Want to adopt a galgo?

Adopting a Galgo...

by Joanna W Simm

For many of us who have heard of the terrible plight of the beautiful Galgo dogs in Spain, adoption is an idea that we have embraced as something we can actually do to help. Most of us do not have a massive disposable income, so donating significant amounts of money is not possible, and we look for other ways to help. If you can sew, you can perhaps make dog coats to keep the galgos warm during the cold winter nights (yes, Spain does get cold!), and if you speak good French and have a friendly pharmacy or feed merchant perhaps you can talk them into donating out of date medicines or sacks of food with damaged packaging. However, the ideas of offering a loving forever home to a galgo with a sad history is irresistibly appealing to anyone who loves these dogs, has been moved by their plight, and feels they may have room in their heart and home.

Is adoption for you?

You do need to think very carefully before offering to adopt a galgo, because the last thing that these dogs need is a forever home that turns out to be a 'two week home'. Be certain that you are prepared to cope with a dog who may well experience problems settling into his or her new life, however desirable and better than what they have left behind it may be. Most of these rescued dogs are rescued because they have suffered, in some way or another, and certainly few will be used to the sights and sounds of a house, or indeed the rules associated with living 'en famille'. If you can't bear the thought of an occasional...or even frequent...toilet training mistake in the early days, if you are not prepared to patiently explain that food on the kitchen table is for people, not for dogs to take, if you aren't prepared to get up in the middle of the night to calm, comfort and resettle, then maybe you can find another way to help the galgos, other than adoption.

Consider your other animals too...

Most galgos are sociable creatures who forgive very quickly the terrible wrongs that have been done to them by men, but some never get over their training and indeed instinct to hunt. If you have cats, take extra care. This doesn't mean that you can't adopt a galgo if you have cats (I have five cats, and 3 greyhounds plus a veritable gaggle of rescued galgos...) but proceed with caution, be honest with the adoption organisation and ask that they try the galgo with cats first (this is done under safe conditions for the cat, I might add!). Even this is not a guarantee, but taken carefully, many galgos adapt happily to living with cats and can be found happily curled up on the sofa with them in many adoptive homes!

Other animals too need to be considered. Although rescue dogs are usually neutered as a part of the rescue agreement, sometimes adult male dogs can have difficulty adjusting to accepting another male into the home. If you know your dog is a dominant character, try to adopt only spayed females, (galgas), to avoid potential problems.

Neutering

Almost all rescue organisations will ask that the galgo or galga you adopt be neutered if it has not already been done prior to the adoption. There is a reason for this, and a very good one too. The problem in Spain that causes these poor dogs to be so abused and abandoned is caused by over population, over breeding. certain areas of Spain are literally so full of galgos that there is no chance of homes for them, hence so many end up wandering the streets, being dumped in shelters and dog pounds or even worse, ending up in the hands of the galguerros( hunters), or the gipsies. These people allow them to breed unchecked, pick what they want and treat the rest as truly disposable. Spain has this problem and we see the terrible consequences of it every day. When we bring galgos out to France we do not want to create the same problem, and this is why we insist that all galgos are neutered. It isn't that you, as an individual, are not trusted, just that a sensible policy has been adopted to try to pre-empt any problems and it must be enforced. If an exception is made for one, it will become the norm, with foreseeable difficulties in the future. Neutering does not harm the animals, not make them unhappy. In fact, it tends to preclude the possibility of the development of various cancers in later life, and removes the angst sometimes associated with the desire to find a mate, resulting in greater contentment.

Fees

The fees requested for the adoption of a galgo or podenco are another area that can cause discontent among would be adopters. People may feel, quite justifiably at first, that they are offering to take in an animal who is unwanted who needs a home, who may have problems, medical or psychological, and feel a little 'miffed' that they are also asked to pay a fairly large sum of money.

