Spain Still Torturing Dogs

Last July, I wrote about how Spain Makes US Greyhounds Feel Lucky. The Spanish galgo is a cousin of the greyhounds we have here in the US. They’re used for hunting and racing. The racing situation is hideous and the dogs are raced to death or near death, and then killed or abandoned (to starve to death), if they’re lucky. The unlucky ones, and the hunters, are hanged alive with rope or wire. Some are then set ablaze. Either way, their death is excruciatingly slow and painful.

In response to my post, people e-mailed me, basically calling me a liar. Please go to this slideshow of nearly 200 photos that are very, very disturbing. The photo here is the least disturbing one of the lot.

The kind people at l’Europe Des Levriers (and they have a section of their site for English visitors) sent me the slideshow and urged me to post it and have people sign the petition they’ve sponsored. As always, I caution that we don’t know how effective these petitions are, however because it takes just a moment to sign, we all may as well take that moment.

My tourist dollars and I won’t be going to Spain anytime soon. When I was in Barcelona several years ago, shortly after it deemed itself a bull-fighting-free city, there were bullfights every weekend and everyone I asked mentioned The C-Word and added that they would never give up their wonderful traditions.

Please, boycott greyhound racing all over the world, sign the petition, go to the website, watch the slideshow, and if your travel plans this summer include Spain, go elsewhere, and tell your travel agent, cruise company, or tour operator that you’re boycotting due to the treatment of galgos.