The fees requested for the adoption of a galgo or podenco are another area that can cause discontent among would be adopters.
People may feel, quite justifiably at first, that they are offering to take in an animal who is unwanted who needs a home, who may have problems, medical or psychological, and feel a little 'miffed' that they are also asked to pay a fairly large sum of money.
There are several reasons for the fees that are charged for an adoption.
The first is to cover costs. Until you have worked in the rescue system, you can have no real idea of the massive costs that are incurred in each rescue.
Firstly, it may be that a straying and possibly injured dog has to be caught, and this can take several people days of effort.
The shelter/refuge then has to take over, paying for medical treatment, housing, neutering, micro- chipping, passporting, collars, leads, and eventual transport to the border of France. Some dogs have to be flown out to Holland or Belgium, the UK or USA, and the costs involved here can be considerable. Someone has to pay for it.
By now the refuges have probably spent in the region of 200 Euros. Possibly a lot more.
I live in southern France and so I can only speak on behalf of the French teams, who then take over, transporting the dogs all over France to foster or adoption homes. Those in foster care still need to be fed, treated, housed, socialised etc. It all takes time and money.
Adverts need to be placed to seek homes, and publicity materials need to be created to raise awareness of the problem.
By now, I hope you can see, a fee of around 250.00 Euros is more than justified.... and if by some miracle there is any left over on your particular adoption, there will be another needy galgo waiting in Spain, perhaps with a noose already tightening around his neck , who could perhaps be saved with that bit of extra cash.
Written by Joanna Simm.
I'll add a note here too. If the associations didn't charge for the dog, how many people would take a dog for free, only to have it end up back at the centre when the summer holidays came. At least by charging a reasonable fee for adopting a dog, it reassures the rescue associations that the adoptants are serious about wanting a galgo.
Beryl
Related articles:
Questions to ask yourself
Importance of neutering
Fees paid to associations
Questionnaires and visits
Dear Joanna,
I understand that recovering a dog is not easy and for sure it is not free. Could you explain me why the Galgo refuges IN SPAIN charge 3 and 4 times more than the others? I have adopted a mixed dog, the refuge charged me 85€ to cover the chip, vaccines, and medical treatment (including her castration). Before this, we tried to "save a galgo", but no one charged us less than 250€; being in Spain was no passport issues, no tickets and no other extra charges. My conclusion was simple: many Spaniards are criminals against the galgos, and many unscrupulous organizations make money with this sad truth.
Posted by: Ricardo | 29 May 2010 at 06:42 PM
Bon Soir
It is an important point which you raise. For example, the French association with which I travel into Spain on rescues has to pay to the refuge 150 euros to the vet to prepare the microchip, vaccinations including rabies, blood test and analysis for leishmania, ehrlichia and filiariosis, and then castration, before we can bring the dogs out of Spainf for rehoming in France.
So I have emailed a couple of the large associations and asked them to reply to this post.
Thank you for reading Galgo News, for commenting, and for caring about the animals in Spain.
Beryl
Posted by: Beryl Brennan | 29 May 2010 at 07:46 PM
hello ricardo,
my name is Mo Swatek and I'm the founder of http://www.pro-galgo-international.org
I'd like to answer to your message above.
first you have to understand 2 things about galgo adoption - rescueing
1. most of the galgo refuges and rescue groups have NO help from the spanish governement, that means that they have to cover all the expenses alone and try to recover part of them with the the adoption fee.
in our case IN spain 200eur and 300eur abroad including the intl, transport.
2. galgos often arrive in our hands with severe health problems incl mange, broken legs, heartworm, etc. as most of the galgos are prepared for the adoption abroad, the preparation is in our case the following:
80eur castration female
50eur castration male
20eur passport
20eur dental cleaning (very necessary often)
15eur microchip
40eur for rabies and multiple vaccination inl. re-vaccination
35eur bloodtest for leishmania, heartworm, babesia, ehrlichia (lyme) and a liver-kidney profile plus a hemogramma
10eur for anti-parasites external and internal
a medium cost of 250eur
but this is not including x-rays for old fractures, not including internal transport from the place where the dog was found to the shelter or rescue station (normaly about 50eur incl the return of the transportkennel) and not including the food and special alimentation to recover completely famished dogs, at least an average of another 100eur per dog.
a "normal" dog from a shelter comes usualy in spain with a rabies injection incl basic vaccination, micro chip and castration, no blood tests, no need for internal transports, not as many vetexpenses for famished dogs or fractured legs and, here is the big difference, many shelters have local volunteers, paying members and subventions from the citycouncil or even the government. galgo rescue groups do not get any help from the government and are depending completly on adoption fees and donations.
only because a dog is in adoption, it does not mean that it has to be for free or as cheap as possible. on the contrary, who does not want to pay for a well prepared dog would also not want to pay when the dog needs vet. and the adoption fee prevents people taking a dog without realy thinking about it (compulsive adoption)
and before you accuse galgo rescuers in spain of making profit of the galgos, I ask you to come and help in a galgo rescue centre just for 1 week, incl. the transports to the vet, feeding, cleaning piles of poop, and of course not to forget the long nights beside a deadly sick, severely injured or freshly operated dog! that never ever can be paid by any mony and is only possible thanks to hundreds of tireless volunteers, spanish volunteers of course, who make for these hounds a big difference!
