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From Sandy at Galgos Rescue Almeria.

Few people know what a Galgo is, the Spanish greyhound, which is used indiscriminately by hunters for hare hunting or on the Spanish version of the racecourse.

At the end of the season, the “lucky ones” are dumped and abandoned en masse, others are hanged, beheaded, burned, impaled or thrown into wells while still alive, again and again year after year throughout Spain.

We are talking about thousands of dogs, not isolated cases.

Known as “the children of the wind” for their ability to run at lightning speed (a spectacle of nature), as well as “the dogs of nothing and nowhere”.

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Apple Cider Vinegar for Dogs

Sorry for lack of news, I’m ill at the moment, lots to catch up on next week

From Sandy Galgoslover. Remember Alma, the injured galga?

‘Update Alma :

Now 6 weeks after surgery she is doing fine. Playing and running is not allowed yet, luckily she is a quiet girl.
During daytime she stays in the quarantine area downstairs and at night she is taken care of in a home environment.
In January there is a new check-up with the traumatologist.

Video

A thank you from Sandy Galgoslover

‘Galgo’s Rescue Almeria is feeling grateful.

2022 Was an eventful year.

Our dogs have been able to count on help and support from our long-standing partners and also from a number of new organisations we have recently started working with. Not only financially but also in finding new homes. Several people who were on holiday or passing through Spain also came to visit our Rescue center and gave a dog a new warm loving home.

Thanks to Greyhounds in Need we were able to have new sleeping boxes installed with a sunshade, so that we can give an extra 12 dogs a cozy place to sleep. Thanks to Stichting Wereldhonden we were also able to fence a big running area.

The year 2022 was also a year where we faced the most severe form of neglect so far in the 5 years that we have been trying to make a difference. As many as 120 animals were given the chance for a new future after the horror, 11 of them were housed at GRA. For Eden & Sofia, help came not a day too soon.

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Regular readers will know we sadly lost our last 2 galgos in April (Polar) and July (Bracken) 2021. At the moment we have 2 podencos, Rosely (a timid little Podenca Andaluz) and Bocelli (blind after life on the end of a chain). Here’s how they have been celebrating Christmas.

As they wear harnesses when out and about, I decorated them with some Christmas pattern material, ribbon and Christmas tree decorations! They spent a fun day at the Dog Park we visit every Sunday Morning where the team put on a wonderful buffet which included cocktail sausages and chunks of cheese – well woofed by our 2!

The following day we trotted off to a Fun Dog Show – Bo’s first one – where he won first prize in ‘Dog with the shiniest nose like Rudolf’. Rosie excelled with first prize in the ‘Egg and Spoon Race’ – the ‘egg’ was made of mashed tuna – and second place in ‘Musical Chairs’ which involved us walking around and standing frozen when the music stopped.

Great fun – canine parties for Xmas instead of children’s parties!!

We wish all our readers a Happy and Healthy Festive Season and may the best of 2022 be the worst of 2023. (Think about it!)

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I SPOKE TO YOU IN WHISPERS -BY NEIL ANDREW

‘I spoke to you in whispers

As shells made the ground beneath us quake

We both trembled in that crater

A toxic muddy blood lake

I spoke to you and pulled your ears

To try and quell your fearful eye

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A piece I wrote for 11th November – Remembrance Day

‘Remembrance

They had no choice – no ‘Your Country Needs You’ posters because animals can’t read. Since time immemorial horses have been used in battle, probably pulling chariots followed from around 900 BC by warriors on horseback. Asian warriors were among the first mounted archers and fighters. In the Middle Ages, knights and horses wore weighty steel armour, hence the breeding of the heavy horses – Clydesdale, Shire, Percheron and Friesan horses.

By the time of the First World War, horses, donkeys and mules were needed to move supplies, equipment, guns and ammunition. Over 16 million animals in all, including mounted camels in desert campaigns, dogs and pigeons to carry messages, canaries to detect poisonous gas, cats and dogs to hunt rats in trenches. Unbelievably even monkeys, bears and lions were kept as mascots to raise morale.

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The English and Irish greyhound breeders and trainers don’t care where their dogs end up once they are no use for racing and earning money. Here’s a poor soul who ended up in Spain and then Portugal. Podencos are the most used hunting dogs in Portugal so this poor boy could be headed for an uncertain end – just lucky in that he didn’t get sent to China!! Besides being in Portugal his other handicap is that he is a black dog.

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