PRESS RELEASE – 28 APRIL 2016
A huge pack of ex-Spanish hunting dogs will march to the Spanish Embassy and 10 Downing Street, London on the 1st of May, the International Day of the Podenco, in protest at the mass abandonment of hunting dogs in Spain.
Families who have adopted abandoned Spanish hunting dogs in the UK will gather with their dogs in Belgrave Square, central London at 11am this 1st of May to mark the International Day of the Podenco. They will march with their dogs to the Spanish Embassy, 39 Chesham Place at 12pm and on to 10 Downing Street for 2pm to protest about the cruel treatment of the podencos, galgos (Spanish greyhounds), pointers, setters, bodegueros and other breeds that are abused in their lives and discarded in their thousands upon thousands every year in Spain.
The marchers will deliver letters of protest and a photocard petition of other Spanish hounds now living happily as pets in the UK: a chance to give the dogs adopted in the UK a voice to speak out for their brother and sister dogs suffering every day in Spain.
The International Day of the Podenco Peaceful Photo Protest for Spanish Hunting Dogs is part of an ever expanding international grassroots advocacy campaign calling for an end to the cruelty, for increased animal welfare education in Spain and the urgent widespread implementation of Spanish and European legislation that does exist.
This campaign is grateful for the new support of actress, author and activist Joanna Lumley:
The appalling treatment of Spanish Hunting Dogs strikes a chill to the heart; it is impossible to believe that a country as sophisticated and fine as Spain could tolerate such unforgivable cruelty to living creatures. I add my name to the many who are calling for this inhumanity to be stopped once and for all – Joanna Lumley OBE
The podencos and their fellow hunting breeds – used for hunting in packs for rabbit and wild boar or for hare-coursing – are victims of overbreeding, neglect, cruel training techniques and a culture that sees them as throw away tools. Excess or “failed” dogs end their lives thrown down wells, hung from trees, dumped beside busy roads or rounded up to the kill pounds. Why maintain a dog after the hunting season when new ones can easily be acquired? Accurate statistics are hard to obtain, but the annual numbers of deaths for podencos and galgos together are estimated anywhere between 100,000 – 150,000 by those trying to help the dogs. Of these the podencos – the huge-eared noble, athletic, loving clowns of the hound world are the most numerous, most invisible and the most unknown outside of Spain.
The 1st of May London protest is a Facebook-led campaign initiated by Podenco Alliance and Podenco Support South West. The protest is supported by others from amongst the numerous Spanish and international refuges in Spain, the increasingly vocal group of Spanish activists, film-makers and individual Spanish police and lawyers who are trying to turn the tide of animal cruelty in Spain, and by many of the online community of fundraising and volunteering individuals working to rescue and re-home the dogs. All involved in the hunting dog plight call urgently for action that will change the root causes of the suffering – for education, and for effective animal protection legislation and convictions for animal abuse.