In the 9 years since I first became involved in the plight of the galgos and podencos, hundreds of thousands more people now know of their maltreatment and suffering at the hands of the Galgueros.#
New associations have been formed and thousands of these fabulous hounds have found forever homes.
With the advent of publicity on Facebook, there have been worrying developments as even more people have become involved in ‘saving’ them, and not all working truthfully and within the law. I always advocate adopting a dog from a recognised rescue association. These hounds have already been rescued from kill station, abandonment in the campo, injured on roads. Costs have been incurred in medical treatment and preparing pet passports, blood tests and castration before the animals are homed. These are the dogs which are ready for adoption.
Too many people now scream on facebook ‘the dog will die soon, donate to save it’! Some of these dogs are old, some are already sick, none have been blood tested, character assessed…and in a few cases this appeal to the emotions is a way of obtaining money which is not used to rescue the dog. Some perreras have a No Kill policy yet this is not mentioned when these appeals are posted on facebook.
Another worrying development is that dogs are now being imported to the UK without using TRACES. DEFRA introduced this method to prevent sick dogs without pet passports being transported – yet it is happening. I and others are aware of how these illegal transports get round the TRACES and border control. One result of this is that an adoptant finds their pet suddenly becomes ill and dies.
So I would repeat – do not donate to appeals to save a dog being killed! Donate to reputable associations to help dogs already saved – these are the dogs to be adopted.
Do not give in to emotional blackmail!
Comments
5 responses to “Do not give in to Emotional Blackmail!”
Thank you for the warning
Problem is, many organisations who post the imminent death of dogs, are absolutely genuine in this appeal. And other well-known organisations are in fact run by some very nasty people and are not above getting dogs into the UK via Traces, then making up excuses to remove them to their mates homes, or even re-adopting them, making extra cash in the process. Many organisations show no respect or caring for the adopters and supporters who actually keep them in business and build their following. And who gets to decide which are the reputable organisations and which are not? Those who can shout loudest? Those who can lie and manipulate most effectively? And where is the evidence for the assertions that emotional appeals lead to sick dogs being unwittingly homed, or that there is any problem with people avoiding Traces? Traces doesn’t really achieve anything more than another layer of beaurocracy in any case. Many of us have managed to adopt lovely healthy dogs long before Traces was dreamed up. And finally, what of those nasty individuals who use Traces among other things, to simply conduct smear campaigns against for example, rival transport companies. The rescue world is full of extremely callous, vicious people who don’t care who they trample on to build their own little fiefdom of sycophantic worshippers.
The names of those who flout the rules are known, but because of libel laws, are not publicised here, as is evidence.
I naively thought that all people involved in rescue were saints. Clearly there are some really nasty characters out there just interested in themselves, their own ‘glory’, almost like a cult! Just wondering where the animals come into this? I guess I am lucky that the rescues where I have adopted my dogs from have been wonderful. The people I have dealt with whether through adopting, enquiries or donations have been first class, loving, caring and kind people, so it’s an eye opener to find out about the nastier side of rescue.
Sadly also some people adopt a dog from a perrera because they are on an ego trip, people will say ‘how marvellous of you to save the dog from being killed’. There are dozens of good honest people working in rescue associations whose work is decried by others – some of the latter who have never even been to Spain. The former are the people on the ground who deal with the emotional and physical trauma and who should be supported – and theirs are the dogs which should be adopted – not one from someone who screams ‘this dog will be killed’.