Save the Galgo – Stop the suffering
With the hundreds of animals to care for, especially the lastest 130 galgos from Cadiz, Scooby is desperately needs to raise funds. Here’s a plea from Diane at Scooby.
Dear Friends,
The Scooby Shop at the shelter is in desperate need of fancy martingale collars. The shelter sells these collars to make money for the animals in the shelter. They are a huge hit at events and Scooby Open House Days as well as on adoption days. As you can imagine, they look beautiful on the Galgos!
A reader in the UK has taken up the plight of the galgos in Spain with her MEP. Derek Vaughan, one of the Labour MEP’s for Wales has replied that he ‘was very concerned about the problem and has tabled a Written Question to the Commission to bring it to wider attention and see what can be done to help end this unnecessary suffering’.
Derek Vaughan needs the support of as many other MEPs as possible. Please write to your MEP and ask them to support the Written Question. Below is a sample letter which is a variation of the one to the president of the European Commission already on Galgo News.
I’m putting out an appeal for podencos, for people to offer them forever homes. There are three at Galgos del Sol (scroll down to Anton and Freya, and Lucky is a new arrival today, 4 pages of them on the Galgos France website, Ibizan Hound Rescue has many deserving podencos, and let’s not forget SARA Lanzarote in the Canary Islands – poor Mozaga has never known life outside of the refuge. Podencos suffer terrible maltreatment on the Spanish Islands, both Canaries and Balearic. Mostly their only hope is to be rehomed on mainland Europe or in the UK. Pepis Refuge is another small British-run shelter with many delightful podencos among their dogs looking for forever homes. And Phoenix Association in Dordogne, France, has Roda and Mindy who arrived in November from SARA Lanzarote and who are looking for forever homes in France.
Please think of the podencos as well as the galgos.
How did you spend Xmas and the New Year? Thousands of galgos spent theirs either dumped in a killing station waiting to die, or abandoned, searching for food and shelter. The Spanish volunteers didn’t have time off. This is the story of Nicolas, rescued from pain and death by Rachel and Silvia on Christmas Eve, supported by Baas Galgo. To see the video of him at the vet surgery, scroll down to the bottom of the story and click on the YouTube link. Please donate to his veterinary care. He has a foster home in Madrid where he will receive the best possible care to help his recovery.
The refuges and shelters are, as ever, swamped under the sheer volume of abandoned dogs, especially galgos – there’s been no let up all winter. And still the governments and authorities ignore the problem. Here’s another casualty of the galgueros. This is Charlie, 5 months old galgo pup, suffering from a viral infection in the Jerez killing station.
Update 8 01 2011 Sadly today Charlie gave up his fight for life. Thanks to everyone who donated to help the vet try and save him.
So many galgos are abandoned by the galgueros to take their chance on surviving as best they can. Hundreds of them starve, fearful of humans, their only chance of help being from someone who is able to catch them, before they are injured on the road. This is the story of Skinny, rescued and rehabilitated by Scooby Medina.
Thank you to Valarie Woolf who has kindly forwarded this interesting item up for purchase on ebay. If you scroll down the page, there is a translation from the Spanish into English.
Do you remember this boy? A rough-haired galgo badly injured in a road accident, taken to Los Infiernos refuge. He was left like this, in pain, for a few days and the owners of the refuge were going to have him euthanaised. Then Tina Solera found him (there’s 200 dogs at the refuge!) and immediately took him to the vet where he was operated on and went into foster care.
In November he travelled with two members of GRIN to the US where he is now in foster care, preparatory to him finding his forever home. He has a problem on his front elbows as a result of lying on concrete floors. They are called ‘hygromas’, and you will see the swellings in the photo.
Not such a happy time for these galgos, chucked aside by the heartless hunters to be killed – even the method of killing will not be kind. Terrified, confused, traumatised………….these gentle affectionate dogs do not deserve the life meted out to them by the hunters. They didn’t ask to be born.
There are more than a dozen galgos still in the Jerez perrera, contact Maribel; others here are in the Alhaurin Malaga perrera, contact Vera, and the ones behind bars are in the Seville perrera, contact Maribel