To overcome the memory of past cruelty
Introduction
By Sharon St. Joan, Best Friends Network
The Village of Don Fadrique has 4500 inhabitants and is located around fifty miles south of Madrid in the area of Toledo Castilla-La Mancha. There Nuria Blanco and her team from Amigos de los Galgos came upon several sad discoveries on April 11, 2007, which Nuria describes in the story below.
Although the story has been edited, please be warned that it is still sad. In the rural areas of Spain, thousands of Spanish Greyhounds (known as Galgos) lose their lives every year, in cruel circumstances, at the hands of hunters, who, having used the galgos for a season of hunting, dispose of the dogs at the end of the season by killing them.
What is remarkable is the courage and perseverance of the many Spanish shelters all across Spain, like the Amigos de los Galgos in Madrid, who every year, take in as many galgos as they can, putting back together their wounded bodies and spirits and placing them in new homes, often in northern Europe. These Spanish heros continue their work year after year, battling uphill against an implacable tradition of cruelty, but never giving up!The Village of Don Fadrique
By
Nuria Blanco, Amigos de los Galgos April 11, following an urgent call about the finding of the remains of several galgos, the Spanish Galgos Rescue Association "Amigos de los Galgos" traveled to the place.
In the countryside in a scarcely frequented plain at the outskirts of a village of Castilla-La Mancha, called La Villa de Don Fadrique, Toledo, where only a pervading silence of death can be heard, over narrow muddy paths, scarcely passable, under a cloudy grey sky- it was about to rain- breathing the loneliness of the vineyard fields, along seven kilometers (about five miles) of a "terror itinerary", we found in different places the remains of galgos who had been killed.
A big open well had been used as a morgue.
Walking some meters farther, in an old rural house in ruins, behind a wall made up of a heap of stones, very well hidden from the scarce passersby across one narrow rural path in the neighborhood, we felt deeply shocked again, by finding the remains of a galgo.
In what was a group of abandoned houses, we approached another scene of death.
These grievous images will be engraved in our minds forever.
Finally, we called the Civil Guard (rural Spanish police) to come to the place to witness by sight all these findings, and so they did. Right afterwards we went to the "civil guard station" to denounce one by one all these atrocities.
We want to thank to the volunteers of this village and those of the refuge of the neighboring village of Pedro Muñoz, who came along with us in our journey through what can be very well put as Dante´s Hell.
Later, that evening, the local television appeared at the place to take notice of all these distressing facts and gave coverage of the events in the "bulletin news" of that night. Next day, they also contacted us to make a more extended report about the barbaric treatment of the galgos, intended to be broadcast at a national level. There was also an echo of this news in some regional radios and newspapers.
Amigos de los galgos are willing to help galgos and other neglected dogs in this village, to stop atrocities towards them, and to work towards measures to ensure that the galgueros (hunters with galgos) give up their dogs humanely. To this aim, we support a proposal by volunteers, to the Major of La Villa de Don Fadrique (over 4500 inhabitants) to set up and run a shelter-sanctuary. We are requesting the financial support needed for the project from the municipality.
So far, the Major is refusing to meet the volunteers and, what is worse, is not even offering to talk about the latest awful discoveries.
To read this story, unedited, with the original photos
(warning--graphic content), in English or in Spanish, please go to:
http://www.amigosdelosgalgos.orgHow you can helpIf you so wish, you could write to the Mayor calling for:
1.- Pursuing an investigation into the case for prosecution of the culprits.
2.- The financial backing of the city for building a new shelter-sanctuary for the hundreds of rejected galgos and other stray dogs of the village. This is the project put forward by volunteers in the village.
Mayor:
Alcalde: D. Juan Agustín González Checa
lavilladedonfadrique@diputoledo.es
Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha
President: Jose María Barreda Fontes
Palacio de Fuensalida - Plaza del Conde, 2
45071 - Toledo . Spain.
A further request for help for rescued galgos, from Nuria Blanco:We need antiparasite treatment to avoid Mediterranean diseases, like Leishmania or Elichia, which are endemic and life-threatening to our dogs. Hot, summer weather increases the risk. The treatment for each dog is very, very expensive.
Also, we need donations to prepare galgos for being adopted in France. It is very expensive and that sometimes makes us run into debt with the vets.
If sometime any of you would come here for a visit, I will be very pleased to show you around, for you to know firsthand the conditions there.
Thank you for your help!
Nuria Blanco
Amigos de los Galgos. Spain.
To help or donate to Amigos de los Galgos, please write to:
judy@galgorescue.org
Representative for GRIN (Greyhound Rescue International Network)