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- August 2001
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- Dogs Mutilated in Spain
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- The Netherlands
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- Greyhounds
In Nood
(distress) is a Dutch organization, which was created in 1999
to benefit the Greyhounds and Galgos in Spain when they retire
from racing or hunting and are no longer wanted by the industry
or the hunters. Our foundation is being run by volunteers and
has just recently welcomed it's 1000th member/supporter.
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- Greyhounds in
Nood (distress) has worked hard these past couple of years to
rescue these dogs in Spain and to give them a chance to live
their lives as loving pets in Holland We have rescued and placed
about 350 Greyhounds and Galgos in family homes in Holland where
they have become treasured by their owners. Nevertheless this
is a sorry number if we take into account the fact that in Spain
yearly thousands and thousands of dogs are abandoned or killed.
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- We became aware
of the situation that exists in Spain regarding its hunting Galgos
in 1999. It was appalling to read about these animals being hung
in olive groves, impaled, burned alive, thrown into wells, just
because hunting season was over and the culture allowed and encouraged
it. Then we began to receive the pictures, gruesome and pathetic.
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- We made contact
with those in Spain who struggle to help these dogs survive and
for the past couple of years much of our efforts have concentrated
on the Scooby Refuge in Medina del Campo. We have financially
supported the Scooby Refuge and we made generous donations to
be used to help build a new refuge in Medina del Campo, which
recently opened. Now, at least in Medina, there is a place for
the hunters to drop off their unwanted Galgos so they will not
hang them.
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- Still, the brutality
goes on around Spain. An additional problem is that the Galgo
in Spain isn't registered so anyone can breed them in huge numbers
and there is no law whatsoever to protect them.
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- We have now
decided to turn our attention to alerting the Spanish government
to the fact we are aware of the suffering and we are also aware
of the neglect by officials to prohibit the behavior because
we cannot year after year bring Spanish dogs to Holland or other
countries of Europe. That's why we started, on an European level,
an action, which resulted in almost a QUARTER OF A MILLION
- 250,000 - protest cards against the way the Spanish people
treat their dogs. Holland has produced about 30,000 signature
cards and Germany
(Greyhound Protection International) about 12,000 signature cards
which will be delivered to the round table conference in Barcelona
next Thursday by Esther van Leeuwen. (200,000 signatures from
Belgium (Greyhounds in Nood Belgium) will be delivered to the
Belgium Minister of Agriculture who is the recent President of
the Euro Parliament this month)
- Esther van Leeuwen
is a member of our foundation, who adopted two Spanish dogs and
who as a photographer does a lot of valuable work for us.
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- In Holland we
got a lot of media attention with our protest campaign and people
kept phoning us and asking for cards to be send to them, because
they were shocked about the Spanish indifference towards the
welfare of their animals. One article in a national newspaper
resulted in hundreds of telephone calls in 1 weekend.
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- Initially we
were planning to present all of the cards to the European Parliament
under the new presidency of a Spanish chairman in January 2002,
but after having heard of the tragedy in Tarragona we decided
that we couldn't wait. We heard by means of SOS Galgos that a
debate on the Catalan Animal Protect Laws was going to take place
in Barcelona and therefore decided to at least present the 42.000
Dutch + German cards to this round table meeting in the hope
that it helps to amend some laws to the benefit of all those
poor abused dogs in Spain.
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- With friendly
greetings,
- Jouetta van
der Ploeg
Secretary Greyhounds in Nood Nederland
Swammerdampad 61
2334 DA Leiden
jouetta.vanderploeg@wanadoo.nl
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- P.S. Just recently,
on the 3rd of October, we, Greyhounds in Nood Netherlands, have
given a presentation on behalf of the Greyhounds and Galgos in
Ireland and Spain, for the Eurogroup on Animal Welfare in Strasbourg.
In this presentation we drew, amongst others, attention to the
terrible conditions in which about 700 tot 750 racing Greyhounds
are forced to live in the Santa Coloma kennels near Barcelona.
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- Greyhounds in Need
Netherlands
- WARNING! Once
in this site, if you select the English page, it has 2 disturbing,
graphic photos of Greyhounds that were abused.
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