Saving Galgos In Spain

Rescuing Abandoned Galgos and Podencos.

After I wrote my last post, about our ever-growing household of dogs – all in some way ‘abandonados’, I almost immediately found a blog where a group of people are actually trying to do something about all the abandoned dogs in spain – mainly galgos and podencos, but I would imagine they wouldn’t turn any abandoned dog away.

Betty - rescued and now in her new home

The pictures in this post are taken from their blog and I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say, these are beautiful animals.

These people feel like us. They cannot comprehend how certain breeds of dogs can be treated not as pets, but as easily-discarded hunters.

But unlike us (we just ‘go with the flow’ and try to do our best to care for them), they have coordinated a rescue centre called Galgos Del Sol.

Their blog (which has regular updates of the latest galgos they have rescued) is called Saving Galgos In Spain, a must!

And yes, it is a must. Galgos (and Podencos) are hounds. They are, essentially, a hunting breed, but that does not mean they cannot be pets.  In fact, with care and the right attitude, anyone can have a galgo for a pet. You just need to understand them first.  And that doesn’t take long, because they are friendly, intelligent dogs.

Skye is a beautiful galgo typical of the breed.

Galgos look like thinner versions of the English greyhound. They are swift on their feet, with keen eyes and a keen sense of smell – all the essentials for a hunter.

And that’s their downfall.

Like in certain circles in the UK, hunting is a big sport in Spain, especially hare coursing. And every hunter prides themselves on having a pack of galgos (or sometimes podencos) to catch their prey.

The problem arises when the hunting season ends. Does the hunter keep the galgo until next year’s hunting season, or abandon it?

If the galgo is a bitch, at least she is ‘breeding material’ and she will be kept to breed, but often then abandoned as she has done her ‘work’.

If her puppies are all males, only those deemed to be ‘the best’ will be kept. The rest will be abandoned somewhere. If they are females, they will most likely be kept…until after they have had their first set of pups.

This is not to say that everyone who keeps (or breeds) galgos is so calous. but many still are.

Because galgos are not seen as ‘pets’.

Jenny an abandoned Galgo now rescued by Galgos Del Sol, brought back to health and on her way to her new home

In Andalucia, where we live, there are at least as many Podencas as Galgos. They are a very popular breed here.

Podencos can have many of the same ‘essential hunting traits’ as the Galgo. They also have even keener hearing.

The one advantage that the podenco has over the galgo is that they are smaller dogs. And this makes them  slightly more likely to become house pets. But there are still many abandoned podencos.

Our village appears to be a ‘stop place’ for abandoned galgos and podencos. It is the last village on the route before a large town, and it seems as if these dogs slowly make their way through the different villages and settle in ours (perhaps because there is ‘a mad English couple’ willing to feed them…).  So we see a lot of these dogs, often arriving in a pitiful state, covered in tics, virtually starving, and in need of a home.

We can only do so much.

Many of these ‘abandonados’ will either starve to death, die of disease, be run over by a car, or just as bad, be picked up and taken to a ‘perrera’ (basically a killing station for abandoned dogs), where ‘humane’ does not really come into the way these poor dogs are put down.

Tina a three month old Podenca is looking for someone to care for her

So, when someone has the tenacity to set up a rescue centre for Galgos it is only right to give it all the publicity it deserves. And hopefully do something to help them.

It is not easy caring for abandoned dogs (as we have found out). Most abandonados need urgent health care, including vetinary treatment and a diet to bring them back to good health. And, in the case of a rescue centre like Galgos Del Sol, there is paperwork, finding homes for their dogs (and making sure they go to good homes), plus constant advertising costs to ensure that every dog in their centre finds the home it deseves.

Those who run Galgos Del Sol have no idea I’m writing this post. I literally found their blog as a matter of chance. But once I read it, I knew I had to do something to help, however small.

So for anyone reading this post, you can visit the blog here for the latest news, or their website Galgos Del Sol, or, if you want to help straight away, contact galgosdelsol @ hotmail.com (take out the gaps).

Saving Galgos in Spain is a must, so please take a look at the website and the blog and see if there is anything you can do to help.

Life In Spain With Many Dogs

When you just can’t say no to an ‘abandonado’.

It’s been a long time since I posted on this blog. Life in Spain goes on, with its good and sometimes bad moments, but overall, things are good…. even though our casa pequena is now a home for many dogs!