There are several reasons for the fees that are charged for an adoption. The first is to cover costs. Until you have worked in the rescue system, you can have no real idea of the massive costs that are incurred in each rescue. Firstly, it may be that a straying and possibly injured dog has to be caught, and this can take several people days of effort. The shelter then has to take over, paying for medical treatment, housing, neutering, micro- chipping, passporting, collars, leads, and eventual transport to the border of France for a hand over to a French rescue team. By now they have probably spent in the region of 200 Euros. Possibly a lot more. The French team then take over, transporting the dogs all over France to foster or adoption homes. Those in foster care still need to be fed, treated, housed, socialised etc. It all takes time and money. Adverts need to be placed to seek homes, and publicity materials need to be created to raise awareness of the problem. By now, I hope you can see, a fee of around 250.00 Euros is more than justified....and if by some miracle there is any left over on your particular adoption, there will be another needy galgo waiting in Spain, perhaps with a noose already tightening around his neck , who could perhaps be saved with that bit of extra cash.

Bonds

A quick word here about the payment of a bond, required by some organisations to be submitted in the case of the adoption of a puppy, a sick or badly injured galgo, or a dog who for some reason is unable to be neutered before the adoption. All that is required here is a cheque of perhaps 500 Euros, which is NOT CASHED but held until you submit the vets certificate to state that the neutering has been carried out. This may be alien to British minds, but it is a common practice in France, and is nothing to worry about as long as the organisation you are using is a bona fide charity such as L'Europe des Levriers or Amigos de Los Galgos. The cheque is returned to you untouched after the neutering.

Questionnaires and visits

You will almost certainly be asked to complete questionnaires about your home circumstances, you life style, your other animals, your family etc. Pleas don't consider this intrusive...the organisations who ask for this are just doing their job to ensure that the rescued galgo is not being taken from the frying pan and thrown into the fire. Equally, if someone comes to visit you, please don't feel insulted. It is standard practice. They want to be sure that you know what you are taking on, that you have a securely fenced garden (galgos do like to run, and are not the sort of dogs you can let out onto an unguarded doorstep each morning !)Remember too that the person who visits you, or who asks the questions, has a common cause...namely the well-being of this beautiful breed of dog we know as a galgo.

Is adoption still for you?

I do hope so. There are so many of these beautiful, gentle and loving dogs being terrorised and killed in Spain, they need all the love they can get. They give it back, in spades. I promise.

Smile, you're in Spain

Smile you're in Spain

by Joanna W Simm

Some months ago there was a widely broadcast campaign to encourage people to take holidays in Spain. The campaign slogan ran; 'Smile, you're in Spain', and showed pictures of happy couples on the golden beaches, splashing in the sea, drinking sangria under a canopy of stars. Paradise on earth.

Now consider another Spain, a Spain epitomised not by a smile, but by a grimace of purest agony on the face of an innocent galga, a female Spanish greyhound in Albacete.

Look at the pictures, if you can bear to do so. They dropped into my inbox this morning, as these things are wont to do. They're out there on the internet, along with hundreds of other disturbing images of the extreme cruelty that is inflicted on the galgos of Spain. Someone poured petrol over this galga and set her alight. Why? Who knows. If you are a Spanish hunter, you may choose to do this to the dog of a rival hunter, if it happens to be faster or better than yours. Or perhaps she is your dog, and has not hunted well today...possibly because you have failed to feed her for days to make her hungrier for the chase...or because she has been kept in such cramped, cold and dark conditions that she is almost incapable of movement. Of course, if you don't decide to burn her there are a million other inventive ways you can decide to get rid of her, or to teach her a lesson. You might punish a lack of speed by dragging her to her death behind a motor vehicle, break her legs so she cannot move then throw her into the road, or down a well...or take the time honoured way of disposing of a galgo and hang her from a tree. Don't forget to leave her back feet touching the ground, so she dies slowly. You call this 'playing the piano',after the frantic movements of the dog's hind legs as it battles to save itself. Smile, you're in Spain.

