News
Spanish Galgos are not safe in Spain
October 06, 2007, 2:32PM MT
By Michael G Rodrigue
The situation in Spain with the galgos (Spanish greyhounds) is both alarming and shocking.
The situation in Spain with the galgos (Spanish greyhounds) is both alarming and shocking. Galgos are used for hunting, so hunters mass breed them, and then use just the cream of the crop for their actual hunts. The others are either abandoned or destroyed by very cruel means.
The galgos who are chosen for hunting are forced to subsist on stale bread and water, and receive no medical attention, not even vaccinatioins. If they perform well during the season, they may be allowed to subsist on bread and water, with no shelter, until the following year. Most, however, are abandoned at the end of hunting season.
If the galgos who were chosen for hunting season do not perform as as expected to by the hunters, they are considered to have shamed their hunter. These poor creatures are then doomed to a torturous death. Most of them are either hanged, or thrown down old artesian wells and left their to die an agonizing death, often with borken bones. If a "galguero" feels that one of his galgos shamed him more than others, he will hang the dog with enough rope so that the dog's feet are barely grazing the ground, and then poor animals dies a very slow and agonizing death which can last for 3 or 4 days.
Despite hundreds of protests every year, and thousands of letters of protest to the Spanish government, the situation does not seem to change. The government sends replies to letters stating the penalties for abandonment or abuse of galgos. But those penalties are not worth the paper on which they are printed. Galgueros are not required by law to register their dogs, so there is no record of them, and no way to trace an abandoned dog.
Police and other officials are very good at "looking the other way". Although there are laws for the protection of these animals, the laws are rarely, if ever, enforced.
Galgos, who were once considered to be a dog owned by royalty, now roam through the streets and countryside in Spain like the poorest of the poor. But what more can be expected from a country whose national sport is to torture a bull to its death? It is hard to imagine that the barbaric and antiquated practices with animal abuse would still be tolerated in the 21st century by a country belonging to the European Union.
Thanks to many animal rescue groups, both national and international, thousands of galgos are getting a second chance at life. Nearly all of them are sent to other countries where they are united with their new families. There are very dedicated people who work tirelessly to save these animals and to find a better life for them. These groups receive no government funding, because they are "no kill" organizations.
The Spanish government subsidizes the municipal dog pounds, where dogs live in filthy and deplorable conditions until they are euthanized, and often by less than humane means. There is no government funding for humane education, nor for spay/neutering campaigns.
The picture above is DRACO, one of the lucky galgos who was rescued by Refugio Kimba in the southern province of Cádiz. DRACO now lives happily in Belgium with his new family. Below is what Maria José of Refugio Kimba had to say about DRACO, and galgos like him.
"Today our little galgo DRACO left Kimba en route to Albacete, and on September 2, he will fly from Valencia to Belgium, where he is going to live.
Draco is another one of the thousands of abandoned galgos who roam through their living hell, which is what this country is for them. All of this thanks to the over breeding by the galgueros and the minimal effort made by the Spanish authorities to put and end to this.
And once again we indict and we denounce this abuse toward these poor animals and this disgrace for Spain."
If you would like to know more about Refugio Kimba, please visit their website at:
http://www.regugiokimba.org
Author: Michael Rodrigue