best wishes
Posted by: MO SWATEK | 29 May 2010 at 08:27 PM
How different we are!!! 6 months ago I adopted a mix dog from the south of Spain through a danish organisation and paied 3500 dk = app. 450 euro, and I actually thought it very cheap as he came neutered, chipped, vaccinated and tested delivered in Copenhagen from Malaga with a passport. The neutering alone would have costed at least 550 euro in Denmark. Later on I have experienced that fees are cheaper in Spain than Denmark, so there might just have been a little "profit" for the shelter with my peticular dog as he had not required any further medical attention, but considering all the other dogs with heavy problems, I would only be very happy to support the shelters and all the wonderful volunters for the very important job they do helping all those unfortunate dogs. However, the the sad truth probably is, that the adoption fees far from cover the actual expences.
My best wishes for all the good people at the shelters.
Posted by: Tine Rosenkjaer | 30 May 2010 at 12:30 PM
Hi Mo
Thanks for explaining in so much detail just what costs are involved in rescuing a galgo in Spain. I have copied your reply and will post as a separate article on GN.
I hope Ricardo and others are now much more aware of why associations make the charges they do for someone adopting a galgo.
Amities
Beryl
Posted by: Beryl Brennan | 31 May 2010 at 07:03 AM
Hi Tine
Interesting to compare the different costs. The French association which I work with as a volunter charges 250 euros to adopt a dog from them. 150 euros goes to the vet for preparing the passport - microchip, vaccinations, blood tests for leishmania, ehrlichia and filaria, and castration. The other 100 euros goes to the association to pay for any of their galgos or podencos needing medical treatment for these diseases, or extra veterinary fees if a dog needs an operation. I organise one or two fundraising events each year which the association is always very grateful for, as it gives them extra money for the work they do. No one is paid a salary, unlike charities in the UK and, at the end of the year when their annual accounts are available for reading, they never have any balance left in hand - all money received is always spent on saving and rehoming the galgos and podencos.
Personally, I think people should pay a reasonable amount for a dog, whatever breed or mix. If they are not prepared to pay for a dog, then they should not have one. Dogs which are advertised as free to a good home risk being taken by some people who may not treat them as well as if they had to pay for a dog. Of course, lots of people take a free dog and give it a wonderful life. I just think that paying for a dog shows commitment.
Thanks for reading and for posting.
Beryl
Posted by: Beryl Brennan | 31 May 2010 at 07:27 AM
Hello Mo, sorry for the late reaction but my laptop was broke and it costed 9 weeks to get it back so now I have a lot of reading to do. I realy wonder why you write in your answer to Ricardo in your last sence about tireless volunteers, Spanish volunteers of course, you write. Why of course? Are you trying to say that there are no tireless non Spanish volunteers and only the Spanish ones are tireless? I myself worked 3 years as a volunteer in different Spanish shelters and I am not Spanish. I know many, many, many non Spanish volunteers who offer their vacation to go to help in Spanish shelters,sometimes 2 or 3 times a year, pay for their own ticket, often buy dog or catfood and other things needed at that moment in the shelter. All the people in the asociations in Europe who do a big job to get the dogs adopted, they are all volunteers, but not Spanish. They sell things at markets in their free time to raise money for the shelters they support. They collect blankets, food, collars, leashes medicines, coats, you name it, they collect it and take care that all this stuff goes to Spain, mostly by transport for which they pay themselves. How many woman are sewing galgo coats to donate to the galgo shelters you think? All volunteers but not Spanish. I can give you many more examples about the huge amount of work the non Spanish volunteers are doing but I won't, because I'm sure you know it or understand it and it is not the issue in this subject, I don't agree with you about that neither. Just wanted to let you know that all these thousands of non Spanish volunteers from over whole Europe, the whole world, also deserve a lot of respect for their help to get all the dogs, galgos as well as the mixed dogs, out of Spain and rehomed.
Posted by: Cobie | 16 July 2010 at 08:03 PM
Hi Cobie
Sorry you had such problems with your laptop, very frustrating when you lose your Internet companion/voice.
What you say is absolutely right about all the people around the world who work in many ways to support the plight of the galgos, podencos, and other of Spains abandoned dogs. I regularly receive boxes of dogs coats from America, paid for by a kindly couple who have warm waterproof coats made to protect the dogs in the refuges.
Its why also I like to thank all the volunteers who work so hard to help the animals - in my case galgos and podencos as they are my passion - without volunteers the rescue and rehoming of abandoned animals could not happen. I know some of the Spanish refuges are struggling now, because they have lost their British volunteer helpers who have returned to the UK.
Thanks for caring and commenting.
Beryl
Posted by: Beryl Brennan | 20 July 2010 at 09:45 AM