Greyhounds in Need
Charity Registered .NO. 1069438
Newsletter.
January 1999
Dear Friends of Greyhounds in Need
Firstly may I wish you all a Happy New Year and let’s hope for a happier year too, for greyhounds everywhere.
The last four months have been extraordinarily busy. Our charity is growing fast in supporters and in commitment. The extent of our work is spreading daily and the help is flowing in too, from many countries. My work-load becomes almost impossible at times as I try to answer all letters and messages, co-ordinate and harness the help we are receiving and continue to explore other avenues for publicising our work and cultivating support. Sometimes I have to prioritise if there is an urgent doggy problem in hand, so please be patient if I take a few days to deal with or answer a letter or query. As you know, I work full-time as a nurse, and without my job most of the greyhound work would not be possible, as being international, it is so expensive. There is always more I could do but the day is simply not long enough.
Exports From Spain
In 1998, thanks to the wondrous Dai Lawrence, we have brought 250 greyhounds from Spain to a better life in the following counties: Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Holland, Luxembourg, Austria and Britain. At times, the sheer logistics of such operations would terrify an army general. The October trip was financed by Dai himself which he insisted upon against all our protests. His wife Rose, too came on that trip. It was her first ever trip abroad. It’s a pity that Triston, the refuge’s guard dog in Medina, was not so impressed, as he bit Dai on the rear twice as he bent down to work his welder! Dai was not amused especially when he had to sit on his wounds for nineteen hours the next day across Europe. These trips are achieved with the amazing technology of mobile phones, a huge amount of stamina on Dai’s part and with the humour and often touching goodwill expressed by border officials.
Preparing the dogs for export is another feat which falls heavily on Fermín in Medina in Spain, who must vaccinate, prepare health certificates and organise blood sampling on each dog and then transport the samples four hours’ journey to Madrid. Then there are the other details like making sure we have twenty collars and leads with identity discs, and twenty coats for the cold nights in the van. I would especially like to thank Dra. Guadelupe de Miro, Pathology Professor at Madrid University, for her generosity in examining all the blood samples at reduced cost. She does rescue work herself and is in full sympathy with our work.
Mallorca Track Comes to an End
The most urgent piece of news is that the track at Mallorca is going to close on March 31st. The police visited the track in November, due to our efforts of writing of the authorities over the years, and this is the result. Needless to say, I am not exactly ‘woman of the year’ with the management of the track. Since last summer we have moved over 70 retired Irish bitches who were in Tomeo’s care (he is an elderly ex-trainer in Mallorca, who loves the dogs, and does his best to look after them with no resources whatever). Tomeo already has 100 more unwanted dogs. He says 150 are still running and are owned by the gypsies and being kennelled elsewhere. We don’t know if we will be permitted to help those dogs or not later.
Help is flowing in from Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium but it needs to be carefully co-ordinated and the export requirements are not going to be easy to fulfil from this distance. The dogs are in a very inaccessible place and it will be difficult for Tomeo to be seen to be co-operating with us by admitting vets to vaccinate and do blood sampling etc. We can only do our best and leave the rest in the lap of the gods.
Quarantine – Can You Help?
I feel that despite our quarantine regulations, we should take some share of the burden on our European neighbours to take in these dogs. International Quarantine Kennels in Dover has come to the rescue and very generously offered us a whole block of 10 triple kennels, charging us only one third or the normal rate. So it would cost us £1300 to quarantine, for six months, three dogs instead of one. This is an opportunity we cannot miss. I have asked the larger animal welfare organisations and racing boards in England and Ireland if they would like to contribute towards these expenses. I await their replies. NCDL, with their usual promptness, have already offered to pay for one triple kennel and the ISPCA (Irish Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has generously offered to pay for 4 triple kennels. Greyhound Rescue, West of England, will, possible be sponsoring another kennel. Help with the obligatory veterinary expenses (which as you can imagine will be huge!) or transport costs might appeal more to some donors. Garth Heywood, in Wales, has kindly offered to help with transport costs, but we should not expect him to shoulder the whole burden. It was Garth, if you remember, who helped us find our van, which has done 30,000 miles (43,000 kilometres), in six months and is still running well. The cost of a whole transportation of thirty dogs from Mallorca to northern Europe is £1,500 (the ferry between Barcelona and Mallorca is £500 with a van; it must be the most expensive strip of water in Europe).
