Dear friends,
We went on holiday for the first week of november and had a lovely time in Asturias and Galicia. We would like to thank Dini and Leon for home & dog sitting. All our dogs love them and they do an excellent job.

This month DIVA flew with Mr. Zellner. Sandra and Christian from Pension Grisette, came from Switzerland, stayed some days and took GEORGE with them. Thanks for the lovely moments we shared and for your constant support.

Alex Krupka also came to visit. He also stayed for some days and was going to take APOLO & DAKOTA back with him, but Brussels Airlines had overbooked the dog cages and APOLO had to stay behind. We will never fly with Brussels Airlies again. The customer service was appalling.

So, we are still looking for a flight for APOLO. He must fly Málaga-Hamburg. Flights with a stop in between are also an option.

We would like to thank Alex for his patience and for bringing many winter-coats for the dogs in Sevilla. Thank you too, to the people who donated the dog coats. Thanks to thsi human-chain all our galgos will be nice and cozy this winter.

On the 24th Marion Richter-Hotz (a good friend) and I (Yaiza) drove in 2 cars to Écija to pick the galgos up that we had left a month ago at the pet hotel. From there we went to Beas parents home where they will be staying until we can go to pick them up.

Leaving Málaga we found a podenco crossing the highway. We couldn’t stop as it was on the opposite side of our road. We kept driving and before reaching Écija we had to go through 3 villages and 3 olive-plantations. We saw 2 extremely undernourished galgos which we couldn’t rescue as they had panic to humans and as soon as they saw us stop the car they disappeared. Tears started to fall down our cheeks. We felt miserable, helpless and finally a huge amount of anger overtook us.

Going through the last village and passing the last olive-plantation we found 5 dead galgos on the road. They had all been driven over. Our heart was aching so bad… No one seemed to care. For them this is normal. For us it’s like going in hell for a day.

We finally arrived at the pet hotel in Écija, we paid the bill and as soon as the galgos saw us they jumped in our cars and we drove to La Puebla de Cazalla where we had to leave some of the galgos we had just picked up in Écija, and pick some galgos up that where waiting for us in La Puebla de Cazalla, which would come to Galgo Freedom.

Here you have a video where you can see how happy they are with Beas parents. Bea is our vet and her parents live in a large plot of land in the middle of the countryside where our galgos have a lot of space to run and are completely safe. At the beginning they were a foster family, but as more and more galgos were found, we decided to talk to them and agreed on the following conditions:

Galgo Freedom will pay the dog food and 100€/month/galgo and they are in charge of taking care of them and arrange vet visits with their daughter. Here our galgos are free, happy and well taken care of. They have all they need to start recovering.

Right now we are paying for 12 galgos and we have 9 dogs at Galgo Freedom.

ESTRELLA                                SAVANNAH

DANDY                                    LIVIA

                            ALFA

Dear friends,

First of all we would like to send an SOS as we are desperately looking for a flying-partner for DIVA. She needs to fly from Málaga to Frankfurt, Köln, München or Düsseldorf after the 13 the of November.

APOLO also needs a flying partner from Málaga to Hamburg and another flying-partner from Málaga to Zürich for 2 galgos after the 15th of November. Can you help us?

And now to our news:

At the end of september we received a phone call from the dog pound at La Puebla de Cazalla (Sevilla) to tell us that 3 new galgos had just come in: 2 males and 1 female.
The 2 males are waiting at a pet hotel for a free space at Galgo Freedom and BEAUTY has been adopted in France (below more info).

Some days after we took DIVA to the vet. She has a broken rib but it is an old fracture which healed in the wrong possition, so nothing can be done, but she can have a normal and good life without pain.

LUPITA and MARISA flew on the 4th of october to Düsseldorf with Vanesa Pérez Martín. Thanks so much. She had the courage to take 2 of our galgos plus another 5 dogs from other associations. Congratulations!

On the 6th of october we went with our vet to La Puebla de Cazalla and Ecija to pick up the 6 dogs that were waiting for us:

       TIGRE (mix), GINGER (mix), DAKOTA, BEAUTY, APOLO and RAYO.

 Here is a vídeo from the new dogs at Galgo Freedom.

Yaiza fell in love with SWING and has adopted him. His body is too short for his size, his jaw is crooked, he’s half deaf… but we love him!

DIVA has found a foster family through Far From Fear in Germany and its for her that we are looking for a flight from Málaga to Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Köln or München from the 13th of november.
Can you help?

