A podenco called Lupi

This photograph is of Lupi, an adopted podenco from Spain, wearing the colours of her national flag. But Lupi was not wearing these colours with pride but in protest, marching with her fellow podencos, galgos and other dogs between the Spanish Embassy in London and Downing Street. A day to speak out in solidarity with the estimated 100,000 - 200,000 Spanish hunting dogs discarded as redundant tools every year. Just a few years ago Lupi was one of these, an abandoned young dog, reduced to a pile of bones just held together with skin, dodging traffic and scavenging for food, alone and terrified on the streets of Malaga. Lupi's story in Spain is one that is played out day in day out: a terrible still-invisible horror that we have to speak out against. Will you join us to call for change and a new compassionate Spain?

​

I have never heard the name podenco before

Most people have still not heard of podencos, but that is starting to change. What is not changing enough is their plight. We need to keep working together to stop the cruelty.

​

Think of Spain and you may think of warm people, a wonderful climate, fascinating cities, rugged landscapes, delicious food, great music and art. Visit briefly and that is just what you find. A special place many of us have affection for. Spend a little longer, visit the rural villages on the mainland, the Balearic or the Canary Islands, and start to notice a stray dog here or a run-over cat there, advertisements for a bull-fight, a dog chained up in the sun with no shelter and no water, a collapsed shed with lots of barking emerging from chinks in the door and little pink noses and amber eyes pushing through to you in hope and in despair. You have likely looked into the eyes of a podenco, or a galgo, the Spanish greyhound. And you have likely seen conditions that have shocked and severely saddened you. 

 

Of all the different hunting breeds of Spain - these include the galgos, setters, pointers, and others - the podencos are still the least known breed and yet are probably abandoned in the greatest numbers. It is hard to get accurate statistics on Spain's abandoned hounds as a lot of dogs are killed behind closed doors. Podenco Alliance is for all these dogs and more, but it is named for the huge-eared, noble, athletic, gentle, loving clowns of the hound world that most need their name to be known outside the hell for them that is Spain. 

 

What are people hunting in Spain? I didn't know about this

Hunting with dogs in Spain is a favourite pastime for predominantly male members of society in one of Europe's most rural and mountainous countries. Hunters are found in the highest positions in Spain and in the gatherings of men in bars in countless tiny village squares. You will see the metal signs designating increasingly large areas of countryside as hunting zones. There is a lot of money tied up in hunting.

The podencos and their fellow hunting breeds are used for hunting in packs for rabbit and wild boar or for hare-coursing. The hunting dogs are victims of over-breeding, neglect, cruel training techniques and a culture that sees them as throw away tools. Why maintain a dog after the short hunting season when new ones can easily be acquired? Excess or “failed” dogs end their lives in one of several terrible ways. 

​

If you are in rural Spain during the winter hunting months you will hear gunshot and drive behind trailers crammed with dogs going to a hunt. If you visit after the season you will keep coming across these dogs abandoned on the streets .

If you are unlucky you will see the corpses of dogs hung from olive trees or thrown down a well. But maybe if the dog is lucky you will find it before it has died from being knocked by a car and you will try to help it. If you have any heart for animals you will not fail to be horrified by what you see or what you learn about the treatment of hunting dogs in Spain, the scale of the suffering, as well as the suffering of countless other dogs of all breeds and mixed breeds dumped across the country. 

 

But there are many kind, animal-loving people in Spain!

Yes there are many loving dog owners in Spain. There are also many Spanish dog advocates giving more time and love to this cause than we can imagine. They visit the kill pounds to try and get the dogs out to safety, they start refuges alongside expatriate efforts to help, they work tirelessly to campaign for change on social media and in the press. But they are still working against a tide of widespread animal abuse that is hard to believe if you just visit Spain on holiday.

 

There are also hunters who care for their dogs and are angered at the bad name others give to their sport (whatever we may feel about such forms of sport). But as the numbers of hunting dogs found dumped or killed each week in Spain's pounds testify, these hunters are not the majority. And as such Spain's hunting dogs and Spain's animal advocates need all the help we can give as an international community.

 

Working together for the podencos and their friends

Together we must work to educate a new generation of Spanish children to show compassion for animals. We are campaigning for European legislation that does exist to be implemented and for the local authorities to be educated, empowered and obligated to take positive action for animals. And we must demand that Spain's most senior public servants listen to the increasingly loud voices of protest at the cruelty allowed to continue in their country. They must know that we will not sit by and witness such suffering, that we will not stop campaigning for change and  that we will help all the dogs we can until this cruelty stops.

 

​