There has been no let up for the volunteers in Spain – every week dozens of galgos end up in perreras for killing – it’s gone on all summer – no let-up. New stories and appeals arrive every day. This is the story of one galga, Eboli. Abandoned by her galguero to take her chance on the busy roads, she was hit by a vehicle and seriously injured. Luckily volunteers from Refugio Kimba of Cadiz, the very first Spanish animal protectora, went out to rescue her, not without risk to their own safety. You can read the story and see the video of her rescue
She had part of the bumber embedded in her body, a broken back leg, traumatised and it is not yet known if she has brain damage. How could the car driver not know he had done this?!
She is now stable in the vet clinic, has had some food and the wounds are being treated. She is being carefully monitored.
Comments
19 responses to “Refugio Kimba, Cadiz – risking life and limb on the Spanish motorways”
Why on Earth did they not give her something for the pain right away when she got there??? This is inhumane! You can see how much pain she’s in towards the end of the video as she’s panting incredibly fast with her mouth open… A human would have gotten a shot of painkiller right away, why not a dog? Just because a dog doesn’t scream his pain doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel it!
nybody who knows dogs knows that most dogs will not cry out in pain because their instinct tells them to remain quiet in case a predator should hear them. Indeed, a crying animal in pain is easy pray for a predator. Even though that instinct is no longer needed, it’s still quite strong in most dogs.
But regardless of that, I think anyone with half a brain can see that any living being would be in horrendous pain in that state with part of a bumper embedded in her body!!!
what i have read is enough i cant look at the vidio poor little baby aww i feel for this little sweet heart thinking of her hope she makes full recovery pff who needs hunters and breeders they cause nothing but pain and suffering heart breaks not to mention break downs and great financial difficulty oh when is this going to end
I do agree with Danielle. I found this video seriously disturbing. As far as I can see that dog received no pain relief during this video for the most intolerable pain she must have been going through. There seemed to be a lot of attention on filming this and focusing on the injuries rather than ensuring that she had pain relief. Obviously the rescue people were trying to help her, thank goodness, but she was torn apart! I do hope that she recovers but she was suffering terribly. I hope the vet gave her something to try and ease the pain as soon as possible.
The people in the video are volunteers, ordinary people like you and me, who dropped what they were doing to go and fetch the dog. I doubt they’d be equipped or authorised to give medication, nor would they want to risk doing further harm by making a wrong judgement. Far better for the dog to have a bit longer in pain and be seen by a qualified vet. I’d have done the same.
Oh, sorry – I’ve just watched the end. You mean at the vets’? That would be the same – he’s going to put her to sleep in order to operate, so he’ll be giving her a pre-med and then a general anaesthetic any minute – you can see him organising it all. It’d probably be the same for a human, or it has been in my experience. It’s more important to save a life than to hurry to relieve pain and possibly kill the victim in the process.
This isn’t the fault of the Spanish or galgueros – it’s the fault of motorways and people whizzing about in cars and lorries. You see horribly wounded and dead cats, dogs, foxes, badgers by all fast raods in all countries.
Oh I see, I understand. I think it was just the terrible injuries and I was thinking that something needed to be done to stop her pain quickly. I also did not mean any disrespect to the wonderful volunteers who saved her. Without them she would have laid there suffering for a long time, so thank goodness for them.
Hi Kathryn. I know just how you feel and thanks for understanding at once. You know, I think that’s one of the amazing things about paramedics and firemen, ‘cos they’re the ones who have to get people or animals out of these horrific situations and otfen they even have pain relief available, but know it’s unwise to give it, so they have to try to comfort people who are screaming or sobbing in agony and begging for help. I think they’re absolutely heroic.
hello Beryl, Can you post regular updates or give me an e.mail address of who to contact for updates on Eboli.I hope and pray she will come through it and find a forever home,regards Elaine
Actually, in the case of the galgos, IT IS the galgueros’ fault. Those people abandon their dogs near motorways and leave them to fend for themselves. If they took care of their dogs, the dogs would not end up wounded or dead by the side of the road. I live in Québec, Canada and I very seldom see dead dogs on the side of the road… Come to think of it, I’ve NEVER seen a dead dog on the side of a highway here. I’ve seen dead cats and wild animals, but no dogs. If people keep their dogs in their homes or in a secure, fenced yard, there is no reason that a dog should end up wounded or dead on the side of a highway. Of course, accidents happen and a dog can escape, but the sheer number of dogs that end up on the side of highways in Spain is ridiculously high and it is preventable.
Contrary to what you believe Kate, it seems that Spanish vets do not treat galgos as a human doctor would treat a human. Recently, I came across a disturbing piece of information on the Website “Greyhounds in Nood Belgium”. I read about a galga who was found in July of this year. She had a triple open leg fracture and had been wandering about for 20 days. The dog was howling in pain day and night. She was finally taken to a Spanish vet who, believe it or not, says that there was no need to bandage the horrible wound or to give her painkillers. He would simply amputate the leg the next morning…The leg is amputated in the morning and, incredibly, she is brought back to the volunteers 2 hours later, still groggy from the anesthesia!!!
I don’t know about where you live Kate, but here in Canada, when you bring your dog to the vet for surgery, you don’t take him home 2 hours later… He stays at the clinic until he’s ready to go, until he has urinated and eaten a bit, sometimes until the next day, more often after about 8 hours or so. I’d be willing to bet that that sadistic vet probably didn’t give her painkillers after surgery either.
