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SPAIN >> main page: updated 8/04/08

Two lucky galgos running free

URGENT ACTION >> A British ex-pat couple rehabilitating galgos at Rota near Cadiz need help ... for more info about their work, the situation in Andalucia and their collaboration with the Acogida de San Anton refuge in Villamartin click here ... you can also find out more via their website www.alphadogworld.com

URGENT ACTION >> Please sign this petition to save Spanish greyhounds (galgos) ... it will be presented to the authorities on 5th December ... SO LET'S GET LOADS OF SIGNATURES PLEASE ... click here for the petition ... also PETA have launched a campaign to save the galgos ... click here or if you don't know about the problem click here for some background

URGENT ACTION >> The galgueros of Chiclana (Cádiz) are asking for a place to train their dogs ... please contact the local authorities and ask them to keep the ban in force ... click here

NEWS FLASH >> Irish greyhound Tigresa abandoned in Spain after racing in Ireland and Spain ... click here

NEWS FLASH >> Yet another case of extreme cruelty ... this time from Guadalajara ... click here

NEWS FLASH >> A typical case of an abandoned greyhound rescued by the Asoka sanctuary in Spain September 2007 ... click here for more pictures

NEWS FLASH>> Fast work by the galgo rescuers ... an uplifting story from Spain that shows people can make a difference ... click here

URGENT ACTION >> New Appeal for the Scooby shelter in Spain ... male spanish dogs need your help click here the shelter is at bursting point ... homes and funds are needed urgently

NEWS FLASH >> Yet another case of an attempted hanging ... click here for more details

URGENT ACTION >> Spanish Galgos urgently need homes in the UK or anywhere else people can offer them ... click here for more info ... an appeal from Greyhounds in Need

NEWS FLASH >> at least 100,000 Galgos abandoned or killed in Spain every year click here for more details

URGENT ACTION >> An online petition from French group L'Europe Des Levriers (working a lot in Spain) ... click here to go to their website ... if you have a very strong stomach click here to see their powerful photo collection.

URGENT ACTION >>Ten Spanish Galgos need your immediate urgent help ... please send emails to the local authorities ... click here for details of what you can do

NEWS FLASH >> Yet another cruelty case from Spain ... luckily "Noelani" survived and now has a home in Germany click here for more details

murdered galgo dumped by hunters

URGENT ACTION >> We have been notified of a new online petition calling for a ban on hunting with greyhounds in Spain ... please take a moment to fill it in ... it's in Spanish but it is pretty straightforward ... Name, Surname, passport number (this is required in Spanish petition) and email. http://firmas.amnistianimalmadrid.org/

>>> MERIDIANA (the last track in Spain) has closed February 2006 <<<

NEWS FLASH UPDATE 15/03/06 >> Following the closure of Meridiana (the last track in Spain), 100 Irish greyhounds have been freed from the track and taken to the Scooby shelter in Medina Del Campo ... so now Scooby desperately needs both financial help and help with re-homing click here for more details.

URGENT AND ONGOING ACTION >> The big annual holocaust of Spanish Galgos is about to begin now the hunting season is finished ... there are now three related alerts about the hanging of galgos click here for full details of how you can help.

NEWS FLASH >> So, according to the Spanish embassies, this does not happen anymore?????? 50.000 galgos tortured to death per year are a figment of our imagination???? ??

Please write to the the Spanish Embassy in your country and tell them you will not take holidays in their country until they really address this problem.

There are laws (admittedly, inadequate) that no-one obeys and no-one enforces, shame on Spain!

For more info on the original alert: www.brighteyes.dk

NEWS FLASH >> Imveta is a new organisation running a mobile vet hospital in Spain. They urgently need funding, materials and medical supplies to keep their mobile vets hospital running click here

NEWS FLASH >> Airis ... Another disturbing case from Spain click here

NEWS FLASH >> Spanish buyers attend Limerick sales 2005 click here for more info and how you can help

NEWS FLASH >> Another unbelievably disturbing case from Spain click here

URGENT REQUEST FOR HELP >> There are at this moment 25 greyhounds expecting to be killed in the dog pound of Villamartín (Cádiz, Spain) they need our help click here

REQUEST FOR HELP >> TORTURE AND DANGER FOR THE SPANISH DOGS OF BURGOS ... you can help click here

REQUEST FOR HELP >> Irish greyhound ends up on the streets of Valladolid click here

