Last week and in January we travelled home from Spain via Malaga airport. Both times we were surprised to see a number of greyhounds being crated ready for transport to Belgium. This time we stopped to speak to the man who was with them (he was English) and he explained to us that the dogs were on their way to their new homes in Belgium. Apparently thousands of these Greyhounds are abandoned every year in Spain when they are no longer any use for hunting. A couple of the dogs had healing sores on their bodies but they were so friendly and trusting when we spoke to them and stroked them. The gentleman we spoke to said he had a number of them awaiting rescue at home and his neighbour had 80 :-O .

What is it about these wonderful dogs that make people treat them so cruelly both here, Ireland and apparently in Spain too? I was horrified to see some of the thing done to them when I did a quick web search. If I could have another dog at the moment I would offer one a home in a minute.

I had never heard of the situation in Spain although I know we have a huge problem here with ex-racing greyhounds and I just wondered if anyone on here knew about this.

I've heard that the racing greyhound situation in Spain is far worse than ours, and there are several unspeakably horrible ways that the poor things are destroyed when they can't squeeze even one more race out of them. :-(

You have to remember that Spain does not treat their animals, dogs etc like we do here.  They are improving slowly and it will take time. 

"what is it about these wonderful dogs that makes people treat them so cruelly?

They are commodities no more no less.:(

The plight of the Spanish Galgos and racing Greyhounds bred in or imported into Spain is truly horrific, dogs are shipped over in huge numbers from the UK and Ireland to race on unregulated tracks all over Spain... Barcelona for one receives thousands of Greys every year and once they're done with many of them meet the most dreadful ends. Have a look at sites like http://www.galgorescue.org  http://www.sosgalgos.com or http://www.greyhoundsinneed.co.uk for more info and ways in which you can help too.

Thanks for those sites Working Cockers. It is horrible what they do to these poor dogs.

I know that Spain is a different country and don't treat their animals like we would like them to be treated here but hopefully some education will help Perrodeagua. Lets face it, some folk here aren't much better at treating their pets well - look at out own problems with racing greyhounds. I just didn't realise how many of them were in Spain and the treatment some of them were dealt.

As Izzy bear says they are treated as commodities not as animals and once they outlive their usefulness then ...

However thats no excuse for downright cruelty IMHO

A friend of mine does Saturdays at a rescue centre in Costa Del Sol. She says a lot of the dogs there are greyhounds (she'd like to adopt one I think). She said there's a lot more strays in Spain too. :-(

There's a tiny island off the coast of Madeira (Porto Santo) that has a similar problem.  I was there a few years ago & if I'd have had the £, would have brought back at least one I befriended, the hotel I stayed in used to feed her scraps & practically begged guests to re-home a dog if they could afford to.  MAJOR problem.  Broke my heart to leave her there.