Thousands of galgos suffer and die like this every year in Spain. Although the Spanish cities and coastal resorts appear sophisticated and carefree, there is a dark underbelly to Spain that the tourist authorities would not have you see. You may have heard the stories of donkeys thrown from cliff tops, and no doubt you have heard of the favourite Spanish sport of bullfighting. You may not have heard of the treatment of the galgos, and it is understandable if you do not want to allow these terrible images into your consciousness, but if no one speaks out, if no one uncovers this arcane, inhumane world of suffering that the Spanish continue to impose on their animals, it will continue unabated.

The galgo, of all animals, seems to suffer the most. Very similar to an English greyhound, it is chosen by the hunters for its speed, and its quiet nature. It is this very gentleness that leads it to be subjected to this most awful abuse, as these poor creatures do not 'fight back' or 'defend'...they just accept. They are bred in massive numbers in Spain, with some galguerros (hunters) and gipsy encampments having hundreds of them, mainly fending for themselves, sometimes driven to killing and eating each other through starvation. The problem seems to be self perpetuating too, with the children, Spain's next generation, learning from their elders that the galgos are disposable tools, and not considered domestic animals. Just the other week there was a case where a passer by saw a group of children tormenting a galga. Forced to give birth to her puppies on the streets, as many are, this poor galga had to watch, helpless, as these children, some as young as 5 or 6, took her babies and put them in a box up a tree, out of her reach. She could hear their cries, though, and she became ever more frantic as she tried to climb the tree to reach them while the children laughed.

Smile, you're in Spain.

What can you do? Write to your Euro MP, put pressure on political figures to tell Spain we will not tolerate this behaviour in a civilised world. Boycott Spain. Take your holidays elsewhere, and tell the Spanish tourist authorities why. Refuse to buy Spanish produce. Spread the word.

There are practical ways that you can help the galgos too, should you so wish. There are many bodies who work to try to save them, to alleviate the suffering and to rescue and re home these dogs, which make wonderful, gentle pets. They all need help... financial of course, and in the form of gifts, coats to keep the dogs warm in the savage cold of the mountain winters, food, medicines and blankets. The rescued dogs need adoptive owners and foster carers. The shelters need security, because now it is the hunting season again the galguerros want to claim back the dogs that they abandoned in such numbers last year. Galgos who had seemed to have found a place of refuge are being stolen back, every night, from the shelters and taken back to a life of unimaginable horror.

For more information on how you can help, contact Nuria Blanco of Amigos de los Galgos, on levriers@levriers.net who speaks English, French and Spanish, or take a look at the English written website www.galgonews.com.

Smile, you're in Spain. Tell that to the galgos.

The lack of recent posts on this blog is down to our old friends, SFR telecommunications. Or lack of aforesaid telecommunications, which seems a more apt description. It is now some three weeks since we asked them to change their provision of phone and net to our new telephone number. The phone works, courtesy of line providers FT, but as yet; no net. This in spite of 10 phone calls, 5 shop visits and many prayers to all possible gods. Each time we speak to SFR they tell us something different. No one seems to know what is happening, and I am getting truly SICK of it. France is NOT a third world country, but right now Iam beginning to wonder...can it really be so difficult to change internet provision from one number to another for exisiting clients?
Anyway, end of rant for now. Next time I can get access to the net I will post again... but dont hold your breath! Oh, and still no joy with the problems of my daughters mobile either. (See earlier rant!)

A good summer holiday read

If you want a light, summer holiday read, and like detective tales with a bit of a twist and a dollop of fun, try this two for one bargain!

The Bashful Vampire Murder and the Comic Book Murders by Bob Frey

The two stories in this double book, The Bashful Vampire Murder and the Comic book Murders are thoroughly entertaining. Frey does a great job of grabbing the reader's attention and keeping it until the very last word. The stories, while dealing with murder most horrible, are also at times very funny, and Frey's wit and humour lift his writing to a level rarely found in detective novels. The murder stories themselves are also refreshingly different, dealing with, in the first tale, the popular subject of vampires, and in the second, with comic book heroes and villains.
The protagonist, Detective Frank Callahan is an intriguing and likable character. Unusually, perhaps, for the hero of a murder story, Frank is gay, which adds an interesting twist, although I would like to see a little more development of the character, his personal life with his partner and his history which would add more depth and increase the reader's involvement with the man behind the detective. That said, the character is well drawn as far as it goes, certainly enough to engage the reader and to enlist our empathy.
If you are looking for a really entertaining, light read for this summer holidays, this two for one package will make the ideal beach companion.