If any of you would like to help with donations towards this project, we would be very grateful. Sally Slater, with her Regional South West group, is already fundraising for the quarantining of the current three in International Kennels, Dover.
Harry, Bella and Lily arrived in England from Medina last Monday. They are three beautiful galgos (Spanish country greyhounds) who have been saved from hanging by Fermín in Medina del Campo. Harry is a shy brindle and it was in protecting him from being tormented by the ‘pack’ last December in Scooby’s refuge, that I got bitten on both hands by a jealous husky! I returned to England with huge, black swollen hands like sausages, and had to be admitted to hospital two days before Christmas. It was absolutely wonderful to be looked after and waited upon! I didn’t want to leave... Harry is lucky. He has a home waiting for him in Devon in July. Bella is a small brindle who was found near Madrid and was rescued and given emergency surgical treatment to her hip after an accident. When I saw her in December in Medina her rear half had been shaved and she looked pathetic. This actually helped her in the end because she was one of the twelve stolen by gypsies who broke into the refuge on December 28th (for the third time in four months), and when they saw her scars in daylight they let her go. She ran back to the refuge and was found outside next day by Amelia. Lily is a shy, black female on whom I took pity in Medina, as she was quivering in the background, rather frightened of the forty or so other greyhounds in the warehouse. Amelia and I put her together with Harry in a kennel until they were ready for transport to England. These three will be released from quarantine on the 17th July. Are there homes for Bella and Lily?
What’s a Galgo
Dai can tell you about adopting a galgo! ‘Like a greyhound, but with brains!’ he says. Joking aside, adopting ‘Galgo’ has made Dai doubly dedicated to fighting against the abuse and hangings of galgos. He says they are extraordinarily wonderful dogs and quite unique and Dai has forty years experience of greyhounds. Aficionados of the galgo espanol say that this dog is now an endangered species because Irish and English greyhounds have been imported and bred with the galgo to create a faster god so that the original pure galgo is losing its essential characteristics. Teddy, who completed his quarantine at Raystede Animal Welfare Centre is an example of a cross galgo/greyhound. He has now happily settled with Domini and Dave, in Plymouth, as if he’s been there all his life.
In Raystede we now have four more galgos. Two are kindly being paid for by Raystede and two, very generously by Hazel Spear, our most valued donor. We call these dogs the ‘Leonese galgos’ because they were among the thirty-nine unwanted and unsocialised dogs we picked up last summer from a breeder’s yard near Leon in Spain. They are three bitches, Fern, Bambi and Poppy, and one male, Micky; are all healthy and young but terrified of humans to the point of being almost wild. With the kindness of the ladies in Raystede they are gradually relaxing and allowing themselves to be touched.
Fern is finely built, beige in colour and the most nervous and neurotic of the four. Bambi is a stunning red fawn with dark muzzle and is gradually allowing Jane at the kennels to touch her. Poppy is brindle and white and now ready to take biscuits from your hand. Micky, the male, is a handsome brindle and white and is the most confident of the four. They will be released in June and they too, will be looking for the right homes. Do please be ambassadors for these dogs in quarantine and keep an ear open for anyone who may wish to adopt one.
Also, if you live near Raystede in Ringmer, East Sussex, or International Kennels in Dover, please would you consider visiting our dogs on a sort of regular basis? I would love to do it myself but it would be a day’s journey there and back and I only have one free day in seven which is vital for doing GIN work.
