This is a story which exposes the dangers of taking a dog from a perrera; why you should not give in to emotional blackmail and cries of 'this dog will die'. It emphasises why you should always adopt a dog from a recognised established rescue association.
At the beginning of the year a few people formed a group to help the podencos of Gran Canaria. It is almost impossible to rehome a podenco in the Canary Islands, their only chance of a forever home is on mainland Europe or the US. Whilst meaning well and having very caring hearts, time has shown that these generous hearted people have made mistakes. This story is just one.
This podenca is Summer, who arrived in the UK on 14th November in a state and very unwell. Scabies was diagnosed by the vet, scrapings were then taken to verify this, and came back positive. Her fleas were treated and her adopter has been massaging her with coconut oil. Since starting her treatment her skin has really improved and all her sores have healed well.
The first error was removing Summer from Gran Canaria. The vet there had diagnosed her as suffering from Filaria - which is a heartworm disease. Dogs with this condition should be kept in quiet environments during strong treatment. If the dog is transported, it stimulates the worms to move towards the heart and eventually kill it! Once this condition was discovered, Summer was put on medication which was ineffective and she now needs a Scan to assess the damage so far and decide on medication.
Summer is also to have xrays taken of her front and hind legs. These xrays were supposed to have been done in Gran Canaria before she left, but despite numerous requests for these xrays to be provided, they have not materialised. Summer is using the front leg a bit more now, but cannot really weight bear on it and it appears to still be painful. Her hind leg has a large scar on it, her vet has said this is a surgical scar (her adopter was not informed of this), and it is causing Summer a lot of discomfort.
A further worrying factor in this sad scenario is that to date her adopter has received no backup nor assistance from the group who brought the dog out of Gran Canaria to the UK. This is a danger when taking a dog from a fledgling group.
Add to this another Gran Canaria podenco died 3 weeks after arriving in the UK - he also had heartworm.
The photo above is Summer 6 weeks on after her treatment for Scabies. If your dog was delivered by Stefan Moverley on the same transport please check as scabies is highly contagious and there were actually 2 dogs on that delivery with scabies.
Luckily Ibizan Hound Rescue stepped in with backup and support the treatment Summer needs.
You may remember early this year Podencoworld worked with a team in Tenerife to treat 78 podencos all suffering in various stages from filaria. Thanks to generous supporters, the treatment of all dogs was completed and eventually, when they tested clear of filaria, they were transported to Europe and forever homes.
Filaria is a killer disease, sadly the best interests of the Gran Canaria podencos are not being attended to.
Is it not illegal to bring sick and highly infectious dogs into the UK? If it isn't it certainly should be. This gives other rescues/shelters who do things by the book a bad name. These rescues/shelters work so hard to ensure the dogs are Vet checked and transported properly and it is very irresponsible that someone is doing this, albeit with good intentions, thereby ruining the reputations of good rescues/charities/shelters. It is already controversial to bring dogs from abroad into the UK due to diseases that could be brought in and dogs needing homes in the UK, so something like this happening adds fuel to the flames. I have dogs from abroad so I'm not criticising people who adopt from abroad, it just needs to be a thorough and professional process. Would time and money not be better spent supporting the established rescues/shelters/charities in Spain who desperately need support, as do the dogs residing in them?
Posted by: Kathryn | 23 December 2016 at 10:23 AM