Save the Galgo – Stop the suffering
It’s easy to tell the end of the hunting season in Spain is near. The galguerros are getting rid of their dogs. Why, because they can’t be bothered to keep them during the summer.
San Anton refuge, in Villamartin, now has over 50 galgos and, in the last couple of weeks, the volunteers have arrived in the mornings to find yet more left at the gate.
Five of them have been taken in by Paul and April Carrier at Alpha Dog School, sponsored by L’Europe des Levriers.
Galgos and podencos are gentle, affectionate, calm breeds of dog, which makes the atrocities perpetrated against them all the worse.
It also makes it all the more important that those of us who care, support the fight to persuade the Spanish government to regulate and control the indiscriminate breeding of these dogs and create effective laws to prevent their abuse.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 9th 2008
Auberge du Balestie, Malegoude, Ariège.
8pm
Tickets 20 euros including wine, 15 euros excluding wine
Tombola/raffle
(The Auberge is situated off the main road between Fanjeaux and Mirepoix. It is well signposted from the road. For further directions please contact Joanna on the number given below).
It can be hard to get a good curry in the depths of the French countryside…and we will do our best to supply some! All tastes catered for, from mild to hot hot hot!! There will also be a selection of vegetarian dishes. Please come along and lend your support…and have a good evening too!
CHICLANA is a town near Cadiz. A few hundred eople, roughly 400 according to the estimates by the Peña Galguera Santa Ana (galguero club) enjoy, as a hobby, training galgos for competition.
Traditionally, they have trained them in El Fontanal, the Pinar público and the Cañada la Asomada, making them run behind their motor scooters on a course of about 15 kilometers in length.
Now they are denouncing the Seprona for not letting them train in these traditional areas because, according to their information, they say that “they border on private land”.
Visits to my family have meant Galgo News has taken a back seat for a couple of weeks, but that doesn’t mean galgos have been out of my mind. I am very conscious that the end of January draws near.
Galgos suffer terribly at the end of the hunting season each year in January as the galgueros (hunters) do not want to keep their dogs the nine months up until the beginning of the next coursing/hunting season.
Hence they are slaughtered by hanging, burned alive, mutilated, dropped down wells, impaled, a silent violence in the countryside. On one occasion 40 carcasses were seen in one afternoon round the small area of Medina. Figures of more than 8,000 galgos killed at the end of a season have been quoted.
Please publicise this as much as possible, and ask everyone you know to add their names to the petition sites listed. We all need to speak up to pressurise the Spanish Government to end these horrendous practices.
Click on any of the association sites here if you wish to see pictorial evidence of this torture.
We hang Christmas decorations at this time of year. The Spanish hang dogs. This is one who was lucky enough to be found still alive, which is a miracle.
He allowed his rescuers to cut the rope, and remove the assassination cord from his neck without a whimper. His wounds are being treated by caring volunteers. His crime? To be born a Spanish galgo.
When hunting ends in January there will be dozens more cases like this, many of them will not be found alive.
He has been christened Noel. He is now looking for a forever home. Contact Cristina at GalgosIn Fronteras if you can help.
Join the campaign to stop this barbaric cruelty. Click on any of the website links in the right hand column and find out how you can help.
The galgos need all the support they can get.
Noa is a black galgo of about 3 months old. On 22nd December he suffered a road accident, knocked down in Palencia, left on the tarmac with no help offered, not even from the local animal protection society.
Luckily Amigos de Milord learnt about him and he was taken to a hospital in the city where his pain and injuries were treated. He is now with an orthopaedic traumatologist.
Gemma works with Sonia and Caridad, helping save galgos and podencos and find them permanent homes abroad. This is her story.
Gemma spent the first 27 years of her life being afraid of dogs, until her sister bought a cocker spaniel. So to find her heavily involved with galgo rescue nowadays is a far cry from her youth.
About 5 years ago, at the same time as she adopted her first street puppy, Gordi, she went on the Internet and discovered other people wanting to help the Spanish galgos, refuges and shelters desperately needing help, and rescue associations prepared to transport galgos and podencos out of Spain to permanent homes elsewhere.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/peticion-against-cruelty-to-galgos
Another petition, this time from PETA, can be found here.