Review of Valhalla, young adult fiction by Jen Willis

Bewitching tale for young (and not so young) adults.

This one is seriously great fun!

Valhalla, by Jen Willis

In this hugely entertaining fantasy tale, Jen Willis presents a magical and bewitching brew of a well intentioned teenage witch; displaced Viking gods forced by loss of power to work in the human realm as strip club doormen and photocopier repair men; heroic gay biker gangs and an epic battle to save the world.

The novel is perfect for the young adult market, for those who grew up on the tales of Harry Potter and who are now hungry for something a little different, but equally compelling and magical. Ms Willis’s writing is exceptional, fluent and engaging, managing to weave a fantasy world that really fires the reader’s imagination and makes the impossible seem believable. A healthy dose of humour runs throughout the book, and this is never more successful than in the bizarre but brilliant concept of the great gods of Viking mythology sending text messages on their mobile phones, or the murderous Beserker warriors gaining strength to fight by devouring huge supplies of pizzas, cheesey puffs and burgers.

Beyond this, the author clearly knows her mythological stuff, and has created the story and its characters through meticulous research. Most impressive.

If there are young adults you want to treat to something special, give them a copy. Better still, whatever your age, treat yourself to one too. I haven’t had such fun reading for ages, and am still finding it hard to drag myself out of this magical world and back to the mundane one in which I live.

Washed away

Spring in the south of France is always unpredictable. One minute we can be sizzling in temperatures well into the thirties, as last week, the next bombarded with massive hailstones or thunderstorms of biblical proportions. Saturday night brought the latter, and with some pretty horrible consequences for some in this area. We were lucky, though we didn't know it at the time, the electricity went off for hours, and we had three rooms flooded to ankle deep...lots of hassle, but no lasting damage. Our poor neighbours, just half a kilometre up the lane, were not so lucky. The hills that surround this place channeled the rain down into a newly formed river that belted through their property, taking out their fences, car, newly installed fosse septique , newly planted garden and veggie plot and rising to knee height in their 'almost finished renovated' one storey house. Everything ruined. And the worst of all, they were three days away from signing off the project to qualify for full insurance cover.

Doesn't bear thinking about.

Chosen, by Jerry Ibbotson. Review.

Chosen, by Jerry Ibbotson, is simply one of the most compelling books I have read this year. When I first read the blurb, I wasn't sure it would be for me, but decided to give it a go, and I am so glad I did, because I have found a new author whose voice is definitely worth hearing.
I read the book on my computer in Kindle form (although it is also available in paperback)and I simply could not move away from my computer until I had devoured the last word. Ibbotson seamlessly weaves fantasy, spirituality, thrilling adventure and the mundane into a tale that takes the reader by the hand into a whole new world and refuses to let go. The writing style is fairly simplistic yet intelligent and vivid,the characters believable and the plot both complex and easy to follow, which is quite a feat! The moral/spiritual elements of the book are so well done that they are never 'in your face' or hard to swallow, and are uplifting in the manner of Richard Bach rather than pushing religion.The message that 'love conquers all' is the essence of the tale, but the tension is as gripping and the adventures are as exciting as in any thriller I have read.
I would like to echo the comments by other reviewers in that this book will not just appeal to fantasy fans, or fans of morality tales, or any single genre. Anyone who wants to read an utterly compelling novel will love Chosen.
I found myself thinking about the book long after finishing the final word, and, having read the taster chapters on his website of his new novel, The Veil, (http://www.jerryibbotson.co.uk/the-veil/)I will certainly be buying the next book by Mr. Ibbotson.