Sharon works in the UK on behalf of Noah’s Arc Animal Rescue in Murcia, Spain. She has been involved with them and on a fundraising mission for the last 5 years and regularly visit the area. Here is my latest appeal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdlN_SnRlyk
Please be assured that there are ‘NO’ bad images in this film and all the dogs featured are ‘safe’ and waiting to be adopted. I think you’ll agree that the soundtrack is both beautiful and appropriate and the end message fitting.
16 and April 17, 2011 in Pau, southern France, there will be an International Dog Show CACIB CACS organized by the Society of Canine Département Pyrénées Atlantiques. More than 1,200 dogs of all breeds will be exhibited and judged.
On this occasion, L’Europe des Levriers has been invited to hold an information stand on the fate suffered by galgos in Spain. We will have the opportunity to speak on the podium in front of more than 2000 people of all nationalities, and it Will be translated in Spanish and English.
Podencos are totally different characters from galgos – who like nothing better than to curl up on a comfy sofa and sleep! Podencos are working dogs and therefore can make marvellous agility dogs. Here are some videos of podencos in agility, and also a Pharoah Hound, a similar breed.
These videos have to be one of the best reasons to adopt one of these deserving dogs. You can find dozens of them waiting for forever homes and maybe an agility competitor in the weblinks in Podenco Pals. Or check out the list of podenco rescue associations listed.
This is why we need to save the podencos, as well as the galgos. Warning, upsetting images. Please don’t turn away, these wonderful dogs need our voices to speak up for them and demand respect and consideration. They are NOT vermin, they are loving sentient creatures.
Link to an article written by me which was printed in the Weekly Telegraph w/c 16th March 2011
I've fostered quite a few podencos, mostly the rough-haired type, from mainland Spain. One of the most beautiful stories is that of Estrella. In December 2009 I posted a picture on Galgo News of 3 galgas and a podenca in a cell in the killing station in Jaen. Rescue of the 3 galgas was arranged but somehow the podenca was overlooked. I received an appeal from across the ocean in Canada – the podenca is still in Jaen, can you get her out?
So the wheels were speedily set in motion and the podenca was rescued and taken to a refuge. An association with whom I work closely, L'Europe des Levriers, then agreed to help get the podenca from Jaen to Madrid, from where I could collect her, along with other galgos we were bringing out to France for rehoming. So there we were, at the beginning of February 2010, meeting up with Estrella – as the podenca had been named – to bring her home to foster.
There are no regulations in Spain to which refuges and shelters have to adhere. Some are a living hell for dogs and cats which have already suffered from maltreatment and abuse. This is a 'coral' in Cordoba where dogs including podencos are starving to death through lack of food and water. When dogs get to this stage, they will even attack and eat each other. There is evidence of this here. El Arca de Noe Cordoba complained about the situation, and the authorities removed the dogs to the local pound. Death awaits them, from lethal injection if they haven't already succumbed to infection and illness before them.
Podencos and galgos both suffer unimagineable cruelty at the hands of the Spanish hunters and gitanos – Spanish gypsies. Most publicity comes from the regions of Andalucia and Murcia, as well as the Spanish Islands Ibiza and the Canary Islands. However, the Spanish interior including the region of Extremadura is also hell on earth for galgos and podencos. Here is a report from Fepaex – Federacion de Protectoras de Animales de Extremadura.
THE PROBLEM for HUNTING DOGS in EXTREMADURA = Irresponsible HUNTERS + passive and complicit
Rick and Lesley Beauchamp are based in Leicestershire in the UK, and each year they travel to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to bring home som Podenco Canarios, whose only hope of a forever life outside the SARA Lanzarote shelter is to be adopted on mainland Europe.
Here Rick talks about the project and the 3 trips he has made so far. What is hidden is the true International co-operation which goes on to bring the dogs to the UK; from them choosing the dogs in Lanzarote to arranging flight partners to take the dogs to Europe; to enlisting help from the German population to meet the dogs at the airports; to the absolute exhaustion that Rick and his friend Daryl submot themselves to over a couple of days.
