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Too many dogs; too little money; too few helpers, rock bottom morale.
In an earlier post I reported on the Pedro Munoz refuge at Cuidad Real, 200 kms south of Madrid.
A refuge half built, before the Mayor pulled the plug on the funding.
Over 100 dogs, only three volunteers, and bills piling up which they haven’t the funds to pay.
They're desperate for help.
Last Saturday, 26th January, Passion Levriers was once again at the Spanish frontier to pick up 10 more galgos, prepared for adoption in France.
At the same time local Basque TV did a short report, which you can see on the You tube video clip above or via this link. There was also a report on Telecinco, another TV chain, but inaccessible to most of us over here.
Our vehicles collecting the galgos took over 23m³ of food, bedding, medication etc for the Spanish refuges in the hope of helping them through the rest of the bad weather and the surge of animals being abandoned as the season [for hunting] draws to its end….
Nights in the Spanish winter can be bitterly cold. And if you are a galgo with a skeletal frame and very little hair, it can be hell.
So one of the ways people can help to improve quality of life is to make dog coats. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a Zandra Rhodes or Mary Quant, even those who are not a dab hand with a sewing machine can make these stylish dog coats.
I’ve been sent the following from a supporter in France. So go on, give it a try!
Spanish galgos, like greyhounds, can make wonderful pets and dozens of galgos are rehomed by rescue associations. The associations have to rely on the volunteers working in the Spanish refuges to assess the dog’s character, test it with other dogs, cats, etc. Sometimes they get it wrong.
Whether or not a dog is suitable for rehoming depends to a large extent on the treatment of the dog before it arrived at the refuge. Most of them are rehomed without problems, apart from having to be toilet trained! But some of them need rehabilitation before being suitable for a forever home.
Continue reading "Adopt a dog - but are they all suitable for home life?" »
I am always overwhelmed by the generosity of of some of the readers of Galgo News.
A while ago I wrote about Caridad, a Spanish volunteer who looks after over 30 dogs on her own, in one of the poorest of refuges.
This is Lord Byron, he is in Tarragona, Spain. He was found tied to the door of a house, where the owner has an Afghan.
He was covered from head to toe in fleas and ticks, and very weak.
His coat was knotted like dreadlocks right to the skin, so his skin could not breath, so he had to be clipped.
He has dermatitis, woulds and lumps all over him, possibly because he got caught under a wire fence, which cut his skin and became infected.
As the hunting season with galgos in Spain draws to an end, the rescue associations are swamped with abandoned and injured dogs.
SOS Levriers is one of the French associations desperately looking for forever homes, or foster homes.
Currently there are seven dogs which they are desperate to bring out of Spain, including Nur, Azucena, Corso and Liberto, Fred, Jezabek and Gina.
Check the SOS Levriers website for more details about how to adopt, and to contact them if you can help.
A little podenco looking for a forever home.
About three years old, she was used as a hunting dog, beaten quite regularly. Then she got her hind leg caught in a trap. so her owner tried to cut the leg off with ‘scissors’.
Releasing her to a life on the streets, she was knocked down and injured further. Luckily she was found and taken in by a rescue association, who operated on her leg, to be cared for in a foster home.
She was so traumatised by now that she didn’t make a single sound, or move at all.
Continue reading "Introducing Pruna - she has now been adopted" »
Whilst researching the Internet for information about galgos in Spain, I came across the website of this amazing lady. She's British, married to a Spaniard, with 3 children and adopted animals, all living in a bi-lingual home.
Here's her story, in her words.
Well what can I say, my name is Charlotte, I write and publish as Carlota, I'm 34 married to Dioni a Spanish man, and I have 3 children, Sofia 5 Sebastian 12 and Neizan 2. We live in a bilingual home, and we have 2 dogs, one a galgo adolescant, one an 8 year old little dog, and 2 cats a bengal and a burmilla. All adopted.
I have always been animal orientated and as a child very aware of the dangers animals faced at the hands of man. At 11 I can remember my Dad always telling me "Charlotte, anything important should be written on paper!" So, thats where I began.
Continue reading "Carlota - a very vocal campaigner in Spain" »
It's easy to tell the end of the hunting season in Spain is near. The galguerros are getting rid of their dogs. Why, because they can't be bothered to keep them during the summer.
San Anton refuge, in Villamartin, now has over 50 galgos and, in the last couple of weeks, the volunteers have arrived in the mornings to find yet more left at the gate.
Five of them have been taken in by Paul and April Carrier at Alpha Dog School, sponsored by L'Europe des Levriers.
Galgos and podencos are gentle, affectionate, calm breeds of dog, which makes the atrocities perpetrated against them all the worse.
It also makes it all the more important that those of us who care, support the fight to persuade the Spanish government to regulate and control the indiscriminate breeding of these dogs and create effective laws to prevent their abuse.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 9th 2008
Auberge du Balestie, Malegoude, Ariège.
8pm
Tickets 20 euros including wine, 15 euros excluding wine
Tombola/raffle
(The Auberge is situated off the main road between Fanjeaux and Mirepoix. It is well signposted from the road. For further directions please contact Joanna on the number given below).
It can be hard to get a good curry in the depths of the French countryside...and we will do our best to supply some! All tastes catered for, from mild to hot hot hot!! There will also be a selection of vegetarian dishes. Please come along and lend your support...and have a good evening too!
Continue reading "Spice Night in the Aude - for one evening only" »
CHICLANA is a town near Cadiz. A few hundred eople, roughly 400 according to the estimates by the Peña Galguera Santa Ana (galguero club) enjoy, as a hobby, training galgos for competition.
Traditionally, they have trained them in El Fontanal, the Pinar público and the Cañada la Asomada, making them run behind their motor scooters on a course of about 15 kilometers in length.
Now they are denouncing the Seprona for not letting them train in these traditional areas because, according to their information, they say that “they border on private land”.
I'm happy to say that Humo and Ebono, the galgo pups featured last month, have both found forever homes, as has Jazmin, the rough-haired podenco. Lucky dog, she spent Christmas in Britanny running on the beach, and New Year walking in the mountains of the Massif Centrale.
Visits to my family have meant Galgo News has taken a back seat for a couple of weeks, but that doesn't mean galgos have been out of my mind. I am very conscious that the end of January draws near.
Galgos suffer terribly at the end of the hunting season each year in January as the galgueros (hunters) do not want to keep their dogs the nine months up until the beginning of the next coursing/hunting season.
Hence they are slaughtered by hanging, burned alive, mutilated, dropped down wells, impaled, a silent violence in the countryside. On one occasion 40 carcasses were seen in one afternoon round the small area of Medina. Figures of more than 8,000 galgos killed at the end of a season have been quoted.
Please publicise this as much as possible, and ask everyone you know to add their names to the petition sites listed. We all need to speak up to pressurise the Spanish Government to end these horrendous practices.
Click on any of the association sites here if you wish to see pictorial evidence of this torture.
Ann Finch: Pet Owner's Guide to Greyhounds
Galgo News Shop: Buy your greyhound books, plus other titles and gifts here to help raise funds.
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