The Belgian Connection
One country which has been enormously helpful over the last three months is Belgium. This arose out of our reunion at Mireille Broeder’s restaurant Téte a Téte in Gent in the autumn. Janou Dumolin, a dedicated worker for animals, put us in touch with Veronique Goethals, who is President of Animaux en Péril, near Brussels, and after discussion between Lucinda, Dai, myself and directors, it was agreed that they would, amazingly, accept groups of twenty or so dogs both from Medina and Mallorca. We did this in four different trips, the current group arriving from Medina only last weekend – who, incidentally, were filmed by Belgian TV. Nearly all the previous forty dogs have found homes. We owe much of the success of the homing to the work and publicity done by our Belgian supporters, particularly Mireille, both in the Flemish and French regions, and to the support and generosity of Andree Peeters and Sandrine Fedorowicz. Mirelle has many talents besides being a restauranteuse and greyhound lover; she is also an artist and recently released to the Belgian nation a painting of Prince Laurent and his dog. Prince Laurent is dedicated to animal welfare.
In travelling to and from Brussels I have become an avid fan of Eurostar. After one of our four-hour sessions with the directors of Animaux en Péril, which followed a 24-hour nursing shift, I became silly with tiredness on the return journey and mucked up everything at the security control. I managed to do everything in the wrong order and confused the security officials entirely. Lucinda and I dissolved into paroxysms of uncontrollable giggles, turned a sharp corner and came face to face with a pair of identical stoney-faced customs men peering out of their boxes like Punch and Judy figures. We collapsed totally with laughter at them which nearly got us both locked up!
The Dutch Connection
Hans and Aad are Dutch supporters living in France who work very hard cultivating support, finding homes and translating articles for Dutch magazines. Margareth Gijbels and other greyhound owners had a meeting today to discuss the Mallorca situation. It seems that they can hire a lorry to fetch all 100 dogs! We are working on this. I still haven’t recovered from the shock as I write!
The Luxembourg Connection
Maryse Lehnin is our first adopter in Luxembourg and is working hard for us there. Like Sandrine, Maryse has horses and they walk daily altogether with the greyhounds in the forest. I have learned that it is instinctive for greyhounds to follow the horses. They do not run off into the forest as I might have feared.
The Swiss Connection
Other events in the Autumn included a reunion in Switzerland organised by Evelyne Bader and Diana Haenggi. There must have been sixty people there from all over Switzerland with forty or more dogs, most of them from Spain. It was a beautiful sight seeing them all walking together in the autumnal forest. Evelyne, Diane and Ursula Stephan have formed a group called 'Graceland’ dedicated to helping the greyhound of Spain and, hopefully, they will take twenty greyhounds from Mallorca in the next couple of weeks.
June Kennard came with me to the Swiss reunion. In our hotel bedroom June tried to open a window and emerged back into the room from behind a curtain with the entire window frame in her arms. We advised she joins ‘Vandals Anonymous of Bagshot’ and we are thinking of hiring her out on Saturdays to football stadiums!
Our Alicante friends Mandy and Alan, Lo and Jackie, Ted and June and Carol, are still collecting greyhounds from southern Spain and collaborating with Evelyne and Diana. Thank you to all those who are patiently boarding our dogs there for the moment.
The Royal Connection
I would particularly like to mention Princess Elizabeth de Croy, who so kindly helped us out of an extremely difficult situation when Dai, with eighteen dogs on board from Medina could not, for complicated bureaucratic reasons, enter Germany and was stranded in France. Princess Elizabeth in Nevers, received all the dogs and found us two other refuges willing to accept them; one in Lausanne, Switzerland, La Sociétè Vauddoise pour la Protection des Animaux; and, another, in Strasbourg in the care of M Hugues Lentz.
Thank you to all three organisations for helping us in our time of need. We hope as a result to have made more new friends in Europe.
The German Connection
Celia and Katrin are still working hard for our Mallorquinas and Barcelona bitches. They are extending their premises and we hope to bring more dogs to them in the spring. The adoption programme continues for the remaining dogs they have there. Please send your donations to: Lucinda Read, 22 Marshall’s Way, Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, AL4 8HY (Tel/Fax 01582 712418).
