by Elisa Garcia-Rey, Best Friends Network Volunteer Writer

When Jim and Andrea Merryman decided to move to their family from Boulder, Colorado to Spain last summer, they had no idea that their life would take the unexpected turn that it did. Longtime animal welfare volunteers, Jim & Andy would soon help save the lives of many dogs that would otherwise have faced a grim future, including four pups that traveled across the globe to find their new homes. In the process, they ultimately turned the shelter system upside down in their local town.

The Merrymans moved to Valencia in August of 2008 with the intention of spending a year abroad in order to expose their daughters to Spanish culture while the entire family worked to improve their foreign language skills. Once settled, Andy began researching local animal shelters.

Having volunteered at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and at the Boulder County Animal Shelter, Andy was eager to put her skills and experience to help animals in the local area.

It was then that Andy uncovered the first of many oddities surrounding the animal shelter system in Spain. She had a difficult time locating the shelters, and many are hidden away in the countryside to prevent nighttime raids by local youth, which happen frequently. 

Despite the difficulties encountered in the process, the Merrymans began working at a local refuge, or refugio, in December. They were shocked at the conditions they found there; yet the Merrymans were surprised by how friendly the dogs were when handled. Though some were too frightened or weak to walk, they still enjoyed being held and soothed.

In their second month there, a litter of four puppies that had been abandoned came to the shelter. The president of the shelter asked the Merrymans to take the dogs home with them while she looked for suitable homes, as she was certain that they would not survive if left at the shelter. The puppies weren’t in the best of health, but with the help of a local vet, they improved and recovered.

After several weeks, they had yet to find homes for three of the puppies. Calls to other area shelters resulted in the same answer; they were simply too overcrowded to accept any more dogs. Yet the family had four of their own pets, brought along from Boulder, to take care of, and keeping the remaining puppies was simply not an option. A solution came by way of Andy’s mother, visiting at the time, who generously offered to pay for the transport cost to send the puppies to the Humane Society in Boulder, which had agreed to take the puppies into their care.

Once the trip was decided, the Merrymans had to wrangle through customs paperwork and veterinary examinations to finalize the plans. The family then drove the puppies to Madrid, where they began their transatlantic journey to their new homes in the United States. Having arrived safely in Denver, the puppies were thoroughly examined and placed in the standard quarantine. Within 24 hours of their being released for adoption, the three puppies had found loving homes.

Though it was a happy ending for those puppies, the Merrymans have found that dogs in Spain are not always so fortunate. From the common abuse of the Galgos (a Spanish breed similar to greyhounds) to the rising rates of pet abandonment, dogs in Spain are often faced with challenging lives, and the dedicated Spanish people who run shelters are facing an uphill battle to help the animals. Many groups of kind people in the rest of the European Union are working to transport dogs out of Spain to loving homes in other countries.

For their part, the Merrymans continued their work and recruited volunteers to walk the dogs with encouraging results. By posting flyers in the local neighborhoods, the couple brought together a group of over 30 people to help out at the shelter. They all spoke up together on behalf of the dogs, encouraging the shelter to take steps to improve the dogs’ care and housing, and the adoption rate rose. Simply by walking the dogs around the neighborhood and informing people of the presence of the shelter, previously unknown to them, the Merrymans were able to ensure better care and more loving homes for the dogs at the shelter.

Since then, there have been ups and downs, and there’s still a lot of work yet to be done. 

The Merrymans continue to devote their time to the dogs at the shelter, and are now in talks with a neighbor, Spanish artist Elena Negroules, about building a new refugio on or near the site of the existing shelter. They are recruiting volunteers to work at the new shelter once it’s opened, and working with many of the local animal advocate groups to learn more about what can be done to ensure success in the new refugio.

Though the Merrymans went to Spain with decidedly different objectives in mind, they now find themselves dedicated to the improvement of refugio dogs’ lives. Their perseverance, coupled with their steadfast compassion for the animals, has led to incredibly positive changes for the dogs at the local shelter, as well as the neighborhood. Through the work and commitment of the Merrymans and others, the state of dog shelters in Spain is improving slowly, but surely, to become a beacon of light in the lives of the dogs that live there. 

What You Can Do

To learn more about Spain’s dog rescues, please go to

http://www.galgorescue.org 

http://www.hsus.org/hsi/confronting_cruelty/animal_cruelty_around_the_world/abuse_of_spanish_galgos.html

To read more about work being done to help the Spanish galgos, please visit and join the Best Friends Network group Spain