An appeal popped into my Inbox this week, which I wish to share with you, in the hope that you will all write to your local MEP, as requested. You will find a link at the end of the post which will connect you to a website on which you will be able to find the contact details of your MEP. Please cross post where possible.
Herewith the letter, either post or email
Dear Sir or Madam,
I want to bring to your attention a very sad situation in your country which is of great concern to me and to many of my Spanish friends. This involves considerable cruelty to animals and in particular to dogs. Although there are laws to prevent such cruelty they are rarely, if ever enforced and there is a rather large gap in the law that regards greyhound racing dogs as “working dogs” which are therefore not covered by the law. After the rabbit-hunting season is over they either get thrown out, dumped on the motorway or are hanged.
This is a deplorable state of affaires and a very poor advertisement for Spain, and also by the volunteers who work tirelessly to try and save these dogs from further pain and suffering.
Unfortunately there is another source of cruelty to dogs involving the many expatriates who are temporary residents. Some of these people dump dogs when they return to their home countries or leave them outside animal sanctuaries. There should be serious penalties for such offences and they should be enforced. There is a great deal of anger about this situation both among my Spanish friends and the many expats who, while having an admiration for Spain and its culture, are none the less very distressed by this situation, .
In the coming months, this situation will be brought to public attention in numerous ways that are intended to exert pressure for change. It would be most helpful and at the same time positive for Spain’s image (especially in 2010 when Spain’s position in the EU will be front and foremost) if your office took a lead in this matter and gave support to moves to correct this situation.
May I thank you for your time in reading my letter and hope that you will help to introduce a law to protect the galgos of Spain, and penalise those people who dump dogs.
Yours
(name and country of residence)
Comments
4 responses to “Join the Campaign to protect the dogs of Spain – write to your MEP”
I concur with the above letter, I am English and live in Spain and the sitution with working dogs is absolutely deplorable.
I live in the country area of the Alicante province and it is common place to see dogs run over, left by the road side and just left to rot. Friends of mine, who also live in the same area have come across these poor creatures hanged in the countryside when their owners feel that they have no more use for hunting purposes.
Oddly, I think culture and religion have a hand in this that dogs have no souls and therefore humans are higher beings. ” How sad, but somewhat true unfortunately.
When is this aweful practice going to change, afterall surely, humans will be judged on their deeds to all living creatures, whether they be human or animals.
Like practically every country in the world there seems to be no compassion for animals. Look at Spain with their disgusting bull fighting which should be banned outright, also fines should be imposed to anyone who dumps their animals – but who is there to police these practices ?? no-one it seems, except for the animal activists – so please keep on making people aware of the cruely world wide – most humans just don’t want to know, so how can they help when they become ostriches ?
Letter sent to MEP in support of this subject today.
Hi
I live in spain and am a friend of the lady who put this letter together. I am actively out getting signatures for each letter to post to the embassy. In am aiming for 200. I work in a refuge and am devastated at the amount of dogs that come in each day, some are so frightened you cannot touch them for months!! Well done Joan, you are a trooper!!!!!
Tina