What a start to the New Year for Bev and Warren of Podenco Friends; 4 newborn pups dumped in a bag in rubbish, needing feeding every few hours! The pressure of abandoned pups and dogs in Spain never gets any less. Here’s the story of the pups.

‘Four new born Podenco pups discovered in the garbage tied up in a plastic bag a couple of days before Christmas. Sounds shocking, how could anybody do something like this to leave such defenceless babies to die a horrible death either from suffocation, hypothermia or starvation. Here in Spain it’s not an isolated incident but a regular occurrence. Podencos usually give birth to large litters 10 or more and it’s not uncommon to hear that the owners want to reduce numbers. Sometimes they will take new born pups to a vet to euthanise and often the vets will contact a rescue and ask for their help. Or the alternative, they throw them in the rubbish/ their life has so little value. Four male pups who don’t command as good a price has females, that was their fate.

These pups were fortunate, they were discovered, a plea went out on Facebook and a couple of days later they came into our care. So began the task of bottle feeding every three hours. They are so vulnerable. Without their mothers milk in the first 24 hours they won’t have received the antibodies she produces to give them some protection. This compounded by the stress of being left in a plastic bag, the odds are stacked against them.

They arrived on the 28th December and all four were feeding well. But Jalo was not developing at the same rate as his other three brothers although he was feeding so that was a good sign. He had his last night time feed in the early hours of the 4th January, fell asleep curled up with his brothers and never woke up. His little body was just not strong enough.

His brothers Onni; Lumi and Adems are gaining strength each day and a couple of days ago they opened their eyes. It will be a few weeks before we can relax and they begin their vaccination programme.

Such a sad state of affairs that so many unwanted puppies are born due to owners refusing to neuter dogs, it’s always the innocents that suffer the consequences. Tossed aside with no consideration what may happen to them. It’s a cruel world we live in.

Here is a video of the pups; the photos are of Jalo before he passed away.’

To donate towards their feed and vaccinations, paypal podencofriends@hotmail.co.uk