail regulators and executors. For production animals (livestock) and transport, Law 32/2007 and Law 8/2003 establish the bases, but daily application (controls, campaigns, sanctioning procedures) largely corresponds to the communities. In animal shows, including bullfighting, the State reserves public order and cultural bases, while the communities regulate the concrete holding of shows and many aspects of animal welfare.

Constitutional framework

The Spanish Constitution, in its article 148.1, allows the autonomous communities to assume competences, among others, in:

• Agriculture and livestock, in accordance with the general economic order (148.1.7).
• Forests and forest uses (148.1.8).
• Management in environmental protection matters (148.1.9).
• Hunting and freshwater fishing (148.1.11).
• Health and hygiene (148.1.21).

In contrast, article 149.1 reserves exclusive competences to the State in economic planning bases and coordination, general health bases and coordination, basic environmental protection legislation, civil legislation, etc., which explains that animal protection is articulated as a shared matter: the State sets the bases, communities assume development and execution. The constitutional text can be consulted at the Spanish Constitution.

Companion animals and captive wildlife

Law 7/2023, on the protection of animal rights and welfare is expressly defined as the “basic legal regime” throughout the territory for companion animals and captive wildlife. The preamble itself emphasizes that there is a “heterogeneous set of regional regulations” and that the state law sets a “common minimum of rights and obligations,” leaving the communities to expand that standard.

From this architecture derive these typical regional competences:

• Approve their own animal protection laws for companion animals and captive wildlife, always respecting the minimums of Law 7/2023.
• Regulate in more detail responsible ownership obligations and prohibitions, housing conditions, abandonment, euthanasia, breeding, and trade (Law 7/2023 itself states that its obligations apply “without prejudice to those that the autonomous communities may establish”).
• Create and manage regional registries (of companion animals, zoological nuclei, protection entities, etc.) and authorize animal protection centers.
• Organize inspection services and exercise sanctioning power in most infractions provided by Law 7/2023, whose title VI indicates that sanctioning procedures “belong to the autonomous communities or local entities.”

Production animals, transport, experimentation, and euthanasia

For production and other economic use animals, the basic norm is Law 32/2007, which “establishes the bases of an animal protection regime and infractions and sanctions” in farming, transport, experimentation, and euthanasia. The preamble clarifies that it sets a “common normative denominator in which the Autonomous Communities exercise their competences” and that its sanctioning framework is basic.

Complementarily, Law 8/2003, on animal health recognizes that, with the autonomous State, the communities have assumed “exclusive competence in livestock matters, as well as legislative development and execution of the State’s basic legislation on animal health.” The state law, enacted under article 149.1 CE, limits itself to establishing basic and coordination norms.

In practice, this means that the autonomous communities:

• Develop and execute state and EU norms on welfare conditions in livestock farms, transport, and slaughterhouses.
• Organize official veterinary services, health control programs, and disease eradication campaigns.
• Carry out inspections on farms, transport means, and experimentation centers, and impose sanctions for non-compliance with state bases (Law 32/2007, Law 8/2003, and regulations such as Royal Decree 990/2022 on transport or Royal Decree 37/2014 on euthanasia).

Wildlife, hunting, fishing, and natural spaces

In free wildlife and biodiversity conservation, regional competences are supported by sections 9 (environment) and 11 (hunting and freshwater fishing) of article 148 CE. Constitutional jurisprudence, particularly STC 102/1995 on the former Law 4/1989 on natural spaces, has reiterated that the State can set conservation bases, while the communities manage protected spaces, regulate hunting and fishing activities, and execute fauna protection measures.

Animal shows and bullfighting

In shows, the general rule is that animal protection is embedded in the autonomous communities’ competences over public shows, environment, and health, with occasional state bases. For bullfighting, Law 10/1991, on administrative powers in bullfighting shows states “without prejudice to the competences corresponding to the Autonomous Communities regarding bullfighting shows, as such shows,” reserving to the State matters related to public order and citizen security.

Generally, the communities can:

• Regulate specific conditions of shows and activities with animals (fairs, circuses, exhibitions, pilgrimages, etc.), within the limits of state bases and other competences such as culture or public order.
• Authorize or prohibit certain types of shows in their territory from the perspective of animal protection, as long as they respect the competence distribution and constitutional jurisprudence.

Law 7/2023 in Spain places the country among the strictest in the EU regarding companion animal welfare, with a very high sanctioning regime (fines up to 200,000 euros and a broad catalog of obligations for owners and breeders). Other states such as Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, or the Netherlands also have national animal protection laws, but generally their maximum administrative sanctions for mistreatment or abandonment are lower and rely more on criminal penalties than large economic fines. Additionally, the new specific European regulation for dogs and cats, approved in 2026, sets a common floor of requirements (mandatory microchip and traceability, breeding limits, prohibition of certain practices), over which Spain maintains more demanding standards in several points.

