It's amazing where contact via the Internet leads me, reaching out around the world to publicise the plight of the galgos and podencos, the Spanish hunting dogs.
Take heart, animal lovers in the Canary Islands, here is an introduction to SARA Lanzarote, for those of you who do not already know about it.
HELP US TO HELP THEM
And here's what Lynne, a member of the executive committee and British co-ordinator for the SARA animal shelter on Lanzarote has to say.
There's also Jilly, who runs a group of people who raise money for our shelter, and Jackie, who are two dedicated animal lovers and help us in our work to improve the lives of the abandoned and mistreated animals of our adopted island.
SARA is a self sufficient registered charity and relies on donations, memberships and fund raising to continue with our work. Getting the local authorities or government to help is like trying to get blood out of a stone.
We currently have just over 200 dogs and 100 cats in our care with 79 of these dogs being Podencos. We have litters of Podencos from irresponsible owners who will not neuter their dogs. Two of the litters were found in the "basura" (rubbish bins) taped up in cardboard boxes. We have about 10 adults that have been victims of road traffic accidents and have broken legs, hips etc. We even have one with three legs.
Many of these dogs are dumped after the season because they didn't shape up or got left behind and their owners didn't bother looking for them.
Thankfully we don't get as many acts of cruelty (hung, tied up to starve etc) as we used to get but the condition of some of these animals when they arrive at the shelter beggers belief.
Being a small island we have limited resources, e.g. we don't get our food sponsored by the big suppliers as it costs too much to ship it over. We have a limited amount of people that want to adopt animals, of any breed.
There is a new association here for the hunters that has strict guidelines, one of which is an obligatory Microchip. This does help us but it is only the responsible Podenco owner that joins the association and not the hundred(s) other owners that couldn't give two hoots.
Lynne
Please log onto their website to make a donation to help them. Every little bit helps.
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