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Spanish Greyhounds Tortured to Death
Posted by wizeGurl
(10872 views)      [E-Mail link]
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[Mean People]
[Pets] |
Y'know, some people do weird things with their animals. They like to dress up squirrels in little outfits, or marry a dolphin. You think, "These people are nuts."
Then you find out what owners of Spanish greyhounds do to the dogs that "humiliate" them by hunting badly, and you wish to God that all these guys did was dress their dogs up in funny outfits or marry them. Fill the world with squirrel-dressers and dolphin-brides, if we can just be rid of these other so-called people. |
Animal-rights campaigners estimate that 50,000 greyhounds are killed by their owners in Spain each year after they grow too old, or turn out to be too slow to hunt with.
Hanging is just one of the methods used. Dogs have been found thrown into wells, burnt alive, injected with bleach, and burned with battery acid.
But what happened to a dog named Rey--and many others who were not as lucky as Rey--offers some dogs an even worse ending. The noose around his neck had been set at a height so that his front paws could not touch the ground, meaning that he was intended to stand on his back legs until he was too tired to support himself. When his legs finally buckled, the noose should have done its work.
'They call it the typewriting death, because the dog's back legs scrabble against the ground and make the clicking sound of a typewriter,' said Albert Sorde, of the SOS Galgos greyhound rescue group. 'It is a punishment they save for greyhounds that are deemed to have humiliated or embarrassed their owners.
Somehow Rey had managed to struggle free from the rope strung around his neck, after being left to die a slow death by strangulation as punishment for being a bad doggie. Rey, who had a life-saving operation on his neck and throat wounds last week, was lucky.
Spain's reputation for cruelty to animals led the government to introduce a law banning mistreatment of pets last year. Fighting bulls and farm animals were excluded from the law but it is still unclear whether hunting greyhounds count. 'They are dogs so they should be considered as pets,' said Sorde of SOS Galgos, an organization that rescues these dogs.
The first two cases of cruelty to greyhounds are currently going through the Spanish courts, but verdicts have still to be reached.
There are signs, however, that Spaniards are no longer willing to tolerate the cruel deaths suffered by greyhounds. Last week protesters delivered a petition signed by 50,000 people to the environment ministry in Madrid demanding that the practice be outlawed. Measures being demanded include the registering of ownership of each dog, and the implantation of identity chips so that any animal found abandoned or killed can be identified and the owner contacted.
Ministry officials showed their support but, under Spain's system of devolved powers, it is regional governments and town halls that must enforce the law.
'Unfortunately, on a local level, the politicians are sometimes the same people who hunt with the dogs,' said Sorde.
Popular outrage, however, continues to grow. 'Ordinary people are beginning to react,' says Sorde. 'We have heard cases of hunters out with greyhounds who are being confronted by people shouting "murderers".'
That does not mean, however, that the killings have stopped. Every hunting season the hunters - some of whom breed dozens of dogs a year - choose which greyhounds they want to get rid of. That is the moment campaigners fear most. 'The worst thing is when we find several dogs hung together in clumps of pine trees,' said Sorde. |
Get more info on the greyhounds, or do what you can to help. (Yes, it's in Spanish, but you can get to an English version if you poke around. You can even make a Paypal donation if you can manage the transaction in Spanish.) |
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Concerned human being
Posted by Merryl Goldman on 2012-12-02 11:35:40 | This boils my blood. You have no idea how angry I am at such
disgusting,macho treatment of these dogs.
I only wish these farmers/hunters a slow agonizing death. |
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