Murcia – illegally ‘training’ galgos – the police turn a blind eye!

Running galgos alongside a motorised vehicle – motorbike, car, van, quad bike, is illegal in Spain – except that Andalucia Junta have just passed a law to rescind this – and make it legal again. I have participated in a rescue from Spain which included a galga which had been very badly injured in this way – she went down and was dragged….photos of her are in my book. Paco luckily had great medical, physical and mental care – swimming physio, massage etc. and is now happily in a forever home in France.

This photo was taken in Murcia last week – October 2012. The man is breaking the law. The person who took the photo is a neighbour and frightened of making a denuncia because she and her family would suffer repurcussions from the hunting fraternity. Seprona won’t do anything – they are hunters too.

Here are some of the comments from the Galgos del Sol Facebook page.

I have witnessed the same thing where I live here in Spain and it wasn’t a quad bike he had but a large 4×4. I couldn’t believe my eyes the dogs, 6 of them, were tied to the bullbar on a shorter lead than the ones in this photo, the slightest lack of concentration on the part of the idiotic so and so that was driving it, and the poor creatures would be under the vehicle, badly injured or dead!!

What is wrong with these stupid Spanish men, for I don’t understand their mentality, it makes me so sorry and sad for these lovely galgos, I have seen so much cruelty done to them, it MUST STOP!!!

I am afriad to say in rural Murcia it is totally illegal. These galgos end up under the quad if they can’t keep going. We (GdS) are the ones that then pick them up with broken hips and legs. As soon as a galgo is injured most of the time he/she is useless and thrown away.

(GdS) I will let the people know that saw it and they can decide if they wish to make a denuncia. We would never pressure people to denounce and as it’s a neighbour to them, only they could make that choice in case of comeback. But we will let them know. The police are very aware of it, he is there all the time.

The police see him, he is out all the time apparently. We appreciate people get angry and we have wanted to highlight what we are up against but it’s not the same here as in the UK where you can ring up anonymously and report something. It’s quite hard here to report stuff when the police turn a blind eye and don’t want to know.

(GdS) I have in fact been barred from ringing the police regarding abandoned dogs in the Torre Pacheco area because I used to ring so much AND THEN they stopped helping neighbours of mine because they thought I had put them up to it to make the call… in turn they wouldn’t help the dogs and just got angry.

(GdS)I have been accused by the police of picking up dogs and taking them to certain areas to guarantee a place in the refuge and then told to go back and put them back where I found them. I am just asking people to please try and understand it’s not black and white.

These comments from Tina of Galgos del Sol just reinforces what I am always saying – the police in Spain don’t usually give a damn about animal maltreatment, especially to hunting dogs because they are hunters too. And volunteers are frightened for themselves, their families, their homes, cars – their own dogs – because these vicious bastards will do anything to intimidate them.