23/3/1999

We are Scooby, an association for the protection of animals, and pioneers in the field of working for the welfare of greyhounds. Many people will perhaps know us for the famous photographs of the hanged greyhounds. We not only dedicate ourselves to photographing and condemning the hanging of these animals which occur all over Spain (particular cases in and around Medina del Campo have been officially reported), but also, most important of all, we pledge ourselves to the rescue of these dogs. In one year we rescued a total of 496 animals and in the last month, 175 more greyhounds have come into our hands.

We are continuously receiving distress calls from many people from different parts of Spain, seeking help for unwanted greyhounds. This problem is not very well known, and it is high time that we started to learn about it, as it is one of the worst problems in animal welfare in Spain at present, excluding obviously the issue of bulls. We start by describing how these animals are reared and kept.

The Breeding of Country Greyhounds

Greyhounds always live in rural areas and are usually bred on farms where attention to them is limited. Hence they tend to be very timid animals and shy away from contact with people at the outset. However, there have never been definite statistics about the exact number of animals in existence, many of them being in the hands of individuals whose scruples with regard to the care of these animals leaves much to be desired, to the point that they are not vaccinated until they are proved good enough for running, nor identified. Furthermore it is well known that 6 or 7 must be bred to produce one good dog. Finally, when one is suitable for the season the others have to be disposed of. Until now the method employed, which has been well known to all of us and denounced in different parts of the country by our association, was none other than the hanging, forcing the animal to experience extreme terror in the process. According to training methods, the food is comprised of white bread, to give bursts of energy, and this of course is not the most adequate for an animal. Lack of vaccination straightaway causes the death of numerous puppies, many are weak, undernourished and full of parasites, and blood tests which we perform on each dog, reveal illnesses like Ehrlichiosis due to the deplorable conditions under which they are reared and to the enormous prevalence of ticks. If the animals survive this we face then the problem of their schooling methods.

The animals are trained first by walking them and then when they pick up speed, they are tied to a motor vehicle, which is a very cruel practice in any event because if the animal does not run fast enough or simply stumbles you can imagine what happens to them. As soon as these animals are trained, the hunting season begins and it can then happen that the animal is not sufficiently skilled at chasing and is not wanted any more. They are always young when they are discarded, for the following reason. They greyhound is an intelligent animal by nature and the rules of coursing dictate that the dog must follow the hare, and not take a short cut, which is tremendously important, because it means that if the hare makes a sudden turn, the dog must turn also. However, what happens is that as the dog becomes more experienced he learns to take the shortest course because after all he is hunting the hare, and at this moment it is said that the greyhound is 'dirty' and is disqualified and therefore worth nothing.

Another reason for disqualification and for dogs becoming worthless, is that after hunting many hares and always having the prize removed from them, and this is repeated many times, the dog loses interest and stops. This is so that a champion dog never repeats a win in two consecutive series of the National Greyhound Championship, and even in the regional championships I have never heard of a dog repeating a win. This is a great idea for keeping the sporting life of a greyhound down to a minimum. It normally survives only one season for the championship and for hunting maybe more but never survives three seasons.

Therefore we are talking about thousands and thousands of dogs being discarded in the flower of their life, some because they have not run sufficiently well, others, because having been used for hunting they are no longer useful for the following year, or because they are 'dirty' or because they stop, or because in reality it is much cheaper to breed a new greyhound than maintain one for the nine months up to the new season. This means that the problem of country greyhounds is one whose dimensions exceed anything previously imaginable.

The Problems of Stolen Greyhounds

In spite of all we have been saying, these animals are very sought after when the hunting season is at its peak. These dogs which are already proven, and have already run, and there are statistics from the SEPRONA (countryside police) stating that during the last year in Spain some 1000 greyhounds were stolen. We suppose too that this is only 20% of the total because the majority of greyhound owners do not report the robbery because they think that it will achieve absolutely nothing.

The destiny of these animals is uncertain, one thing is certain that we never hear any news whatever about them. We do not know if those stolen in Castilla y Leon go to Andalucia. Another hypothesis is that they are taken even out of Spain to Arab countries, or that they leave Spain bound for Portugal. Nobody knows which is true. Clearly from the point of view of animal protection this is a subject sufficiently worrying to make us raise the alarm worldwide on this matter and it is high time that something is done and that it is something thoroughly hard hitting.

Possible Solutions

The solution to the problem begins with a control over the breeding of these dogs. Nobody should be allowed to breed them except under strict control obliging every dog to be correctly identified by implantation which also obliges the owners to take some responsibility for their dogs on their retirement. For too long now we animal welfare societies have had to devote ourselves to solving the problems which others have created by picking up all these dogs. Now it is high time that the authorities intervene and that the world of the greyhound is standardized with certain ground rules and that everyone knows his responsibilities.

In the second place we believe that the creation of a regional or national refuge in Medina del Campo, with our voluntary help, is absolutely necessary to receive these retired greyhounds. In 1997 we collected three greyhounds, in 1998 , during which year we condemned and reported the hangings, we collected 300 greyhounds, and so far this year we have collected some 600 greyhounds. Obviously this outweighs our capacity and therefore we request help from all possible quarters to help build a greyhound refuge from where we will relocate them in pursuit of well-deserved homes. This is the least we can offer them after they have given thrills and then so mistreated.

The Animal Welfare Society, Scooby, has at its disposal, suitable land with water and electricity on which to build a new refuge and this is our principle aim and priority from now on. We have created a clinic in our headquarters adding improvements day by day and welcome vets to work with us voluntarily as we have no funds.

But our priority is the construction of a new refuge. We have land but we need the economic support and for this reason we are making contact with all of you to ask you to think of a way in which you could help these dogs. We believe that greyhounds deserve good homes and for this we spare no effort and can offer sufficient land for building a 'macro-refuge' able to accommodate all the unwanted greyhounds we can collect. We are at the planning stage at the moment, because, clearly, we cannot undertake such a project without international help, and without the financial help from people reading this message. We must remember that Scooby is a very small association in a town of 20,000 inhabitants which has many problems.

Our situation is desperate. We have many more dogs than we can cope with in our present refuge, which is a warehouse not adapted for dogs, and is clearly inadequate and unsuitable in the long term as the rent is high. This obliges us to create a new refuge.

We are continually receiving calls from people who wish to bring us their greyhounds to avoid having to put them to sleep or from others who tell us 'if you don't come and get them we will kill them'. Just today I received a call from a person informing me that in his town there were 5 or 6 left for collection and that the rest had already been killed. You can imagine how this was done from the photos that you have seen.

We hope that you will make contact with us as soon as possible as the help is needed urgently and the lives of many greyhounds depend on you.

I thank you in advance and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Fermín Pérez Martín

(President of Scooby)

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