NEWS FLASH >> Spanish galgo rescued ... just one more victim among thousands! click here

URGENT REQUEST FOR HELP >> Spanish Galgos found down well ... urgently need letter campaign to save them click here

NEWS FLASH>> Greyhounds at the REFUGIO "KIMBA" at Cadiz need help click here

NEWS FLASH>> Please sign this on-line petition, which is to have cruelty to animals included in the Spanish penal code. This is particularly relevant to greyhounds click here

URGENT NEWS FLASH>> EL GALGO SENIOR - HELP CLOSE THIS HELLHOLE. Investigations at this supposed "rescue centre" have revealed appalling conditions. Local and intenational campaigners are trying to close it down...they need your help click here

NEWS FLASH>> Surveillance operation highlights appalling conditions in transport of greyhounds from Ireland to Spain. http://www.ispca.ie/greyhound210703.html

NEWS FLASH>> American woman travels to Spain to help galgos. click here

DONATE NOW:

100% of donations to Greyhound Action International go directly to campaigning against cruelty to greyhounds, galgos and lurchers.

Please send cheques or international money orders to Greyhound Action International,

PO Box 127, Kidderminster, DY10 3UZ.

According to greyhound rescue charity Greyhounds in Need, 1,000 greyhounds are exported every year from Ireland to Spain.

These dogs are kept for racing in appalling conditions or used for hunting and coursing.

Dogs which turn out to he no good for hunting are often brutally disposed of, with hanging being a favourite method.

The British greyhound racing industry is directly responsible for the fate of many of these dogs, as a percentage of them are dogs which are bred in Ireland for racing in Britain, but which fail to make the grade

For more info on how greyhounds come to be transported to Spain ...
and what happens to them there ... click here

the heads of irish greyhounds exported to Spain

THE REAL PROBLEM IN SPAIN

By Mo Swatek Garcia Santos, founder of PRO-GALGO sighthound rescue, Barcelona

Many of the rescue groups and shelters in Spain can not understand, why the cruel hanging of the of hounds is again given so much protagonism and nobody speaks about the horrible way the poor sighthounds live. This way of killing galgos is only the consequence of a long term suffering and it is obvious that the hangings in Spain are much less frequent than some years ago (this year have been found less than 5 cases!) and not at all the major problem for the spanish hunting hounds. The problem is the way the hunters keep the dogs and that there is no control on them.

The poor Spanish sight hounds are born to suffer all their live as they live in the worst conditions any of us can imagine. Barely receiving any food and if so, they only are fed with hard bread and water because the hunters believe that a hungry hound hunts better. The dogs have to live in dirty holes in the ground, in windowless stables or cellars, in complete darkness, sometimes for days unattended and without a chance move. Many of the dogs are chained to a tree and left there until the hunters remembers them and often they are dead when he comes back again.

The gypsies are also to be blamed for their way of keeping galgos and many shelters accuse them of having broken into their premises and having stolen galgos to use them as sparring partners for dogfights. And on top of it, in nearly every forest in the hunting areas you find abandoned and injured galgos wandering around.

More than 60% of the galgos found have wounds from bullets or broken legs etc and of course looking like a walking skeleton. Some galgos have even been found abandoned at the airport Barajas Madrid or in the town centre of Madrid. Because of the continuos mistreating the suffered, the dogs are very timid and shy and it is often impossible to catch them to bring them to a shelter. Many of them die a senseless death run over by a car.

We calculate that less than 2'500 hounds will be saved this year and this is probably not even 10% of the galgo population in Spain!

The Spanish government is very much involved in the mistreating of animals as they maintain the perreras (killing stations or so called city dog pounds) where the abandoned dogs are "stored" until their destruction. Usually it is around 10-14 days before they get killed. If a injured galgo is found, the animal will not receive any treatment, no vet attends them and nothing is done to save them from suffering because the people at the perreras do not believe that this dog have a chance to be adopted. It can easily happen that a galgo with an open fracture of the femur is for 2 weeks unattended and suffers the most terrible pain.

If we could force the government to applicate the new law for protection of animals also on the hunting dogs and if the SEPRONA (spanish environmental Police) would check on the hunters and reduce the maximum of dogs per Galguero to 5 or less, many of those guys would stop keeping galgos as it would be far to expensive for them to build kennels accordingly to the standards.