We have a new contact in Germany, Silvia Schmidt-May who generously took eleven Mallorcan bitches and found super homes for all of them. Silvia wants to continue to help us together with Walther Kilb, Ellen Poppendick and Veronike Erley. Horst Scherer in Aachen responded very quickly with an offer to go to Mallorca to collect dogs and home them too.
Sevilla – The Beautiful
For some years I have been hearing about the galgos of Spain and their use as hunting dogs. This is an old tradition and hundreds of ‘clubs de galgos’ exist up and down the countryside. Many thousands of young healthy galgos are disposed of each year inhumanely, usually by hanging, at the end of the hunting season – that is now, in January. It seems that many galgueros (those who hunt with greyhounds) will not keep their dogs until the next season begins in September. I wanted to meet these people to learn more of the background and offer alternatives to inhumane killing. So it was with curiosity, trepidation and sheer calculated stupidity that I found my way 100 kilometres outside Sevilla, in the middle of miles of ploughed fields, with two hundred men, sixty of them on horseback, three gypsy women and scores of beautiful galgos. I must have struck a rather odd figure in that setting and there was some initial coolness on their part. By the end of the day, relations relaxed, especially over lunch al fresco and I was able to talk freely and exchange addresses. I even found Andalusian love poem in my notebook afterwards – I still don’t know who wrote it! The President of the Andalusian Federation asked me to write an article for his magazine. I have done this, carefully, but have no idea how it will be recieved or if it will be printed. My object was to stress the responsibilities of owning a dog, whether as a pet of for sport, and that we, as thinking humans, owe to that dog, a devoted sentient being, a comfortable healthy life and a painless end.
Medina Del Campo
Our association with Scooby continues as strong as ever. Such a familiar figure am I now in Medina that all the resident cats and dogs have chosen the room where I sleep as their toilet!
Fermín and his helpers struggle bravely in Medina with few resources, and daily face ignorance and hostility from the authorities and others. There is no general background of respect for animals that we take for granted in northern Europe. They are pioneers and their task is enormous. They have collected seventy one animals in the last twenty one days, sixty of them galgos. All must be vaccinated, photographed and wormed immediately. Fernín has to do this work in his spare time between school teaching and private teachings. With each visit, Dai and I feel more and more respect and admiration for their work and our understanding of their situation grows and deepens. I have become an avid disciple of Fermín and his helpers from whom I learn daily about how to deal with animals and people.
Jill Woodward, and her connections with Naturewatch, generously collected masses of veterinary equipment including heat lamps, a gas heater, bedding, sun shade and various other surgical items. Thank you Jill, for all of this.
Your coats are still much in use in the refuge and we still need then constantly as they get wet, torn, or become the objects of tugs of war. Do, please, sew then together at the chest, and use two long ties (mens ties?) of one metre each, fixed at the centre back so we can wrap them under the tummy and up over the top again to be tied. We have found velcro is not good enough – sorry. When you consider that we coated up twenty dogs for transport last week and sixty more greyhounds have arrived in the last fortnight, you can see how many coats we need in Medina in the winter. The temperature can drop to –7C. Thank you so much to all those hardworking ladies and men who make our coats and send them to us.
In October the RSPCA International section, Educational Division, held an excellent conference in Medina hosted by Scooby. There were twenty five delegates from all over Spain. I joined them as an observer and was so impressed with the high callibre of the Spanish workers for animals who would put many of us here to shame. They have an almost impossible task but their dedication is unending and I learned a lot.
Fermín will, I’m sure, tell you about the beautiful two legged greyhound he travelled 1000 kilometres to pick up. Her owner tried to shoot her and bungled it. Dai heard about her and created a brilliant false leg to fit on her stump. He made it in Wales out of a ladies boot, a bit of a metal detector, bones out of one of his old surgical corsets and a piece of Renault radiator hose. Unfortunately, when he came to fit this wonderful work of art in Medina, the stump wasn’t the shape I had described to Dai so it didn’t fit! My name is mud. In addition, the second idea that I had of a ‘pointe’ block ballet shoe complete with pink ribbons, animal wool and resin didn’t work either! This bitch must think us humans are very weird.
