Laura writes from The Kennel Klub, Lanzarote, Canary Islands.
‘Lanzarote is a small island and we have a very limited area in which to re-home dogs. Unfortunately that does not mean of course that dogs are not abandoned. We are a legally registered association and in the nearly 18 months we have been running we have re-homed 107 dogs.
We don’t have a refuge and save many dogs from the perrera, which means they go into kennels before going to foster homes or lucky enough to be adopted.
I’ve been writing and publicising about the podencos for several years, since I started helping a French rescue association bring galgos and podencos from Spain to France for rehoming. I’ve fostered many and helped rehome them too, plus adopted one of my own, seen here with my galgos.
In general the galgos get more publicity because of the huge numbers abandoned every year, especially hung in the olive groves. But life in Spain for the podencos was and still is no different, just not in quite such huge numbers. And life for the podencos on the Spanish islands got and gets very little publicity atall. Which is why I have worked to help them too.
The podencos used to be called ‘The Great Forgotten’ but in the last couple of years there has been an ‘explosion’ of interest in podencos, mostly through publicity on facebook.
I can’t emphasise enough about the podencos on the Spanish Islands, Canary Islands and Ibiza. Their only hope of forever homes is on mainland Europe. Please don’t overlook these deserving hounds when you are thinking of taking a podenco into your home.
These two beauties are in the care of SARA Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.
Milka is about 6 years old, a large podenco canario, and was found abandoned with her sistenr in the volcano on Lanzarote. She’s not much of a hunter, prefers to be with people, loving and obediante, walks without being on a lead. A fantastic hound for a companion dog. She is very good and happy
