Category: Regional news

This poor podenco, starving to death, has now disappeared! Please pray it is found again soon. Who could leave a dog to this fate? The hunters know no compassion.

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SARA Lanzarote have details of a case where SEPRONA, the animal section of the Spanish Civil Guard, intervened where a man was keeping 8 Podenco Canarios in terrible conditions on Gran Canaria.

This is a Babelfish translation into English.

The Civil Guard arrested a man in Gran Canaria for the abandonment and undernourishment of 8 podenco canarios dogs

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So who claims that theft of galgos doesn’t happen? The worst time is August and September, before the hunting season starts. But Pro Galgo proves it happens all the time. Look into the eyes of this galgo…..he has been stolen and taken back to a life of sheer hell at the hands of either hunters (for breeding) or gitanos.

My heart bleeds for these poor dogs. I die a little each day for them and my anger against the galgueros and gitanos knows no bounds. Bastards!

Further to the news about the former Meridiana greyhound racetrack in Barcelona being reopened as a Contemporary Arts Centre, Anna Clements of SOS Galgos comments.

‘It is indeed good news that the Meridiana racetrack is history now.

I would just like to point out that SOS Galgos’ role in helping bring about the closure of the Meridiana racetrack. Some time before the closure we met …with a regional government MP who set in motion the move to increase the taxes generated by the racetrack that resulted in its bankrupcy and closure.

My husband and I had also organized a demonstration in the form of a protest march in 2004 to demand an end to the suffering of the 700 Irish greyhounds at the Meridiana track. It took us 3 months to organize the demonstration which was attended by over 800 people. This, together with endless meetings throughout the course of ten years to pressure for an effective animal protection of law also contributed to its closure. I also assisted Spanish police track down perpetrators of the illegal transport of greyhounds in a joint ISPCA and RSPCA sting operation.

The recently announced reopening of the racetrack as an art gallery with the financial backing of the Barcelona Town Hall is of course a very positive step. However, we were surprised that of the 224,000€ expenditure on this project, nothing was allocated to the greyhounds themselves, in the form of a small donation, despite the fact that our adopters kindly let their greyhounds be photographed for the 100 door-sized posters which were hung all around Barcelona. Neither did the posters include any message or text such as ‘help me find a home or we greyhounds and galgos need help’ or even our website address for further information.’

Thank you, Anna, for explaining so fully the background to the closure of the track and the appalling insensitivity of the town hall officials in not including SOS Galgos on the publicity posters. When I first read the story, I assumed the information was included somewhere on the billboards. As you say, these people stop thinking about the dogs themselves.

Sad news today. Tina, who rescued the beautiful galga which she took home, hoping to adopt, has had to take the galga back to the refuge. Sadly, the dog was afraid of children. This is what Tina says.

‘Well we went to the refuge. Straight away she starting fighting against going in, as she was terrified. I felt sick. I realize now that I crossed a line. I took her from the roads, she had to stay overnight at my home as it was late, and I got attached and couldn’t leave her there. Had I left her at the refuge the first time she might have got used to it by now.

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Abandoned galgos everywhere – when is Spain going to act to stop this unnecessary cruelty? Here’s the latest from Tina.

Last night I saw another two abandoned galgos in Torre Pacheco roaming the streets, heads down, they were totally depressed and spirit broken and of course both extremely underweight. I couldnt get close to either of them. Also on Calblanque beach there is a galgo all alone, wandering around with a rope around its neck. I wasn’t able to pick him up as I had my two kids with me and with the children it was impossible.

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I have received an appeal from Loli, about poor abandoned dogs and a kitten, which an old woman has been rescuing from the street and keeping them all in a haystack enclosure. These include some galgos. Loli doesn’t say which town the animals are in,but it’s near Seville,

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I really don’t know how all the volunteers, associations, refuges and shelters cope, year after year, with the mass abandonment of galgos. Charl has spent 2 weekends trying to catch an abandoned galga at Estepona, without success, and now there is this appeal, to add to all the others I post, not counting the appeals I receive asking for foster homes and adopting homes.

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In 2006 the Meridian greyhound racetrack in Barcelona was finally closed, with the help of Anne Finch of Greyhounds in Need,Fermin Perez of Scooby Medina and SOS Galgos. It is now in the process of being redesigned into a contemporary arts centre, which opens on 12th April.

Over 100 neon signs have been erected around the city of Barcelona to publicise the new centre, and feature four dogs which ran on the racetrack; three now have new lives as companion dogs, adopted through SOS Galgos, one is still with a foster family.

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I am sure all greyhound owners will be horrified by the stories on these weblinks. The story goes that these 2 greyhounds were brought to France at the beginning of December by French greyhound rescue association Levriers en Detresse. The situation for these dogs was exposed by Europe Animal Protection.

Contact has been made with the SPA (Society for Protection of Animals).

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