PartnersWorking Together |
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Areas of Concern |
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PartnersWorking Together |
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Areas of Concern |
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This international conference will focus on welfare/adoption issues of racing greyhounds, glagos, lurchers, and all the 
crosses in-between. One focus will be that greyhound racing has dwindled in the US (especially in New England) also in Spain, and is waning in the UK. Subsequently, there appears to be a trend of greyhound racing moving to countries without animal welfare regulations with greyhound racing promoters now looking to places like St. Kitts, Latin America, South Africa, The Philippines and other countries in the Far East as markets for greyhounds.
The weekend affair will review current welfare issues while featuring various speakers covering topics from the Scooby Refuge to the fight of greyhound crosses to the incidence of bone cancer in racing greyhounds. Each presenter will speak for approximately one hour. Lunch will be provided during an afternoon break.
“With the changing face of greyhound racing around the United States, we are hopeful this event will help to raise the knowledge and awareness of greyhound adoption welfare throughout the world.” --Louise Coleman, Executive Director of Greyhound Friends.
About The American European Greyhound Alliance, Inc.
The American European Greyhound Alliance, Inc. (AEGA) is a non-profit corporation dedicated solely to the welfare of Greyhounds in the United States and abroad. The American-European Greyhound Alliance, Inc. accomplishes its mission through active and on-going; monitoring of existing and proposed racing venues, liaising with racing industry and adoption groups, providing an effective source of collection and dissemination of accurate information, and education to the public. As a U.S. charity, AEGA makes it possible for Americans to make tax deductible donations in the U.S. and abroad. For more information about AEGA, visit http://www.ameurogreyhoundalliance.org.
About Greyhound Friends, Inc.
Greyhound Friends Inc. of Hopkinton, Massachusetts is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the plight of racing greyhounds and finding them loving, responsible homes. Since its inception in 1983, Greyhound Friends has found homes for thousands of dogs and readied them for adoption. To learn more information about Greyhound Friends, visit www.greyhound.org.
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Co-Sponsored by: |
Greyhound Friends (www.greyhound.org) American-European Greyhound Alliance (www.ameurogreyhoundalliance.org). |
Benefactors: |
This event is being funded by individuals interested in greyhound welfare around the world and by a generous donation from the Animal Rescue League of Boston | |
Time: |
Saturday, August 1 at 10:00a.m. - 4:00p.m. and Sunday, August 2 at 1:00p.m. |
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Location: |
Greyhound Friends, Inc., 167 Saddle Hill Road, Hopkinton, Massachusetts. 01748 | |
Admission: |
Free and open to the public. Donations are greatly appreciated. | |
Contact: |
Louise Coleman, info@ameurogreyhoundalliance.org. (508) 435-5969 office: (617) 817-6706 cell Meghan O’Neal, meghan@callananklein.com |
2009 U.S. Conference |
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From the left, Spanish Consul for Boston Carlos Robles; Fermin Perez of Scooby Refuse of Medina Del Campo, Spain; Dr. Guillermo Couto of Ohio State University; Anna Clements, a director of SOS-Galgos in Barcelona, and Albert Sorde, a Barcelona-based veterinarian and a director of SOS Galgos. |
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The weekend of August 31, 2008, a date that won’t be easily forgotten in the history of Scooby. Our first international event, held in Vlamertinge, Belgium, was a central meeting point for the members of Scooby, our partner organizations and our supporters. The weather gods really must like Galgos, because we can call it a miracle that summer appeared that weekend after a long period of rain, and 15 minutes after we left Vlamertinge to go back to our hotel it started raining again. In between we had two wonderful days with sun and a comfortable temperature for a partly outdoors event.
