For Immediate Release:
March against cruelty to Spanish Greyhounds in Spain
SOS Galgos, together with Libera, SPCA International, French charity C.R.E.L. and Madrid-based charity Galgos sin Fronteras, will come together in Barcelona on Saturday June 13th, to protest against the cruelty inflicted upon thousands of Spanish Greyhounds (a.k.a. galgo) every year when the hunting season comes to an end.
BARCELONA, SPAIN, June 5th - For the fourth consecutive year, under the motto of 'I am their voice', the charity SOS Galgos (www.sosgalgos.com) has called for a demonstration on June 13th in Barcelona, to denounce the cruel treatment this breed suffers at the end of the hunting season.
Along with SOS Galgos, several national and international charities such as Liberia, SPCA International (www.spcai.org), CREL and Galgos sin Fronteras will be joining in the protest. The march will set off from the Sancho of Avila funeral parlor to the main government office of Barcelona.
The route between these two points is symbolic of the agony that galgos endure and the outcry will be made by charities, adopters and animal advocates, demanding that the authorities take measures to put an end to this situation once and for all. SPCA International has collected over 70,000 signatures urging the Spanish government to take action.
Tens of thousands of Spanish Greyhounds are estimated to be abandoned and killed by hunters every year in Spain, making the galgo the most cruelly treated breed in the country. They are literally used as 'disposable tools' and then abandoned in vast numbers, mainly in February, which is when the hare coursing hunting season ends. This occurs mostly in the Andalucía, Extremadura, Castilla La Mancha and Castilla-Leon areas of Spain. The so-called 'galgueros' (hunters that practice hare-coursing with galgos) get rid of their galgos in the cruellest of ways: they are thrown down wells, burnt alive or hanged from trees in so-called 'death forests'. Thousands are also systematically put down in municipal dog pounds, which are always overwhelmed by the constant intake of galgos. It is common practice for 'galguero' owners to 'dump' their galgos at the pounds when no longer useful, a practice the authorities and most of society turn a blind eye to, mainly due to a lack of public awareness about the situation.
This extreme cruelty to galgos has been reported to the authorities many times and the charities involved in the march have repeatedly addressed the situations with government, offering proposals for specific measures to be enforced, but these proposals have remained in a state of 'limbo' without any kind of consideration on behalf of the government.
SOS Galgos (www.sosgalgos.com) was one of the first charities to be established in Spain to rescue and protect the galgo. Its main objectives are to rescue and rehome this gentle breed and work at legislative and educational level.
March in Barcelona: Saturday June 13th at 12 noon.
Meeting point: Tanatorio Sancho de Ávila, 20).
Itinerary: Av. Meridiana to calle Padilla, through the avenida Diagonal to calle Mallorca, 278.
More information on the Barcelona 2015 Demonstration can be found here:
SOS Galgos
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