 

A french family came to visit us and fell in love with BEAUTY.  We arranged a home-visit in France and their feed-back was excellent, so BEAUTY arrived in France on the 17th.
She lives like a queen in a home with a large garden and a St. Bernard as her 4-legged companion.

  

On the 11th family Tavernier came to visit us and it was great to share so many good moments and long walks with the dogs.
During this week, we had a few rainy days which helped clean the atmosphere and give the plants a break.
Our galgos are full of energy and totally recovered. They now need to find foster families!

TIGRE was adopted in Holland, but the home visit was not good, so he will stay with us until he finds the home he deserves. He’s a lovely boy, very obedient, friendly and has finally learned to play, loves his toys and living in a caring and loving atmosphere!

Nobody has shown any interest in GINGER. He’s such a good-natured dog, full of joy and energy and in need of so much love and attention.He would need a sportive family!

 

 

  

 

 

Dear friends,

8 new galgos arrived and as always they adapted very quickly, sleeping and eating a lot and playing and running like crazy!

Shakira flew to Hamburg where her adoptants, family Bückner were waiting for her. They are over the moon and so is Shakira. This is what they wrote about her:

“After waiting for quite some time, we could finally pick Shakira (now Nala) up at the airport and give her a big hug. In the beginning everything was very noisy and it was cold. At home we introduced her to our male dog and soon they became excellent friends. She still does not like rain and cold and when we put a coat on, she waits for “it” to fall off or runs home and lays on the sofa.
It took some time intil she figured out that this will be her forever home and now she loves being cuddled.”

Galán, Tiba and Romeo also found their forever homes.

This is what Romeos new owner says about him:

“Romeo lives now in the north of Germany. He already weights 23 kilos and is only 6 months old!
He lives with Juri and Luba (2 Borsois) and Moritz and Schokoline (2 cats):
He has only been here for 1 week, but it feels as if he had been here all his life.
Juri adores his new friend and they always stick together and Luba has a constant smile on her face and has become much more lively. Also the cats have accepted him and it’s a fantastic group.
Romeo has learned a lot and as he is very stable and confident he will soon be the “boss” of the group.
He’s highly intelligent and very, very affectionate. It’s an absolute delight to be with him.
His broken toe will probably heal in the wrong position, but it doesn’t hurt him or bother him in any way, so it’s ok.”

Then we had some weeks with no flights where we walked a lot with the dogs and pampered them as much as we could and got them all clinically ready. There was a lot of tooth cleaning!

Veronika Pausch decided to be a foster family for Panda and Talismán and they flew with Mrs. Thiel to Düsseldorf- Thanks for being our flight partner and taking 2 dogs with you!

Talismán was immediately adopted and a week later a family adopted his sister Panda. Thank you Veronika Pausch for driving 5 hours at night to pick them up!

Stephan flew to Switzerland  with Irene and Cornelia Mani. Thanks to both of them and to Sandra Scheidegger for giving us, once again, a helping hand.
This morning we were told that Stephan has been adopted and is living with his new family.
How wonderful!!!

Calipso flew to München with family Seidel and family Hauser are her fosterfamily.! Thanks for your great support.

Marion and Stephan Bendixen came for a visit in their mobile-home and as they were travelling around Sevilla, they picked up 2 of our galgos, Swing and Diva, and brought them to us. Both are quite skinny, but full of life and enjoy their new freedom a lot! We were sorry that Marion and Stephan could not stay longer, but they were in a hurry to move on!

Swing and Diva are enjoying their freedom at Galgo Freedom!

Video Swing & Lupita                                 Video Diva

We would like to publish an email from Regula Tavernier about Isha, her adopted galga:

“Isha is an easy-going galga, who gets on well with all our dogs and also with people. She is obedient and when she runs loose she always keeps an eye on us and comes back immediately when called.
She adapted very quickly and was accepted by our other 4 dogs. Zara sometimes growls at her, but Isha has realised that Zara is a grumpy lady and just ignores her!”

And last but not least, we would like to thank Alex and Bettina Krupka, for always collecting the dog transport boxes that arrive in Germany and sending them back to us through Transport Neumann. We want to wish you good luck and lots of “fun” now that you are moving to a new home.

Next month won’t be a boring one, as Lupita and Marisa will be leaving but apart from Diva and Swing, Lagartija and George, 6 new galgos will come to us.
They have been waiting in a kennel near Sevilla for us.