It all started on Saturday, at the hotel that was booked for most of the Scooby members and partner organizations. As the day went on our group became more and more a blended mix of nationalities. People arrived from everywhere; travelling either by car, train, ferry, metro or plane. And the cream on the cake was the arrival of María and Edu with the transport van with Fermín and Mabel as mental support. They arrived after a tour that began in Spain through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, back through Belgium with final destination of Lille in France, just across the Belgian border and not far from Vlamertinge where the event was being held. Some huge traffic jams had caused an enormous delay for the transport that was planned the same weekend. Fermín and Mabel, who left Medina 6 hours later, caught them on their way to Belgium. The decided to caravan with Maria and Edu and finally arrived in Lille after driving 24 of 30 hours,
After everyone finally arrived, it was time to create an impressive caravan of cars, looking for a restaurant that allowed dogs. With our French Aline and our Canadian Eva as fantastic guides, we arrived 45 minutes later at the place that was just 2 kilometres away from our hotel, so we were all very grateful to them for showing us around the local surroundings. Nevertheless this didn’t break our moral and it was a very joyful evening.
The next morning the alarm bell was showing no mercy, and after breakfast we arrived at 9:30 in Vlamertinge to join our friend the Tornados to prepare the special day where it was all about, the celebration of the 20th anniversary. Maria Daines and Paul Killington performed a minimal sound check because everything was perfectly prepared, just as everything else was. Soon everyone was prepared for the start of the event, meanwhile our friends from the other organizations, who departed from home very early in the morning, arrived. And as said before, the weather was perfect; the information and merchandise stalls were placed outside in front of the event complex. Inside were hundreds of tables and chairs for the lunch buffet, the stage for speeches and the performance, and everything else that was included in this event.
Right after everyone was welcomed by Marlies from the Tornados and Fermín, the event started off with the lunch buffet, the dog walk and last but not least the stunning performance by Maria and Paul. Maria sang her moving songs with so much emotion that it didn’t take much imagination to understand why she was wearing sun glasses, and soon many people in the audience wished they had followed her example. Between all the festivities it was good to be reminded of the reasons why Scooby exists, so many thanks to Maria and Paul for raising awareness. Speaking of which, it was a bit of a disappointment to realize that Mr. David Hammerstein, member of the European Parliament, didn’t appear. After we had been in contact with him, he showed enthusiasm and told us that he would accept our invitation to join our event and help us raise awareness for the problems with Galgos in Spain. We expected the worst, after we were not able to reach him to get a confirmation, but were still hopeful that he would have kept his promise. It seems that Galgos are still not high on his priority list, but we will keep fighting until we are heard and the problems are taken seriously.
However it didn’t spoil the party at all. The people enjoyed themselves, for us, Scooby and our partner organizations, it was fantastic to meet our supporters and each other. It was great to see so many adopted dogs, coming from all over Europe to our anniversary. And thanks to all, the Tornados donated a check for 2,200 Euros. Our own Scooby shop, our partner organizations and even some very kind supporters sold all sorts of things, even marmalade; that resulted in a total amount of over 5,000 Euros. But above all, this event made us realize how many people care, an gave us an indescribable boost for our moral.
Greyhound Planet is a time chosen each September to honor the greyhound and its relatives (galgos, lurchers, etc.) throughout the world. The purpose of this international event is to raise the public's awareness of the wonder and magic of greyhounds as pets, educate others on the current status of greyhounds around the world and to honor those greyhounds who have left us already. The American-European Greyhound Alliance served as an information source for individual groups around the world as they plan their greyhound awareness events.
Hundreds of greyhound groups all over the world joined in celebration of GREYHOUND PLANET WEEK! Many adopted Greyhounds were present at this local event and those interested in adopting were welcome to attend to learn more about this unique breed. This is a Greyhounds only event. Attendees were encouraged to bring new or gently used dog collars, leashes, harnesses, coats and non-liquid first aid supplies, for a collection to be donated to "Scooby", the largest Galgo kennel near Madrid, Spain. The Scooby shelter provides thousands of dogs with medical treatment and refuge as they wait for adoption.
This event has grown so large from the first year in 2002 that we had to expand it. It started out with a one day celebration, and now its been expanded to eight days all over the world! It is the only breed specific event that PETCO and the PETCO Foundation support through an in-store fundraiser in all PETCO stores nationwide to help greyhound adoption groups in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are raised each year to benefit greyhound adoption groups through PETCO and the PETCO Foundation's GREYHOUND PLANET WEEK fundraiser.
Gathering in large numbers in public is the best way to get everyone's attention so let's all join together this year and every year and celebrate the most wonderful, incredible companions on earth - the Greyhounds!