For ‘greyhounds’ – read ‘Galgos’

For my talk at the PAES Conference in Murcia in October 2015, I presented estimated annual figures regarding the uncontrolled overbreeding of galgos. These figures are conservative and they are by no means to be taken as firm; it is quite likely that the numbers are even greater.

Back in the early 1990’s, a friend of mine who was a Daily Mail staff photographer, was visiting the Castile-la Mancha province. His guide walked him into an olive grove where he photographed the olive trees, most of which had a dead galgo hanging from them, which made headlines in the paper.

In 2009 SOS Galgos (Barcelona) claimed on their website that 160 galgos were abandoned every day. That equates to 58,400 galgos every year, abandoned or dumped in perreras for killing, including reports of galgos hung in olive groves.

With all the adverse publicity in the past few years, the galgueros have responded by abandoning their dogs and dumping them in perreras in greater numbers. There are now fewer instances of hangings because – however much the galgueros claim ‘there are no hangings’ – digital photos on the Internet accurately show dates and times and show the real truth. And because now one or two associations are not afraid of instigating court action against these dog-murdering men. And I’m talking about podencos being hung, as well as galgos.

Move on a few years, let’s look at figures again.

There are about 250,000 registered galgueros in Spain, maybe that number of unregistered ones too. Every galguero has at least 2 dogs, some have as many as a dozen or more. So say 250,000 registered galgueros each with 2 dogs – that’s 500,000 galgos. Say a third of those are female, 83,000 galgas. Most will be pregnant, each having an average of 6-8 puppies. So we get 83,000 bitches with a litter of 6 puppies (being conservative). That’s 458,000 galgo puppies.

Bit exaggerated, you think? Well, here’s an example. 2 very pregnant galgo bitches dumped at a refuge in Seville province in February this year gave birth to 19 puppies between them. That makes 21 galgos – from just 2 bitches, just in one month, in one refuge.

Take a look at the ones for sale on Milanuncios – how many new ones posed in 1 hour?!!

That’s not counting the galgos the galgueros abandon to live on the campo, covered by any dog in the vicinity producing yet more puppies!

90% of them will be abandoned, dumped, murdered. The galgueros will only choose one or two pups they think will make good hunters/racers.

And these figures don’t include the galgos with unregistered galgueros and gitanos.

NB As emphasised above, these figures are guestimates (I was given the figure of 250,000 registered galgueros from a well respected source). constructive input will be welcome.