What Law 7/2023 does and its sanctioning regime

Law 7/2023, published in the BOE on March 29, 2023 (text in the BOE, with correction of errors in this correction), establishes a basic state framework for the protection of companion animals and captive wildlife. Its main axes include responsible ownership, management of feline colonies, mandatory identification and registration, and a central registry system.

According to analysis by the newspaper Demócrata, the law organizes infractions into three levels:

• Minor infractions: may be sanctioned with warning or fines from 500 to 10,000 euros (article on fines for feeding stray cats, draft regulation proposal).
• Serious infractions: entail fines from 10,001 to 50,000 euros, for example lack of animal identification or registration.
• Very serious infractions: fines from 50,001 to 200,000 euros, which may affect breeding or trade without authorization or other especially harmful conduct to animal welfare.

Other Demócrata articles explain that the law prohibits, among other behaviors, leaving a dog unsupervised for more than 24 hours, habitually keeping dogs and cats on terraces or storage rooms, or using electric or punishment collars (new obligations and prohibitions, limits, fines, and obligations, debunking myths).

Other EU countries: national frameworks and sanctions

Available research shows that Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands have national animal protection laws recognizing animals as sentient beings and typifying mistreatment and abandonment. However, the consulted sources do not detail all administrative fine amounts country by country; what they do provide are general comparisons made by specialized animal law organizations.

According to that international comparative analysis, cited in the research trail, it is observed that:

• Germany has an Animal Protection Law undergoing broad revision to strengthen welfare, including breeding of domestic animals and online sales (article on the German reform). Comparative studies place its maximum administrative fines around 50,000 euros, with prison sentences up to 3 years in the most serious cases.
• France and the Netherlands also have robust frameworks, with civil recognition of sentient status and limits on certain breeding practices. The cited analyses indicate maximum fines around 30,000 euros in France and between 1,500 and 25,000 euros in the Netherlands, combined with possible jail sentences in extreme cruelty cases.
• In Italy and Portugal, sources also point to more intensive use of criminal law (cruelty and abandonment offenses) and significant administrative fines, but no figures as concrete as in Spain or Germany are available. No further information on exact amounts is found in the consulted sources.

Overall, these countries punish mistreatment and abandonment, but the 200,000-euro cap provided in Spain places Law 7/2023 in the high range of the EU in economic sanctions, along with some Northern European legal systems cited in comparative studies.

The new EU regulation on dogs and cats

Besides national frameworks, since 2026 there is for the first time a common EU regulation on dog and cat welfare. The Council and European Parliament have approved a regulation setting harmonized rules for breeding, housing, identification, and traceability of these animals (Council note, European Parliament note).

This regulation, developed from prior proposals and debates (context article, committee vote, Parliament position, analysis on welfare reinforcement, EP agenda, weekly summary), requires:

• Identification by microchip of all dogs and cats in the EU and registration in interoperable national databases.
• Limiting breeding (frequency, minimum and maximum ages) and banning inbreeding or “extreme trait” crosses that compromise animal health.
• Prohibiting mutilations for aesthetic purposes and certain instruments (spiked collars or choke collars without safety).

This regulation does not directly set a sanction framework, which remains the competence of each Member State, but obliges all—including Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands—to have effective control and enforcement mechanisms. Spain, with Law 7/2023 already in force and the regulation in preparation (regulation explanation), starts from a higher level of requirement in identification, sale, and responsible ownership.

Comparative summary

With the available information, it can be stated that:

• All cited countries have national animal protection laws, but Spain stands out for the detail in regulating pet ownership (mandatory course for dogs, prohibition of sales in stores, management of feline colonies, civil liability insurance, etc.).
• The administrative fine range of Law 7/2023 (up to 200,000 euros) is clearly higher than the maximums reported in comparative studies for Germany, France, and the Netherlands and places Spain among the strictest sanctioning regimes in the EU.
• The new European legislation for dogs and cats harmonizes minimums (microchip, traceability, and breeding limits), but leaves room for national laws like Spain’s to remain stricter.

Other related Demócrata pieces that contextualize the impact of this law in Spain include, among many, those dedicated to mandatory microchipping and statistics of identified animals (La Rioja, Comunitat Valenciana, Community of Madrid), to the management of feline colonies (Balearic Islands), or to the economic industry associated with pets and mandatory dog insurance (pet sector, IRPF deduction).

In the broader context, other pieces can also be consulted on traveling with pets and border sanctions (European passport, travel certificates), the relationship between Law 7/2023 and horizontal property (community of neighbors) and the impact of the new ordinance in Bilbao or Vitoria within the state framework (Bilbao ordinance, Vitoria-Gasteiz ordinance), as well as comparison with future state norms on identification and positive species listing (consultations and public hearings).