I'm in Santa Cruz right now and it's as Spanish here as it gets - no one speaks any English... Parks are full of people walking big/medium/small dogs no problem. I get the impression that Spanish here love their dogs.
While not trying to stereotype the entire populous, the Spanish are notoriously bad when it comes to animal welfare. The local privately run no kill shelters in the immediate area usually have over 800 dogs looking for homes.
The Spanish don't typically spay or neuter, and boxes of puppies left at the gates of the shelters, or found in dumpsters is quite common. Older dogs are often found chained to the gates of the shelters as well. There have been several cases locally of dogs and cats set on fire, or mutilated. Kids throw rocks at strays for fun. Dogs and cats are regularly intentionally poisoned. Dogs chained in yards with no food, water or shelter from the elements is also commonplace. Spanish hunting dogs, called galgos (similar to a greyhound), are notoriously abused. When they don't perform well for hunters they are often beaten to death or hung by their necks from a tree. There's also a pretty popular dog fighting scene here.
The government run shelters are typically referred to as "killing stations" where animals there are kept for the obligatory 10 days without food or water (because those things cost money) and then are put down. The people that run the killing stations typically get a monthly budget of several thousand euros, so wherever they can save money means more in their pockets. Shelters have been found that don't use enough euthanization drugs (because they cost money) so animals take much longer to die than they should. The La Linea de la Concepcion killing station was previously run by the mayor's brother and he preferred to use a cricket bat to put the animals down.
On top of all that, with the higher than normal turnover of expats coming and going, they too abandon their dogs instead of taking them back to the UK or whatever other EU countries they come from, most winding up in shelters.
Fortunately several animal welfare organizations have taken over, or have made deals with, the gov't run killing stations and are particularly good at rehoming dogs here or to other parts of Europe.
This isn't to say that all Spaniards mistreat animals. There's a big animal welfare movement gaining momentum in this country and I know lots of good dog owners here who treat their pets very well. It's what you don't typically see that's the problem.
I've seen people poison (leave poisoned food on the ground) dogs in village squares in Cyprus - fucking nuts and incredibly sad.
