Another thought-provoking poem from Alan Brian, Pepis Dog Refuge.
GALGEROS by Alan Brian
Could we become Galgueros?
NO!
So what sets us apart?
It doesn’t take much working out, we humans have a heart.
They say no animals have a soul, so does that mean they feel no pain,
and that’s galguero thinking, but we know they’re all insane.
Each day I want to tell them,
JUST LOOK INTO THEIR EYES,
There’s love and true companionship, and they won’t tell you lies.
Tell us how you sleep at night, with a conscience oh so clear.
Can you not see the fear in their eyes, for the dogs we just revere.
I know I will never understand, what’s going through your minds.
But thank godness there are still humans here, who will love and treat them kind.
Comments
4 responses to “A message for the Spanish galguero…”
described exellent to both humans and the insane ones alan do you think most would ever listen do you think they have any feelings at all no because most just go on and on repeating these horrid acts i think and feel so much for every galgo and podenco each and every day night that looses their life in the most horrid ways unimanginable it breaks me you have only got to look at what you rescues bring in to your care to see the pain the torture they have gone through the poor souls that dont make it the poor souls that dont make it out of perreras because the rescues dont have the room and money sometimes the saying what have they done to desrve such crap is they are born a galgo or podenco poor poor souls bless them all
This is what I can’t get, when you look into their eyes all you can see is gentleness and love. They say dogs don’t have a soul, pah to that! It is the people who hurt them who don’t have a soul. I can only assume that they are not fully formed human beings. Lovely poem.
When we adopted Guzu our second galga, she was not really interested in mankind, not anymore to be exact.
She had been beaten and abused by her Spanish owner and she was a kind of dead inside.
She looked like a normal dog but you could notice that she was somehow… kind of faraway from you.
She needed six months to awake to full life again. She tested us, to see if we would abuse her as it had been her fate before.
When she realized that we would not beat her up and that we really love her, she transformed into another being, playful, full of love and passion.
She was not interested in the hunt before, either. With us she obviously discovered “her true shelf”, which means she is keen on the squirrels, on rabbits etc. and would hunt anything small (when we would let her…). She is extremely fast, too.
Stupid galgueros, they never discovered how many excellent hunters they lose because their permanent abuse kills the souls of many of their best dogs.
They lost Guzu for forever – actually a luck for Guzu.
She has not hunted since having lived with us. But sleeping in the bed and being loved makes up for this small loss in her opinion I suppose 🙂
This was just like my galgo, Jake. When we first saw him in quarantine he was frozen and like a piece of cardboard. It took him quite a long time to trust us and feel any kind of happiness. When we first brought him home we had to lift him through the door because he had frozen (not easy with a 40 kilo dog!). He then collapsed on the floor shaking for half an hour. He had been badly abused in Spain and it never left him. He was always scared of sudden hand or leg movements and was scared of anyone walking behind him. Eventually he became a happier trusting dog, he even had a greyhound smile! However, I would often catch a faraway sad look in his eye and I would fuss him, tell him I loved him and his eyes would soften again. Jake was such a gentle dog, loving and kind. I miss him every day.