Prestigous Visitors
In November, David Poulter, England’s best known greyhound vet, came with me to Spain and viewed the dog-tracks in Barcelona and Mallorca and then went on to Medina where he examined the nineteen Mallorquina bitches being housed there, and advised on the surgery being set up in the basement of Fermín’s house. At the dog-tracks, I had to keep a low profile and didn’t appear. In Mallorca, where the police had just visited, all English visitors were under suspicion, so I asked David not to shave for three days and to cultivate the ‘third murderer’ look. David used to be on the stage professionally as an opera singer so he played the part of an Italian ‘ne’er do well’ when he asked for a racing programme etc. and it worked! David has written a report but we prefer to keep it confidential at the moment for reasons of strategy. Our thanks are due to David for enduring such a hectic week-end, for applying his experience and skill to the task in hand and for producing such an excellent report.
News at Home
June Kennard, our treasurer, is a highly organised lady with a beautiful home whereas my house always looks ransacked (since ‘greyhounds’, I may add, in the last seven years) and she could hardly wait, with a few dozen plastic bags, to get the all-clear from me to sort out my overflowing wardrobes. They’ve all gone! Clothes, shoes, handbags, coats, scarves etc. ‘Wow!’ she says, ‘You can’t wear that! Your mother would be proud of you!’ Handbags and shoes have gone to Medina to be chewed. That might distract the galgos next time from eating Fermín’s new shoes which he had left in the office while he was hosing out the refuge...
I’d like to thank again, Su and Dean Cotton for their generous gift of the computer with all its attachments and refinements. Lucinda Read has been working many hours on it updated our database with all your addresses and telephone numbers. We are approaching two thousand on our mailing list now. Please let her know if your address is wrong or changes. Contact her at 22 Marshall’s Way, Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, AL4 8HY (Tel/Fax 01582 712418)
Do consider starting up regional fundraising or general events group. We can put you in touch with other supporters in your area. Sally Slater (01884 254727) is co-ordinating such a group in the South West and they are hoping to pay for one quarantine triple kennel. Sue North (01202 527350) is starting a group in Dorset and scouting around for supporters and fundraising ideas.
Colin Riley, who does our graphic and photographic work, has offered us the idea of a weekend break, Friday 26th March – Monday 29the March at Coast View Holiday Park in Teignmouth, Devon. Accommodation can be in individual chalets with your dogs, 2-7 berth (£49-£72) or, if you prefer, there are facilities for campers and tents etc. It looks beautiful with lovely views, indoor pools and optional evening entertainment. Colin will let you have a brochure (01626 774420).
We have always received much help from Wales. Dawn Abraham has been wonderfully generous towards us and has a charity shop near Pontypridd and works very hard collecting up goods, selling them and publicising our work. The proceeds are shared between her own rescue work in Wales and GIN. Do pop in if you are in the area.
The London Marathon will take place on April 18th. You will remember that Danny Francis ran for us last year and collected a lot of money for us in sponsorship. Danny has some fitness problems this year and is not sure if he will qualify or not. We will not know until the beginning of February. We could not afford to do an additional mail shot before our next newsletter in May so if you would be interested in finding out if Danny is going to run, please would you send a stamped addressed envelope for a sponsor form or information, to Liz Mason, 14 Canopus Way, Stanwell, Staines, Middlesex, TW19 7SY (Tel 01784 244116)
Adopt a Greyhound from Spain
If all our rescue operations go to plan we are going to have thirty seven greyhounds from Spain in quarantine! This means, of course, that they will be released and need homes after their six months detention. We are talking about June – August. I’ve already mentioned the seven galgos from Medina. The thirty from Mallorca will be mainly older Irish bitches – I would guess four to ten years old. Our previous experience has shown that these dogs are very sweet-natured, slightly battered from years of hard racing and harsh kennelling, and need little more than a soft bed, love, and a regular eye to their general health. You will of course be able to visit them while they are in Dover. Please bear them in mind if you might be in a position to adopt a greyhound over the next six months, and let any of us here know of your interest.
