Compassion News

Barcelona greyhounds: disturbing news

The manager of the racing kennels has told us that our help is not required any more (please see news item of 13 March).  This is very strange because when we collected 100 greyhounds last Saturday, he was very amenable to continuing his collaboration with us.  We suspect something underhand here for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, we were warned off on the night before last Saturday's rescue by the head of the Spanish Galgo Federation (similar role to the Irish Coursing Club in the greyhound world).  Each welfare group in the rescue team received a personal email from him advising us not to support the rescue.  Of course we ignored the email and even the racetrack manager did not follow this instruction.  Secondly, there was a meeting of the local authorities and the racing officials in Barcelona last week and the message resulting from that meeting has been to say that 95 greyhounds left the kennels between last Sunday and Wednesday, 90 are "earmarked" for different groups and the remainder will be rehomed by local organisations in Barcelona.
 
Of course we have asked questions of the authorities but they are telling us the information is confidential.  We will try to find out what has happened to all of these poor dogs.
 
This is very sad.  We had plans to take the remaining greyhounds to the boarding kennels in Laguna, near Medina del Campo.  This had become known as the "Laguna Project" and within a few days of sending out the appeal, we had received enough pledges to accommodate 100 greyhounds for one year (if necessary) with more in the pipeline.  Now that the racetrack has decided not to work with us, we are shelving the project.  We are grateful to all of those who offered financial and practical support. However, please do not send us your pledges.  We have received 3 donations already and will be returning these.
 
Should the situation change, we will post a news item here.
 
On a more positive note, the 100 greyhounds we transported from Barcelona to Scooby last week are doing well, enjoying space and freedom having left behind their 1 metre square boxes and hardly seeing the light of day.  We are now working on getting veterinary support to start neutering them.
 
Thank you once again to everyone who jumped immediately to the aid of these greyhounds.  It is greatly appreciated. 

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