If you’ve read ‘About Me’, you’ll know my passion for greyhounds began many years ago in Suffolk. My passion for galgos, the Spanish greyhound, began just a year ago.
I didn’t realise what a journey I would be embarking upon.
I hadn’t heard about the hanging dogs. I didn’t know what a podenco was. I had no idea of the scale of the problem in the dog refuges in Spain, and of the valiant volunteers who work tirelessly under extremely difficult circumstances, to save the dogs the galguerros (Spanish hunters) dispose of like a cigarette end.
One year on, there are not enough words to describe how I now feel.
The breeding and disposal of greyhounds in the UK is bad enough, as a bi-product of a ‘leisure industry’, but the indiscriminate breeding of galgos, the horrendous conditions in which they are kept during their short lives, the indescribable horrors of the deaths to which the galguerros subject them, and the unimagineable conditions and work which the valiant volunteers in the various refuges are subject to also, is just beyond words.
Numbers bred – there aren’t any.
Numbers disposed of each year – varies from 50,000 – 100,000 dogs.
Can you imagine it? No.
Ok, well think about it like this.
1 galguerro had 90 dogs.
Many of those were breeding bitches – say 8 to a litter.
How many galguerros – thousands.
Villamartin refuge in Albacete has 70 dogs each week intake!
Imagine 10 dogs a day tied to your gate.
How would you feel? How would you cope?
That’s the scale we are talking of.
On top of that, Spain doesn’t acknowledge the problem of abandoned dogs, including galgos and podencos.
The regional departments don’t acknowledge the scale of the problem of abandoned dogs, including galgos and podencos.
The individual municipalities do not acknowledge the scale of the problem on their back doorstep.
Yet if the scale of the problem, and the horrors accompanying it, were to be publicised to tourists booking holidays in Spain, what an impact it would have!
So, you hire a villa in Andalucia or Murcia or Madrid, for a week in January, February, March – lot warmer than in England! Save on the heating bills!
Take a walk out of the town, into the olive groves. See the hanging dogs!
See the skeleton dogs walking the streets of the town.
Have the skeleton dogs skavenging around you when you are at the restaurant enjoying ‘dining al fresco’.
See the starving and abandoned galgos of Spain.
See the secret the Spanish government and tourist industry wish to keep from your eyes, blinkered with the sun and swimming pool and sangria.
So now I am on a campaign!
Along with the other fantastic associations worldwide, who fight for a better life for greyhounds, I have also joined the fight for the Spanish government to legislate to protect the galgos and podencos.
I believe there are 4 purposes.
One is to persuade the Spanish government to legislate to control the indiscriminate breeding of galgos and podencos, and all other dogs in Spain.
The second is to ban the hunting of hares etc with galgos, and the betting which runs alongside it, and is televised!
The third is to prohibit and control the disposal of the galgos and podencos at the end of the hunting season – humane methods only by a veterinarian, if absolutely necessary.
The fourth is to educate the young Spanish that animals are not inanimate objects, they are live creatures with feelings. That a human can have a relationship with a dog which surpasses that of a friendship with a human. Simply because it is a dog. Its love is unconditional. NO HUMAN offers that love.
So, back to One Year On!
I’ve acquired my adorable galgo, Queen Karmel – she prefers reclining on her donated sofa to living in a shack producing puppies.
Floyd, our French levrier X, enjoys having a look-alike companion when it comes to public outings! Pepsi, the noisy valhund, continues to try and herd the family together. And now there is Bebe, a tiny Malaguena podenco andaluz, rescued from a motorway near Seville where she had been badly injured by a car.
Each month I play host to volunteers from a galgo rescue association, staying overnight with car loads of galgos and podencos, en route to adopting families and foster homes in France. I begin to get the idea of the number of dogs which are being brought out of Spain. This is just one association, there are half a dozen others, bringing dogs to France. That doesn’t include the associations in Holland, Belgium, Germany. Then there are a couple of UK associations, taking galgos to Britain, and some dogs travel across the Atlantic to America.
I find myself asking ‘just how many families can be found for all these dogs? How many dogs can continue to be brought out of Spain?’
Another question I ask myself. The more dogs which the rescue associations bring out of Spain, does it encourage the galguerros to continue their despicable trade of breeding and killing, breeding and killing?
I can’t begin to imagine how the volunteers in the refuges cope; with the large numbers of dogs, lack of funds to pay for food and medical care, trying to work at the refuges as well as working full time to earn a living. My admiration for them is boundless.
One year on, armed with increased knowledge and understanding of the plight of the galgos, I am more determined than ever to do what I can to publicise the problem and try and help make a difference. I’m just one small voice, but there are thousands of small voices like mine, and all joined together we can make a lot of noise!
So, support my letter-writing campaigns to the Spanish Prime Minister and Environment Minister, fundraise to support the refuges in Spain who rescue and take in the galgos, tell all your friends and work colleagues about the galgos.
JOIN THE FIGHT
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