Notes for your Diary
Sunday April 18th: Fundraising Event (in aid of GIN) at Cholesbury Village Hall, near Tring, Hertfordshire. 2:30 – 5:30 pm Cream Teas, stalls, etc Bring your dogs. Offers of help welcome. For details please contact Linda Read: 01582 713598.
Sunday May 16th: Visit to the Museum of Spear’s Games (Hazel Spear is probably our most generous donor) 1 pm for 1:30 pm Buffet Lunch, plus talk and slide show and visit to the museum. £7.50 per head. Dogs welcome (£1). Booking on first dome, first served basis. Space for thirty only. For details, please contact Linda Read: 01582 713598.
Sunday June 6th: Herts NCDL Exemption Dog Show. Registration from 12 noon. Annette Crosbie OBE judging novelty classes, including ‘Best Rescued Greyhound’ at Memorial Hall, Marford Road, Wheathampstead, Herts. Contact Joan McFarlane: 01582 841778.
Sunday October 3rd: Sponsored Dog Walk in aid of GIN and Fen Bank Greyhound Sanctuary, in Wheathampstead. For sponsorship form, send SAE to Lucinda Read, 22 Marshall’s Way, Wheathampstead, Herts, AL4 8HY. (Tel 01582 712418)
Next follows Celia’s and Fermín’s news and finally, June’s lovely accessories list. She has asked me to tell you that we still have forty American calendars left – at the reduced price of £6 each.
So here ends the account of the last four months. Maybe you can see why I spend many of my nights working into the small hours or right round until morning! In addition, I am trying to learn Spanish at evening classes and (horrors) trying to meet a deadline with a 15,000 word chapter on greyhound retirement for a new book by Ringpress publications, The Ultimate Greyhound.
Over the last two weeks I have been helped a few hours a day by a very patient lady, Carolyn, who keeps me same. As she learns the work and who you all are she will be able, I’m sure, to take more routine work off my shoulders. We both think there are gremlins in my office who steal papers, pens, scissors, and staplers and hide them in funny places. I think it’s got something to do with my ‘precious remembrances’ shelf where there are sentimental relics of past greyhounds from here and from Spain, who are still with us in spirit and creating mischief!
With love and thanks to all of you who support us in so many different ways.
Anne
Celia Holmgren/Katrin Gorner
Greyhounds in Not e.V.
Hamburger Strasse 4
D-23816 Gross Niendorf
Germany
Tel/Fax 0049 (0) 4552 999567
Because we are working on the enlargement of our kennels, we are not taking in any dogs until May 1999. Each new kennel will be bigger and have its own separate large run. In the meantime we are still finding homes for the greyhounds remaining in our care.
They are:
The Mallorquinas: arrived 20/8/98
These are the friendliest dogs we have had so far and they mix quickly with other breeds
without any aggression.
La Fuentes: born 1991, black, very friendly and likes to run and to learn new tricks.
Barakalda: tattoo blurred, circa 1990?, was a sad girl when she arrived. Now she is full of beans.
Sand Pecker: born 1991, white and black, loves to dig up the garden. Still a bit stressed, and has not fully recovered spiritually.
Zunilda: tattoo blurred, elderly?, fawn, friendly and behaves herself!
The ‘Diana Six’, The ‘Sweet Sixteen’ and ‘Mad Dai’s Five’, all came from Barcelona
Dancer: born 1993, white and black, very loving and cuddly, needs to be on her own or with a male dog.
Azar: born 1992, fawn, feels confident among the pack but rather insecure when of her own. Hates cats!
Avia: born 1993, brindle, likes greyhounds but not so keen on other breeds! Otherwise very loving.
