April and Paul Carrier run the Alpha Dog School at Rota near Cadiz.
They do an amazing job rehabilitating traumatized galgos, but they need your help to fund a specialist course, either by individual donations or, even better, a SPONSOR for the whole course fee.
Here is what April says.
Can you Help the Helpers?
My husband, Paul, and I have been on the front line of Galgo rescue in Andalucia since 2001, and during that time we’ve worked with hundreds of Galgos and a number of wonderful charities, adoption associations and individuals across Europe. Our combined efforts have seen these Galgos happily adopted in the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Norway.
Aside from the often poor physical condition of the Galgos we’ve worked with, and the various injuries and diseases that need treatment, we estimate that around three in ten Galgos are psychologically traumatised by their experiences at the hands of the ‘galgueros’. The Galga in the photograph, named ‘Hope’, is one of our current galgos and is just one of the dogs who needs both medical care (she has a broken tail which will have to be amputated) and behaviour modification to help her overcome her extreme fear of man.
These traumatised Galgos are often the most difficult to effectively treat in preparation for adoption – it can be a lengthy and challenging process for both the dogs and the rescuers. The people who are the first point of contact in the Galgos’ mental and physical road to recovery really have their work cut out! Paul and I have years of experience, but we still feel that our knowledge is not sufficient to deal with all the problems inherent in rehabilitating abandoned and abused Galgos.
This is the reason we are making this appeal for help – we both need to expand our range of abilities for the specialised care we need to give the Galgos so that we are better able to prepare these gentle dogs for adoption and a whole new life. The Animal Care College based in the UK offers correspondence courses that we feel would greatly benefit our ability to more effectively help the Galgos prior to their adoption.
But we have a problem….our expenses are high and our income is low! We are currently caring for 10 Galgos for Greyhounds in Need, who fund the dogs’ care while they are here. In addition we always have a number of Galgos whose care we fund at our own expense, because the alternative is that these dogs would have otherwise been destroyed or abandoned, especially at this time of year during the hunting season. As a result we cannot afford to pay for these important courses.
So, if there’s anyone out there who can help us with the course fees, you can make a contribution using Paypal to dogschool@yahoo.com. Your help will help us, so we can help all these Galgos….
Thank you and bless you for any assistance you can offer.
Here is a link to the courses we have selected at the Animal Care College:
http://www.animalcarecollege.co.uk/courses.php?course_ID=26http://www.animalcarecollege.co.uk/courses.php?course_ID=49