One of the things which really sickens me and also makes me exceedingly angry is the abandonment of animals – everywhere. I receive many emails containing appeals for help for abandoned animals, or mass cullings of stray dogs or wild mustangs. The reason there are so many unwanted animals is because of MAN, as in human. If there were not people like breeders of animals, dog and horse shows, circuses – to name just a few – there would not be the need for refuges and rescue associations.

This is yet another example of irresponsibility and lack of care – a galga abandoned on the streets of Cordoba, prey to any dog which scents her when she comes into season. The result, she is still wandering the streets of Cordoba, heavily pregnant and about to give birth to yet more unwanted dogs.

She’s dodging the traffic, searching for food and water. Dog shelters are already full to bursting, the volunteers are desperate to find someone who can take her in.

If you can help, please contact elarcadenoecordoba@gmail.com
www.arcanoecordoba.es”>El Arca de Noe de Córdoba

A result of the recession in the UK is the thousands of animals which are being abandoned there. Dozens of healthy dogs are having to be put to sleep because otherwise the rescue centres have no more room to take in yet more abandoned or handed in because their owners can no longer afford to keep them. And there is a sickening CCTV video circulating the Internet of a woman in Coventry, England, picking up a young cat who went to her for a fuss, and dumping it in a rubbish bin! Luckily the scene was picked up by the camera, the cat was rescued – having been in the bin for 15 hours! – and returned to its worried owners.

And another appalling picture appeared in my newspaper, of a bear, strapped to a bicycle, being pulled along a high wire, with a basket hanging below in which a monkey was strapped. This takes place as an ‘attraction’ in a tourist park in China.

Then a senseless donkey owner in Russia agreed to let his donkey be strapped to a paraglider and towed out by boat over the sea! By the time the police arrived, the donkey had been brought crashing back down to earth, absolutely terrified out of its mind and dragged injured away.

And now the beginning of September draws near, together with the start of the hunting season in many countries – the ‘glorious 12th’ has already started in the UK, where grouse are bred in their hundreds and released on Scottish moors for mindless sick men to shoot with guns. It’s certainly not ‘glorious’ for the birds.

I and many others fear for the galgos still in refuges in Spain, at risk of being stolen by gitanos and sold back to the galgueros.

Fingers crossed that room can be found somewhere for this poor galga to have her babies, in comfort rather than in a cold doorway on the street.