Valentina is the beautiful Spanish greyhound or ‘galgos’ featured in the video below. She is now finally safe after suffering extreme abuse and attempted murder by her former owner. When she was rescued, she was found with a broken nose and a rope around her neck from where her owner tried to hang her.
Thanks to the work of Asociacion Las Nieves, she is now in recovery. Alongside her rescued brothers and sisters, she has a second chance at a happy life and will finally know what love feels like.
“The dogs are my children and we work for the animals…for today and for tomorrow.” – Mari Carmen, Asociation Las Nieves
Mistreatment of greyhound dogs has always been a high-profile and deeply unsettling issue in the media. In some parts of the world, these gentle dogs are exploited for racing purposes, in others such as Spain – they are being exploited as hunting dogs.
Every year, 50,000 galgos are dumped or killed after the season is over. Typically, they are only used for one season, and if they hunt poorly they are tortured out of shame by their owners.
This grievous mistreatment is a traditional practice for many owners who believe that this torture washes away the dishonor of the dog’s poor performance. The grim reality is that these dogs are often burnt with acid, dragged behind cars, sacrificed to fighting dogs and skinned or buried alive.
Perhaps the most infamous form of torture is the “piano dance” which involves hanging a dog by its throat so it can barely touch the ground and slowly watch it strangle itself to death.
The dogs are starved before the hunt which makes them desperate for their prey. Good hunting dogs are rewarded with not being tortured, but are still chained and trapped in small, feces soiled cages or sent to municipal facilities where the dogs can be euthanized.
Breeders sell their dogs for as little as 10 euros and so between seasons, it is simply cheaper to buy a new galgos and kill the other one than it is to feed one during the off seasons.
Spanish laws class the galgos as working dogs which makes them exempt from the laws that are created to protect pets. This means that the galgos are seen as tools rather than animals.
The Spanish government acknowledges that the issue of galgos mistreatment is a concern, and laws were introduced in 2004 in an attempt to curb the issue, the issue is that the abusers are simply not prosecuted and thus the galgos never see true justice.
Authorities say that it is a difficult thing to regulate as most of the abuse takes place in private property and hunting groups and since 2007, access to these areas have been denied by forest rangers.
The current solutions to the issue are insufficient. Not enough is being done to see that the thousands of complaints made by various animal welfare groups are being addressed. The response from most officials is that little can be done to change these sadistic practices rooted in hundreds of years of hunting traditions.
Certainly, greyhound hunting doesn’t just take place in Spain – the practice is also seen in places like Portugal, Northern Ireland, and the UK, it’s just that the cruelest and most widespread abuses are carried out in Spain.
Galgos Ethique Europe is an association committed to fighting for better and stronger European protection for all greyhounds, particularly the Galgos and Podencos in Spain, and for the evolution of the European law for every animal. Find out more about the amazing work they do here, and consider donating to their incredibly worthy cause.
Alternately, you can sign this petition and put an end to this barbaric mistreatment.
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