Cloneen Again: born 1992, brindle, also a bit naughty with other breeds. Looking like new after all her baldness of before. Cuddly.
Zaira: born 1995, black, has come our of herself a lot and even throws her weight around nor with other breeds. Very affectionate.
The following dogs have already found new wonderful homes: Humada, Sila, Ave Negra, Tea, Speedy, Emma, Puppy, Astra, Pet Robin, Zoey, Joker Style, Bastia, and Nacional.
We are looking forward to taking in new dogs in May 1999.
We would like to thank our good friends for their very active help and support and would also like to thank everybody in Germany and abroad for participating in the adoption scheme.
With heartfelt greetings.
Celia and Katrin
(For ‘adopting’ one of the above dogs, please send donations made out to ‘Greyhounds in Need’ to Lucinda Read, 22 Marshalls Way, Wheathampstead, Herts, AL4 8HY, Tel 01582 712418). You will receive a photograph and pedigree (where available) of your dog. Money is needed for food, veterinary care, heating and other kennel costs.)
Protectora de Animales SCOOBY
San Francisco 3, 47400 Medina del Campo
(Valladolid)
Tel 983 81 10 87
Fax 983 83 75 79
Hello Friends
Here I am again to tell you about our work in Medina. I begin first with a piece of good news. Our town council will shortly be signing an agreement with SCOOBY under which we will receive an annual grant to maintain about 100 animals. This may not seem very much, but it will be the first time that SCOOBY has received any money from the authorities for animal welfare. Secondly, the construction of our surgery is progressing. This month, Mari Paz’s husband, Miguel, built a brick wall, making two new rooms in our ‘local’, the headquarters of SCOOBY. One room is a kennel and the other is the waiting room. Last week, Dai, the big Welshman, brought veterinary equipment from Jill Woodward and ‘Greyhounds in Need’ and transported 19 more dogs from us to Belgium and England.
In October the RSPCA held an Educational Conference in our Castle which was a great success. SCOOBY was the host, with delegates arriving from all over Spain. We discussed the education of children in Spanish schools on animal welfare matters.
The hunting season is coming to an end just at this time. We have collected 60 greyhounds since January 1st and are expecting massive arrival next weekend. The good news is that the hangings are decreasing but, instead, the hunters are phoning us to take their greyhounds or abandoning them at our door. Last year we rescued about 300 greyhound. Most of these have been homed in Europe thanks to the help of ‘Greyhounds in Need’, ‘Animaux en Péril’, Princess Elizabeth de Croy and Dai Lawrence who transported them all.
We have suffered three robberies in the last five months from our refuge and lost 25 galgos. It is impossible to prevent these kinds of loutish acts. Gypsies will even use guns to steal dogs!
The winter is very cold here. There is no heating in our refuge and greyhounds feel the cold very much. We always need more coats please. The dogs play together and the coats get wet and need changing frequently. The will thank you very much!
We always need financial help to pay for food, export requirements, blood sampling, vaccinations, micro-chipping, collars, leads, sterilisation, veterinary care etc. The expenses go up every year and we cannot afford them all.
One of our new dogs is a two-legged bitch whom I rescued last month from her owner in Cuenca. She came with her puppy, but she was pregnant again, and gave birth to eight new puppies. I had to make a terrible decision because we were not able to take care of them. We saved three, Soon the bitch and her pups will go to Germany in the care of Johanna Wothke. Despite all her troubles she is very happy and jumps up on the sofa!
In my house I have several cats, kittens, and other sick animals because there is no sanctuary for cats, and I must look after the sick animals when I come home from school teaching at night. I even had a wounded hedgehog, which is ‘protected’ in Spain.
This is all my news for now.
Greetings from the SCOOBY family!
Fermín
Old Newsletters:
Mallorca track is closing down on the 31st March.
Greyhounds in Need, The Plight of Greyhounds , Atrocities In Spain (Warning, not for the sqeamish), Greyhounds as Pets, Information About Us, Updates, Newsletter, Greyhound Accessories, Library, Links.