Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote – hunters abuse podencos in the Canary Islands!

For those of you who holiday in the Canary Islands, spare a thought to the podencos used by the hunters. What happens to them when the hunting season finishes? The lucky ones end up in the refuges like SARA Protectora on Lanzarote, TARA on Gran Canaria, Tenerife Dogs & K9 on Tenerife. But what about the hundreds of others? A report on Television Canaria in February 2012 explained!

‘On the island of El Hierro hunting dogs are slaughtered without the aid of veterinarians. There is a cruel practice that consists of sacrificing those animals that no longer meet with the requirements of hunting. It happened with the donkeys that they threw to the ravines and now also the podencos.

More than half of the currently 320 persons that are licensed for hunting on the island continue the tradition and kill dogs that are useless for hunting, throwing them into ravines, beating with clubs, hanging them or even dragging with the help of a car.

Hunters argue that sacrifice with the help of the veterinarian is very expensive’.

Here’s the link to the piece, there is a video but you need special software to view it. (I think – Microsoft Silverlight)

Nb. El Hierro is the smallest of the islands making up the Canary Islands

And here’s a comment from the president of one of the leading podenco rescue and rehoming associations.

‘The ovens of the perreras just keep burning, there is no end to it, this is what i hear from people on the mainland but also in the Canaries with over 100.000 podencos alone, the atrocities just keep going on. (or they just throw them down the cliff. I am also stunned about how many podenco puppies are found in the waste bin.’

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