Again, I'd like to repeat, the hanging is just the tip of the iceberg, the real problem is at the galgueros/hunters where the dogs suffer their life long and even at the official perreras (city dog ponds) where not even the most minimal animal rights are respected.

one of the lucky ones - a 3 month old galga (female galgo) rescued by SOS Galgos

For more info on the situation in Spain click here or here or here or here

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MERIDIANA (Barcelona) TRACK

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AGAINST THE HANGING OF GALGOS AT THE END OF THE HUNTING SEASON: Dear friends of the animals Thanks for considering the dogs in Spain. Please forward our site to all your friends and make them sign the guestbook and the petition. Both will be printed and sent to the president, the queen and all TV stations, Radios and Newspapers in Spain. click here CAUTION - VIDEO LINK AND PHOTOS ARE EXTREMELY DISTURBING. PLEASE TURN THE VOLUME UP ON YOUR COMPUTER IF YOU WISH TO VIEW. NEW: SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AGAINST HUNTING WITH GREYHOUNDS: It's in Spanish but it is pretty straightforward ... Name, Surname, passport number (this is required in Spanish petition) and email. click here DONATE NOW: 100% of donations to Greyhound Action International go directly to campaigning against cruelty to greyhounds, galgos and lurchers. Please send cheques or international money orders to Greyhound Action International, PO Box 127, Kidderminster, DY10 3UZ.
SPANISH CONTACT DETAILS (The first section are campaign and rehoming groups, at the bottom are contact details for the Spanish Embassy and Official tourist board) New Contact: Alpha Dog Centre is run by an ex-pat British couple, they work with the Acogida de San Anton refuge in Villamartin, Andalucia rehabilitating groups of 10 - 20 Galgos at a time. www.alphadogworld.com To contact Acogida de San Anton refuge which looks after around 70 Galgos and 125 other dogs (on average 10 dogs are left with them every day) saskiariniavannauta@hotmail.com Scooby started in 1997 with a few rescued dogs. What began in an old warehouse without electricity, heat or water, has moved into a new refuge facility with the help of international supporters dedicated to Scooby and its important work. In 2002 Scooby rescued 819 dogs ... they are looking for volunteers www.scoobymedina.com Greyhounds in Need are working hard to rescue greyhounds and galgos (native Spanish greyhounds) in Spain and find them homes in other European countries. Their website can be found at www.greyhoundsinneed.co.uk Another Spanish campaign and rescue group who are very active against the suffering of galgos is Galgos Sin Fronteras Their website can be found at (there is an English language version accessible from this address) www.galgosinfronteras.org Another group which does very good work to help the greyhounds/galgos in Spain is Greyhound Compassion www.hounddog.org.uk The American European Greyhound Alliance, Inc. is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the welfare of greyhounds, which does alot of good work in Spain. www.ameurogreyhoundalliance.org Another good source of info on the plight of greyhounds in Spain is: www.dogs-in-spain.org/ Another Galgo rescue group is: groups.yahoo.com/group/saveagalgo Imveta is a new organisation running a mobile vet hospital in Spain. They urgently need funding, materials and medical supplies to keep their mobile vets hospital running. http://www.imveta.org/english/index_en.htm Spanish rescue centre for galgos and other animals (website is in Spanish) .See picture on the left below. http://www.sosgalgos.com/ L'Europe Des Levriers ... French based rescue and rehoming group http://www.adopter-levrier.com/englishvisitors.html SPANISH PRIME MINISTER Mr. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (4 email addresses) info@zapateropresidente.com. .jlrzapatero@presidencia.gob.es infopsoe@psoe.es portal.presidencia@mpr.es SPANISH EMBASSY Spanish Embassy 39 Chesham Place London SW1X 8SB Telephone: + 44 (0)20 7235 5555 Fax: + 44 (0)20 7235 9905 E-mail: consejeria.uk@correo.mec.es Web site: http://www.sgci.mec.es/uk/ Mr. Juan Manuel Velasco, Agriculture Counsellor - Spanish Embassy in London: buzon.oficial@londres.ofcomes.mcx.es SPANISH TOURIST BOARD E-mail: turespaña@turespaña.es Website: www.tourspain.es OTHER USEFUL ADDRESSES Ms. Cristina Narbona, Environmental Minister of Spain: ministra@mma.es gabinete.prensa@mma.es Mr. Samuel J. Juarez, Agriculture Minister - Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C: (3 email addresses) juarez@mapausa.org detorres@mapausa.org cores@mapausa.org back to top of page






This greyhound had part of her leg blown off by her previous "owner" - a farmer