Regular readers will remember the story of Estrela, the galga in Portugal, starving, sick with pneumonia, feeding 3 puppies. Teresa Sousa and her team eventually persuaded the hunter to let them have Estrela and the pups, who regained their health and adopted. Estrela found a wonderful forever home in the UK.
Now the hunter has given Teresa Estrela’s brother who they have named Duke. Duke too is sick and traumatised. Since rescuing him, Teresa has had more dogs dumped on her and so they do not have the space nor the time to give Duke the time and space needed to heal him. Ines explains his story and their appeal for him.
Since finding Duke we have had 5 more dogs being dumped on teresa’s doorstep, and are desperately out of space to house the animals. Duke had to be put in an improvised shelter with a quiet girl, as he is extremely fearful and will not allow anyone even getting close to him.
We have not got the right conditions to rehabilitate such a traumatised dog, nor funds to give him what he needs.
For those of you that remember Estrela, the galga rescued last Christmas, she left behind her son, partner and younger brother at the hands of her evil owner. There was nothing we could do legally except negotiate with her owner eventually handing in all the dogs. At the time we took Estrela and 3 of her pups, in the hope we could come back for more.
2 days ago her previous owner said he was willing to hand in Estrela’s brother, who we named Duke. Here in the photo he is still at this horrible man’s place, he has since been rescued and taken to the vet. Duke is suffering from pneumonia and severe diarrhoea and is now on antibiotics. More photos to follow shortly, please bare with us. Not much, but a small victory for these poor galgos…
UPDATE 12/10/13: Duke has recovered from diarrhoea and is still being medicated for pneumonia. He is extremely fearful and will not allow anyone to approach him, not even lure him with food. Duke has a sponsor and will hopefully recover soon and be up for adoption.
In the meantime he desperately needs a foster home who can give him the time and space to recover from his previous life, to begin to trust people, to realise that there is an alternative life to the harsh one from which he has come.
If you can offer such a place to Duke, please get in touch with Portugal Dog Rescue urgently.
The refuge also desperately needs funds to feed all the dogs and for vet bills. Paypal on this link, every little helps.
Comments
9 responses to “Portugal Dog Rescue – traumatised galgo Duke urgently needs your help”
will donate on friday hope they get a foster for duke bless him
just had a look at what teresa and a couple of volunteers do with these poor souls i will be putting donation through on fri 2 small donations i have been given from my friend and my daughter
I will donate in the next few days. Hope Duke gets a foster home.
just donated
charl of 112 carlota glagos will be taking duke when he is well enogh to travell bless her
For some fearful dogs as Duke often a special shirt (thundershirt) can ease the fear as it is worn as a second skin an the dogs feel comfortable with this.
I can sew one and send it to charl of 112 carlota galgos.
katharina
Lovely idea, have you emailed Charl to explain it? comdelrio@hotmail.com. Duke will come to her some time in the next week or so. Im sure my readers would like to know more on this idea, can you explain it in an email to me so I can post it separately. band@bbrennan.eu. Thank you for caring.
I will write to Charl and explain the function of this shirt, as I need his measurements to make one.
Also DAP (Dog Apaesing Pheromon) helps some fraightend dogs, as it imitates the Pheromones mother dogs have while welping their sipplings.
katharina
Interesting you say about the Pheronomes. I used a product recommended by a specialist vet to use on my horses. The 2 have been buddies for 20 years, just the 2 of them with us in France. So when mine developed a bad bad breathing problem, we had to see a specialist equine vet by the Cadre Noir at Saumer (cant get better than that in France!). She recommended Pheronomes for the horse remaining at home to keep him calm whilst his buddy was missing. I fully believe in it! thank you for caring and commenting.