Podenco Post

From Pyramid to Perrera - The Story of the Podenco

From Pyramid to Perrera - The Story of the Podenco. Get a taster here.

Thanks to Beverley Farmer of Podenco Friends for the beautiful portrait of Jazz adorning the front cover.

Available now only as an ebook, click on this link.

Unfortunately all print copies in English and French are sold out. Because of the nature of some of the pictures, I was unable to get sponsorship to pay for the printing, so I paid for it myself. As all sale proceeds are donated to appeals for help with vet fees etc to podenco rescues, the capital was not replaced and I therefore cannot afford to pay for another print run.

If anyone can obtain sponsorship for me for this important book on the Podenco, please email me.

Marching in Germany for the galgos and podencos

Last weekend in both Leipzig and Mainz in Germany hundreds of people and dogs were marching to ban hunting with galgos and podencos in Spain.

URGENT - protect the dogs of Los Infiernos Protectora, Lorca - send a letter now!

This is tragic. Please send an email even if you aren't an animal person. Read to the end for the email addresses.

I've asked for a Spanish translation and as soon as it is available I will publish here. Maybe best to write in Spanish.

From Los Infiernos Protectora Supporters
·
Dear Lorca Town Hall ( Ayuntamiento de Lorca )

I am one of the volunteers at Los Infiernos Protectora and have been volunteering with the dogs there for eight years now, not as long as some people, but it’s been a while. I’ve seen volunteers come and go. It happens, it’s not for everyone. I can honestly say, the volunteer group we have now is the very best team we have ever had. We have people working so hard in the background, it’s not all about showing up and walking the dogs and feeding the cats, although we are very good and dedicated in doing that.

100s of rescue podencos need homes - have you room for one?

List of podenco rehoming associations

Protectora Scooby - summer newsletter - CMA UK look at extortionate vet costs

From Fermin

'We participated in an on-line meeting of the UK All All-party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group about foreign dog
adoptions a few years ago. For us one of the vets hit the nail on the head in the discussion. She rightly said adopters adopt with the best intention. They want a pet dog, not a project. And this makes total sense. It is a challenge in a refuge environment to discern completely accurately how shelter behaviour translates into a home but that is our aim: To present families with adoptable companions, rewarding for them and the dog, with appropriate rescue back-up.

Talking to our network, it seems that costs have a role to play. We don’t actually fully cover our costs when asking for an adoption fee to support our work. If we reflected the actual expense, we would home very few dogs and cats. We try to keep the costs to a minimum.

Gabapentin for Dogs - what you should know

Read the full article on this weblink.

Protectora Scooby - summer newsletter - Animal Rescue Transitions To ‘Bureaucrazy’

Fermin writes.

As many of you know, the Scooby shelter grew organically from doing the best we could with limited resources and still
making tangible improvements for our rescued animals, nursing them back from the brink to overcome sickness and
adversity to become dogs and cats well enough to go to loving adoption families. Yes we had tragedies but our small team
shared the work and helped the animals to a better life. I still remember a volunteer vet from Scotland, in the twilight of his
career, telling me to welcome volunteer vets but crucially to make sure they had solid experience because in a ‘field’
medical setting, she said we’d need people who were skilled to work with what’s available, rather than the early career medical professionals who would not yet be ready to work in a situation needing ingenuity and technical resourcefulness. I still remember this vet stitching by candlelight when we were blighted with power cuts.

Protectora Scooby - summer newsletter - Dogs bred for fighting

Dogs Bred For Fighting - The Tragedy

It pains me every day when I Iook at our incarcerated dogs bred traditionally for fighting, the ‘dangerous’ dogs, the so-called ‘bullies’. There are no formally banned dog breeds in Spain. There are restrictions on owning some of these breed types in Spain (muzzles and on-leash in public places are mandatory). We have more than 60 of these dogs in the Scooby shelter, including around 9 Belgian Malinois who can be very dangerous in inexperienced hands. We cannot home these 60, even if there were a demand for them. We have investigated the possibility of transferring them to fit and proper owners in countries where they can be lawfully kept and exempt from euthanasia if they don't pose any risk to public safety.

However, this is a strategy thwarted with problems and risks, and would add to the rescue crisis overseas. This is not our intention. Under our animal laws here in Spain, we cannot consider a kind course of action for these dogs to find them peace because euthanasia of dogs without a veterinary second opinion is illegal. These dogs would not meet the permissible legislative standard.

Scratch pads for dogs

Read the article on this weblink.

Protectora Scooby - summer newsletter - Declining Adoptions, Rescues & Donations

From Fermin.

'We collaborate with 10 - 15 partners internationally who help us fromtime to time to home our rescued dogs and cats in their countries. This is much needed because it is impossible for us to home dogs and cats in significant number in Spain. Shelters like ours cannot operate without international adoptions.

We, like our adoption artners and fellow shelters around the globe, are witnessing a decline in home offers. We have noticed this trend over the years since 2019/20 and attributed it to the many pets homed during the COVID period. But it is a continuing trajectory and we suspect there may be more to it than a simple glut. It is now so acute that we cannot rescue as many dogs and cats as in prior years or indeed those now in adversity because our refuge is at capacity. It is simple if we don’t move dogs and cats to families, we will not have accommodation space for those in need of rescue.

All about Canicross with your hound

Canicross is becoming a very popular sport between owner and hound.

Read all about it in this article.