I emailed Mireille Broeders of Greyhounds in Nood Belgium and told her how horrified I was that the vet had done this and her response was, and I quote: “I know it is incredible but most of the spanish vets consider galgos as waste,so it is a perfect “normal” reaction”… Can you imagine? On top of being considered like garbage and vermin by the general population and their owners, the very people who are supposed to care for them and make sure they are pain-free consider them as waste and let them suffer!!!
I can’t wrap my brain around the fact that a person, who supposedly loves animals (like a vet should), lets an animal suffer through hell because, for some twisted reason, he considers that animal as a piece of garbage and not a living being… What is it about galgos that brings out such disdain and hatred??? I will write a letter of protest to the Spanish vet association and tell them about this incident. Maybe if enough people complain, they will instigate some sort of rule that their vets have to follow, some sort of “pain protocol” that should be followed, no matter what the breed of the dog is.
I think it’d be more reasonable and more intelligent to email or telephone to Kimba and ask them, first. (The addresses are on their website.) The vet in the video certainly doesn’t appear to be treating the dog “with disdain and hatred” or as “a waste.” I personally have met 9 vets in Cádiz province and I know that seven of those vets do free or cheap treatment for ill-treated or abandoned animals. This is supposed to be about helping galgos, not hating the Spanish!
(P.S. Cádiz province is where Kimba is situated and where I live.)
I never mentioned hatred towards the Spanish, so please do not put words into my mouth that I never said (or wrote). I find your message insulting (re. the “more intelligent” part…). You don’t know me so please refrain from passing judgement. Also, please do not mix up the stories. The vet who I said was treating the dog with disdain was NOT the vet in the video, but the vet on the Greyhounds in Nood Belgium Website. The “waste” part is not from me, but from Mireille Broeders herself. That lady has been doing galgo rescue for many years, so I tend to trust her judgement… I’m sure she knows what she’s talking about!
Also Kate, please read carefully: in my message I was talking about GALGOS, not ill-treated and abandoned dogs of other breeds. What Mireille said was that a lot of Spanish vets consider GALGOS as waste, she didnt say how they acted with other breeds… There’s big difference.
Yes, I know you wrote “galgos” rather than “dogs and I wrote “animals,” to include galgos, but I could have specified galgos.
I’m sorry you feel insulted, but I think it’s insulting to the rescuers and to the vet to jump to the conclusion that they’re being in any way negligent or unfeeling. I’ve explained why the rescuers couldn’t give pain relief (or water) and, a far as I could see, they did all the right things, carefully keeping her in position, soothing her, acting fast but calmly, then getting to the vets’ as fast as possible. Then I saw a vet who’d been warned in advance and who immediately, but very gently, almost without touching her, checked her heart and lungs and the obvious injuries and, without further ado, rang through to the nurse to preare the operation. His face and movements were grave, kind, concerned and confident and it’d be only 5-10 minutes from arrival at the clinic till the pre-med.
If you look at the Kimba website, under veterinario and then clinicas, you can see their thanks to all the vets who help them and you’ll se the same on most galgo-rescue sites. I think it is quite wrong of the Belgian lady to write that “most of the spanish vets consider galgos as waste, so it is a perfect “normal” reaction”… if that is what she wrote. It’s an extraordinary statement, misleading, insulting and based on absolutely no evidence, no statistics, no survey, nothing! It’s especially wrong of her because she’s in a position where people are likely to simply take her word for it. It makes me weep to see the hurt dogs, but it only adds to the weeping when all this xenophobia comes into play.
Where on Earth in any of my comments did I say anything negative about the rescuers???!!! I have nothing but the utmost respect for ALL Spanish vounteers who are doing an incredible job in a very bad situation. My later comments (especially about the letter to the Vet Association) are aimed at the horrible vet on the Greyhond in Nood Belgium’s (GINB) Website who let a galga scream in pain without painkillers even though she had a triple open fracture. By the way, the volunteers in that situation did give her painkillers that they had on hand during the night, against the vet’s orders and I think they were right. I still stand by my comment that all vets should have a “pain protocol” that they follow to avoid such a horror. Again, this comment is NOT aimed at the vet OR the volunteers in the above video but at the vet in the GINB website.
Also, it has nothing to do with xenophobia. The galgo problem is very specific to Spain just as other problems are very specific to other countries. For example, we Quebecers hold the very sad record of pet abandonment in all of Canada. We are the worst, I’m not proud of it, and if someone from another country were to point it out to me I wouldn’t accuse them of xenophobia! It’s the truth… Hiding my head in the sand by pretending that people are exactly the same everywhere with all the same problems is not my style.
I don’t think anyone would be accused of xenophobia by stating that the Chinese have a poor human rights record or that women are far from being equal to men in Afghanistan’s society or that female excision is a problem in some African countries and pretty much nowhere else, and so on and so forth.
Some countries treat their animals better than others, some contries treat women better than others, some countries treat homosexuals better than others, etc. And yes, there are people in every one of those countries who go against the grain and try to change mentalities, and they do so, not by ignoring the problem, but by acknowledgeing it and trying to effect change.
Cultures are different wherever you go, but deflecting the problem by saying that it’s a problem anywhere and not just in Spain does nothing to solve it, it just trivializes it.
Does anyone know how Eboli is today?
I’m still praying she will come through.
Contact Refugio Kimba direct – I’ve been out all weekend with the fundraising dog show I organise and run. You can always use a Bing translator if you can’t get an update in English. Please post any news here. Rest of today I’m out clearing up after the show.
Thanks Beryl,I’ll try that,good luck the clearing up and hope you had a good show,Elaine