Podencoworld – Profile of its founder, Edwin

I first came into contact with podencos around five years ago.  My cousin's dog was deceased so she was looking for another dog. To help her, I went looking for a puppy over the Internet. I was already searching for quite a while when I found a website from a foundation with Spanish adoption dogs.  Soon I got a smile on my face because I saw a dog with disproportionate ears, this was Chica. I liked her instantly, I thought she was totally awesome, every time again was I drawn to her picture and I became happy looking at that crazy little head with floppy ears.

Soon I noticed that she was not accustomed to anything;  for example she tried  to open every garbage bag we came across when we took a walk outside. We understood that she had survived living on the streets in Spain. As with many new adoptants, in the beginning Evalien made the mistake of spoiling her, and although podenco's have a sweet and gentle nature, it is necessary to clarify to them what they can and can not do. They are very intelligent and know how they can get their way.

Because we wanted to know where Chica came from, a short time later we visited the shelter in La  Linea in Spain. It was an experience that changed my life.  I met Peter, who some years earlier had begun this shelter next to a killing station. He could no longer endure the cruelty against animals in Spain and decided to do something about it, in the first place by taking out the animals of the killing station by giving them shelter in the refugio so they could get a second chance by adoption.

The shelter was built with all kinds of waste materials, pallets, etc., and looked like a slum, at that time there were about a hundred dogs at the shelter. Since then much has happened and with the help of the Second Chance Foundation (SCF), led by Kees and Yvonne and many sponsors and volunteers, much has changed.

Currently about five years on, through the efforts of Peter and his supporters, the killing station is closed, the incinerator is removed and the building renovated and became part of the refuge.  With the help of a committed sponsor. a lot of new concrete kennels are built. There is also a operating room where Pablo, a vet, has neutered a lot of dogs. Meanwhile there are about 600 dogs at the shelter … and a few thousand have found a golden basket in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Germany.

  During our  visit mentioned before, we saw a very nice podenco puppy, but terrified of people, this was Bonita. According to Peter she was at that time the most frightened of all the dogs in the shelter. Because we knew Bonita would be unlikely to be adopted because of this, Evalien has adopted her. Since then she has a makeover, she - a podenco with trauma – has turned into a beautiful gentle proud podenco. Years later she if still very afraid of belts, she was probably hung by or badly hit with one, or  been stuck in a trap.  She is cautious with strangers but no longer afraid.

We have in recent years visited the shelter a number of times and we are also actively involved with the mediation of podenco's in the shelter. Last year everything went well and 90 podencos were adopted.

There is also a third podenco added to the pack.  Lili a treasure of a bitch, is a little bit fearful of strangers, but a very sweet and affectionate dog. Here I forgot to mention the sweetest Labrador in the world Maxi, the mother superior of the entire club, who now and again lets us know that the bunch of podenco clowns make too much fuss.

More and more I became aware of the situation in Spain in terms of animal suffering and the fate of the podenco in particular. Therefore I realized how much luck our podencos have had to end up here in the Netherlands and wonder sometimes what would have happened to them if Peter had never begun the shelter.

These good-hearted souls are at a disadvantage.  They are used as a tool for hunting by hunters, who discard them in many ways when they are no longer of use to them or when their hunting capabilities are over. Often they are kept in dark enclosed kennels where they are visited once a week to be fed and watered or they lie with a short chain vegetating in the sun. So many of them are abused and abandoned. Many of them end up along one of the roads in an empty pit or hanging in a tree, many others end up in a perrera where after ten days they are euthanaised.  

In Spain, they have (almost) no chance of adoption because the Spanish see them not as pets but as a hunting dog. The only chance for them to survive is to end up in a refugio (asylum of an animal protection organization), where they are medically cared for and where they get love and attention. Many of them spend the rest of their lives staying in the shelter because the probability of an adoption is very small. Only an adoption abroad is for them the way to happiness, but who knows the podenco breed outside Spain?

That’s why we started Podencoworld, we want to inform the public about this breed and their sad situation and save as many of them as we can, simply because they are very special beings, the brightest of them, their eyes is what shows us an innocent, gentle, noble soul, the proof that an innocent Podenco is born in a wicked world.

So many organizations are committed to help the galgos and I am very happy they do, because unfortunately they have a similar kind of fate.  However the podencos should not be forgotten as is often the case.

Information on La Linea on these three links