We’ve been following the story of galgos in Portugal – horrendous conditions in which they survive – and the team of faithful volunteers who work tirelessly to make the lives of these dogs better, against insurmountable odds.
Ines explains the situation more fully.
‘I must clarify some details on this shelter, it is not a registered charity, it is simply Teresa, an animal lover that happens to help every stray dog she finds. She treats, neuters and vaccinates them and finds them good homes. Teresa has a brilliant record, this year alone she rehomed over 60 dogs by herself into loving families, so I and another 2 women volunteered to help her fundraise and look after the dogs.
This is because state kennels are appalling and are kill shelters, and every single charity/association cannot take any more animals as, due to the recession, abandonment is rife.
She has a small field with kennels where she keeps the dogs; living in an area of poverty, people see dogs as hunting tools, none of the galgos that lives nearby (with “owners”) is fed, so they all came to Teresa’s doorstep as they know they will be fed and cuddled there.
Estrela, the emaciated mum, belongs to Teresa’s neighbour, the alcoholic, and all of this man’s galgos are fed by Teresa, as he never bought a single bag of food (they believe eating will stop them from hunting). That’s how Teresa came to know about this litter of pups, and that he was drowning them. She needs to keep in good terms, unfortunately, as if she makes too much hassle, he will take revenge on the animals and beat them, as happened before. He threatens to kill them (which he will), so leaves us the option of feeding the animals on his back, treating them and neuter them without his knowledge.
He wanted to kill Estrela after the pups are weaned, but Teresa convinced him to give her up once the pups are ready. Estrela will come to the shelter in about a month’s time and will be up for adoption. Estrela will remain with her owner for now, and pup 24 and his sister are with Inês Pinto (like me, we just help Teresa out) who is hand-rearing them. They are bottle-fed every 3 hours and because we have other newborns with us (not from galgos, mongrel pups that were left to die in a field,), milk is always needed. They do not have a foster mum as we had an outbreak of parvo in the area recently, and the babies are too young to be vaccinated, so we keep them separate from other dogs (sad, but we cannot take the risk of them catching parvo).
The stray (picture above) is a different bitch, also galga, abandoned by a different hunter months ago… she became feral and Teresa has been trying to capture her for weeks to neuter her. She had a previous litter that Teresa rehomed, but before being able to spay her, she went missing for a long time, and when she finally turned up, she already had had another litter, 6 pups. She is the one you see lying down nursing her pups in the pics I sent yesterday).
It took us a week to finally trap her, so she is called Sunday and she is now in the shelter, under Teresa’s care. Besides those 2, we have a 3rd galga mum with a litter of 4 at the shelter. (the brown & white one below) We took her in despite her belonging to another spiteful hunter, under the promise that we will return her once those 4 puppies are ready. We really need to neuter that girl so he will stop breeding her. We have until the 31st October to spay her without his knowledge, or he will mate her as soon as she leaves the shelter.
I have attached pics of this 3rd girl and her babies. They are all vaccinated already, and ready to go to loving families if someone wants them.
Teresa is quite public about her views and with her denuncias, we just don’t get taken seriously by the authorities unfortunately. Teresa is indeed a golden heart,sthe spends more than she can afford on the animals, that’s why me and others have chosen to give her a hand, she has more compassion in her than the whole town she lives in.’
To donate to Teresa to feed these dogs, Paypal engtecpedronuno@gmail.com Every little helps the ladies keep these nursing bitches alive till they can be rescued and neutered and homed.
Comments
11 responses to “Galgas in Portugal – a very hard life”
i have donated to 4 rescues in the last 10 mins teresa was one of them wish i could do more
i have wrote 2 letters one to the rspca and one to league against cruel sports in my own words re the situation for these beutiful dogs asking what can be done telling them rescues in spain need outside help i will see what reply i get from them if i just get basick reply what i think dosnt amount to much or dont get a reply at all i will be writing to them again either way to tell them to remove me from their lists
Hi where about in portugal is teresa i used to live in portugal and rescued a few while I was there, I still know quite a few people who may be able to help.
hi tracy i think the best you can do is email her it would be great for more people to help you will have seen this at first hand while you where there
Someone who knows how to do this should start an online petition for the dogs in Portugal and we could all sign and spread the word!
Maybe Teresa or one of the volunteers with her, who knows the situation and knows what to ask for and from whom should write the petition text.
I would sign immediately and make it public as much as I can!
Even if one petition does not have much effect, but it is a step in the right direction nevertheless.
There are super internet portals nowadays to start a petition and raise avareness (which is often the first step to adoptions and donations).
ye i would sign aswell but dont know if it would work maybe beryl will know how or she will prob know someone who can this is why i have wrote letters to rspca and league against cruel sports and dogs trust let them all be aware of whats going on cause i ant had nothing concrete from the spanish government or the eu mep but like i said if nothing becomes of that i will tell them to take me off their mailing list i wont want to know anymore and i have had word that portugal are worse than spain with animals its only what i have been told
Hi Tracy, Teresa lives in Aljustrel, near Beja, in the Alentejo region. Feel free to share amongst your acquaintances Teresa’s shelter, every hand is needed. Many thanks.
Hi all, thank you for your support. After the first appeal here we have had a few donations, Estrela and the other mums are now on Royal Canin Mother feed, and the babies have got their milk. Estrela eats like there’s no tomorrow and hopefully she’ll put on some weight soon. Feel free to spread her page http://www.facebook.com/#!/PortugalDogRescue. Teresa is not very profficent in english, so if you would like to get in touch, also feel free to email me on inescanavarro@yahoo.com. Today we had very sad news, as when Teresa went to feed Estrela this morning, her owner had killed two more pups today, for no reason at all, apart from being a vindictive, sad, bitter and evil man. We are in the process of doing a petition as well as yet more denuncias against this man, but not until Estrela is safely at the shelter, so please do be patient and we’ll keep you posted, would be great if you could spread the work and continue giving us support. Thanks again for caring,much appreciated 🙂
Hi Ines,
Royal Canin and all these brands are much marketing but actually if you can get hold of raw green beef tripe (stomachs of the cow), THAT would be a great help for such emaciated dogs. However I do not know if you can get the real stuff in your country. In some European countries it is not easy in others it is to get tripe.
Here some information on green tripe
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=green%20tripe%20raw%20pdf&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CFQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.maryannland.com%2FGreen_tripe.pdf&ei=dxgcUL2_NvCu0AGb_YCwAQ&usg=AFQjCNG-b9p2fnlsOg-Iu_d9q5azZ0zbBQ
I donated some a couple of years ago to the Hungarian sighthound rescue and they gave it only to the weakest dogs as you can not get it well in Hungary (so they only had the relatively small amount I donated). They were really happy with the tripe!
It is really the best in my opinion and definitively worth trying if you can get some. It is normally cheap, too.
Tunde
Hi Tunde, yes we can get tripe here, it is actually a delicatessen, people eat it in a dish called “dobrada”, so it can get expensive. But yes, I will take your advice and give it a try. We have been mixing the commercial feed with offal, mainly kidney and liver and she seems to love it. She has been wormed as well, and was infested with round worm, so hopefully she will start putting on weight slowly.I will post some recent pics soon, thank you all for the suggestions and support.
I’ve been on holiday with my son and family for a week, so only just getting back to work for the galgos and podencos. Ines and I are going to work on composing a letter to the Portuguese government, and then we’ll run a letter-writing campaign. Keep reading and helping. Thank you