Some 50,000 Spanish greyhounds are brutally killed each year! Please consider a donation and help us help them!
n Spain, thousands of galgos hunting dogs are abused every year. Often they are ‘used’ for a single season, then they are abandoned, starved to death, thrown down wells, beaten to death, used as shooting practice, poisoned, or hung from trees.
It is an absolute outrage!
With your support, we plan to help as many of the dogs as possible.
Spanish greyhounds, called galgos, are widely bred for the country’s cruel hunting industry in which mountain goats, wild boar, mouflon sheep and red and fallow deer are killed to get meat for pet food.
It is estimated that up to 50,000 galgos are killed every year. They are one of the most abused dog breeds in the world.
Here is what happens to the poor creatures unlucky enough to fall into the hands of hunters: first, before they are sent to hunt, they are starved to make them hungry enough to kill. Typically, they are kept chained in dirty, feces-riddled underground bunkers.
The dogs are judged “good” or “bad” hunters. Those who fall into the latter category are often tortured by their owners for the ‘shame’ they have brought on them. The reasoning is that by torturing and killing the dogs, they wash away the dishonor the dogs displayed that brought shame to their masters.
There are many cases of galgos being burned with acid, dragged behind cars, skinned or buried alive, or subjected to the sickeningly named “piano dance” where a dog is tied up by its neck and hung up, its feet barely touching the ground, until it is slowly and excruciatingly strangled to death.
There is no legal protection for these poor creatures because they are regarded under Spanish law as working dogs and are excluded from laws relating to pets. Legally, they are no different from inanimate objects and can be used in whatever manner their owner decides.
In many instances, dogs are used for a single hunting season and then discarded or killed. Abandoned galgos are found on roadsides or rubbish dumps scrounging for food, or they are dumped at overrun shelters. Some are shot dead and left to rot along the road.
It is cheaper for the owners to kill a dog than to feed it for four months until the next season. New dog costs as little as $11 (£9) from one of many breeding facilities that supply hunters.
Network for Animals have a plan! They have partnered with two organizations who operate dog shelters and provide care to hunting dogs – Foundation Jadoul and PACMA. These remarkable organizations work tirelessly to provide the best possible care to animals in need.
Their shelters, Galgos Del Sur in Cordoba and Foundation Jadoul in Valencia, are safe and caring sanctuaries where these beautiful creatures can find protection and love and, eventually, loving new homes.
The heroes running these shelters face enormous challenges every day, and without the support of animal lovers like you, they simply will not have the resources to continue their vital work. Tragically, PACMA’s other shelters in Valencia and Seville were forced to close due to a lack of funds. It is terrible to think what might happen to all the traumatized, abused and neglected animals in their care if PACMA’s only remaining shelter were to close.
If we can raise $6,000 (roughly £4,800), we can provide these shelters with the funds they desperately need. Please, your donation today will help pay for dog food, medical care, and rehabilitation.
Any amount you donate now will make a difference in the life of a discarded dog – just think of the joy they will feel when they receive a warm bed and a kind touch, and go to sleep with full bellies, knowing they are finally safe and loved. This is what your donation will help make possible.