As readers wlll know, we arrived in Spain in 2006 with two dogs – a greyhound cross and a saluki (both UK rescue dogs), and by 2007, we had three dogs – a podenca stray decided to make her home with us and as she had nowhere else to go, we could hardly refuse.

Life went on for a while with no further dogs added. Although neighbours often brought us ‘puppies they thought we would like’, we said ‘Lo siento, pero no. Nuestra casa es muy pequna’. and although we felt guilty, we knew that caring for three very active dogs and making a comfortable space for them in our house was enough.

For a while, we cared for a neighbour’s dog, because they were both working long hours and told us they could no longer care for her. Sadly she died a few months later.

She was a lovely, friendly dog and, despite having such a pequena casa, we did give some thought to replacing her. But it was only a thought….

Then one day late last summer, my husband was walking our three hounds when they dragged him over to some bushes where they could hear a pitiful wailing noise.

Two tiny puppies were snuggled together, trying to hide from the rain.  They were very frightened.

After asking me (how could I refuse?), my husband went back to the bushes with a crate, picked up the two puppies and brought them back to the house.

They were barely weaned. For the first couple of days we encouraged them to eat soaked puppy meal by getting them to lick it from our fingers first.

The two puppies are now 9 months old. They are vaccinated, chipped and have all the paperwork to say they are ours.

But not to put too finer point on it, they are a pain in the butt. Both hiperactive (they drive our two eldest dogs almost insane). One needs a complicated, expensive operation because he was born with ‘a few things in the wrong place’, but we are holding off until we are sure he can cope with the op (when the vet first saw him, he said he wouldn’t survive a month, so now he appears to be thriving, we want to make sure we don’t put him at risk with what might be an unnecessary op).

But they are dogs with character (goodness knws what character though 🙂 ) and they are now an essential (if manic) part of our family.

In the meantime, a podenca bitch in our village gave birth to 4 puppies and settled with them in a nearby cave. My husband took it upon himself to feed them every day. They thrived as well. But one day, mum and three of the puppies disappeared. We were told later that someone had picked them up for hunting. I hope they survived.

The podenca who had escaped the hunter remained in the cave (fed daily by my husband) and refused any contact with humans apart from him. Several villagers tried to entice her to their houses, but she wasn’t having any of that.

Until a couple of days ago, when a villager approached my husband and asked if he would help him to pick her up.  We know the man. He is retired, a widower, not into hunting, and he assured my husband that he would look after the podenca well. He wanted her for a companion. So my husband reluctantly placed a lead on her, picked her up and gave her to the man.

He was quite upset, but felt he did the right thing, as we couldn’t keep her in our house – she refused to enter the front door.

But our neighbours had been watching us and assumed that, despite our assertions that we had no more room for new dogs, we now had five dogs and were willing to take care of more.

This assumption was probably strengthened when two spaniel type dogs arrived in our village. They are being fed by us as well…

The cost of dog food is getting higher than the cost of our own meals!

Now, it seems that most of the villagers here do actually like dogs. It’s just that (apart from a few like the guy who wanted a dog for companionship), they don’t want the time and expense of looking after them.

Whenever a new stray dog arrives in our village, he or she is fed with scraps by the villagers and they do look out for them. But that’s as far as it goes.

We have developed  a sneaking suspicion that we have been promoted to ‘dog carers’  by an unnofficial village council.

This was confirmed a week or so ago, when a starving galgo/podenco cross appeared in our street… and the neighbours knocked on our door, telling us that he needed feeding!

He moved in to our house today, timid but welcomed by the pack…

But in the meantime, two days ago, we had a knock on the front door and on opening it no one was there, but a tiny puppy was curled up on our step….

This puppy looks like a podenca cross (but without the long nose). It’s about the size of a largish hamster and very cute….

So this morning, off went my husband to the vets with our ‘new puppy’. She is barely six weeks old. A small breed of goodness knows what, but in good health.

We haven’t even thought of a name for her yet, but we now have another sack of small puppy food (cost 22 euros…), she has had her first vaccinations and basically, she is ours!

I’m sure whoever left her on our doorstep with be satisfied with the care and attention she is getting…

That now makes seven dogs living in our tiny house!

I think we need to talk to the neighbours and tell them this time that when we say ‘enough is enough’ we mean it!