Law to stop importing Spanish dogs into Belgium – an explanation

Re the proposed Belgian law due to put into effect October 2009 – I have a received a copy in both Spanish and French but unfortunately it is over 30 pages long and I haven’t been able to get it translated into English yet! However, this is a basic explanation of the reason behind the law.

Hundreds of dogs from refuges in Spain have been rehomed in Belgium. However, not all the refuges and shelters in Spain adhere to the strict regulations for preparing the EU passport and paperwork before the dogs leave the refuge. Many illegalities have taken place such as faked passports (vaccination dates, for eg), importation of sick dogs carrying distemper or parvovirosis, inaccuracies about the age of dogs, even some occasions where dogs have been imported with passports which did not match the chip number. Some of these rescuers have been reported to the Belgian authorities and this has prompted the introduction of the ban.

This is an example of how simple it has been to prove such inaccuracies:

1.1.09 (example) galgo published in spain in killing station with killing date 5.1.09

9.1.09 dog arrives in Germany, Belgium, France or wherever

Obviously the rabies vaccination dates were faked, no other vaccines could be applied and of course no tests, castrations etc were done

Once the dogs arrived in the other country, the rescuers proudly published their arrival, brainlessly giving that the passports were manipulated. Adoptants of dogs that became deadly sick, and also veterinaires, reported the cheating… and it is easy for the authorities to check on the groups, webpages …dates etc.

This is just an example.

Several Spanish rescue groups have reported foreign rescue groups to the police for the above mentioned falsehoods.

The export of Spanish dogs does not help the situation at all if no political and informative work is done in the meantime, including reporting cases to the police, something that is rarely done. Usually people report the sad story on the internet to get funds but never to the police and, if there is no police report, then legally the case does not exist, therefore the polititians can say that the problem does not exsist as they have no police reports.

I have previously written about the importance of Spanish refuges and volunteers going through the correct procedure of identification of dogs – microchip and photo of the dog on the passport, then vaccinations, then castration/spaying, then blood tests – before a dog is brought out of the Spanish refuge into another country. Certainly the association I work with (from whom I have adopted 2 galgos and fostered others) works hard to ensure the paperwork is in place, and in many cases the history of the dog is known – from the day of its rescue. For example, my new galga was rescued from the killing station at Cordoba and taken to a refuge where the paperwork procedure was commenced. She then went into a foster home during which time the spaying and blood testing was done, before I collected her from the Spanish association which had rescued her. The process took 2 months.

Those Spanish associations and refuges who do not comply with the correct procedure have done the honest ones – and ultimately the plight of the galgos and podencos – no favours. With the introduction of the Belgian law in October, there is now a very great feat that other countries could follow suit.

The best way of tackling the problem for the galgos and podencos is to change the mindset of the galguerros, and many of us are working to try and do this, but sadly I fear that unless the Spanish government can be persuaded to introduce a law to protect the dogs, it will take generations – if ever – to change the attitude of the Spanish galguerros and gypsies that galgos are ‘vermin ‘ and just a ‘tool’.