Yaiza, Karin and our long-nosed friends!

Dear friends,

It has been a very hot summer with more tourists than ever but now it’s getting calmer and life is back to normal!

Puma travelled by car with the Mani family to Switzerland and despite traffic-jams, she behaved and arrived well. Thank you very much for taking her with you!
Puma has already been reserved!

Merlin flew with the François family to Luxemburg. As he is deaf, new situations stress him a lot, but he did really well, was picked up at the airport by his new adoptant, Nina Hubert, and they are both really happy together. Merlin will always remain in our hearts!

And thank you Jacqueline François for being flight partner once again!

Galán flew with Scott Huston to Köln. Thank you Scoot for giving us once again a helping hand. Galán has gone to the same foster family where Bailey is, and they immediately recognised each other!

Romeo flew with Julia Müller to Zürich. Thanks a lot Julia.
That enourmous furry puppy has left a big empty space and we miss him! But we know he’s happy with Sandra in Hundepension Grisette.

Nete’s family came for a visit and it was great to spend some time with such an animal-loving family. Thanks Nete and Scott for your constant help and support.

We received a donation from the german association “Freunde von Galgo Freedom” and thanks to that we have been able to pay vet and food bills. Thank you Claudia.

We would also like to thank Veronika Pausch and her association ” Tierschutz in Mittelhessen e.V.” for their donation. It will help us pay the rest of the bills.

On the 30th of august we drove with Marion, a good friend, to La Puebla de Cazalla and sorted some things out like changing our foster home/quarenteen to a better and more spacios place where we think the dogs on our waiting list will be better.But the price is dobble as high and we hope to be able to cope with that.Any donations are very welcome!
We also brought 8 dogs back. Marion took 4 dogs in her car- thanks for your help,support and patience!

These “excursions” always leave us feeling depressed and sad. There is so much misery to be seen and animal protection does not work in Spain. There ae so many good people trying to help and fight for the welfare of the animals, but the institutions don’t help in any way and it is very frustrating. There is so little one can do… but we will keep on fighting in our own little way!

                                                                                    

Hello dear animal-lovers,

This month was once again packed with new experiences and there was a lot happening!
On the 12th of july, 3 new galgos came in (Dana, Adam and Shakira) and a mix-breed puppy called Puma. All of them are great dogs and have adapted very quickly.

On the 13th of july Yaiza drove down to the dentist and on her way back she found a skinny mom crossing the road. Her tits were touching the floor and she was starving. It was reasonably easy to catch her, but how could we find the pups? After feeding and washing her I took her back where I had found her and she started to show me the way to her pups. She took me to the different places where she would feed herself and after an hour of walking through a gully she took me to her 6 pups. She had been living with them in a tiny hole between two rocks. I found a box and put them all inside. Now I had to go back the same way I came. I was lucky and found a great short cut! I took them all back and they are all strong, healthy and gorgeous. Mama Fortuna does a great job feeding them and cleaning them. She has gained a lot of weight and is a very affectionate, intelligent and obedient girl!

     

      

He’s slowly gaining weight and strength and spends hours sleeping, eating and playing with Puma.

Video from Romeo and Puma.

Good morning!

As we wrote in our last newsletter, we collected 8 galgos from La Puebla de Cazalla and Brenes on the 27th of may: Chilly, Lilly, Lady, Ayuma, Merlin, Mirko, Tania y Amy.

Dolce and Leila are happy with their foster-family. Thank you very much Barbara and Holger for the video and for looking after them so well.

We also received a photo from Sandy enjoying her favourite sofa. She looks gorgeous!!!

PANDA                                           TALISMÁN

The next day Uschi and Barbara flew back to Germany and took Amy, our galgo puppy, with them. She is with a foster family from Far From Feara and we are thrilled to see how well she is doing. She is a smart, funny, well-behaved pup! Thanks to our flying partners.

Amy enjoying a round-trip around her new garden with her new friend.

On the 18th of june Tanja von Gunthen-Wallier  and her family came for a visit. Little 4 year old Mona loves dogs and Galán did not leave her for a second. They took Ayuma and Lady on their flight back to Switzerland and both are inPension Grisette. Thank you so much for your help and for sponsoring the 2 flights with Swiss.

On the 22nd we had a visit from Ireanah and Walter Staub-Haug and they had lunch with us. We had a great time! When we went to say good-bye they opened the car boot and took out some Bach remedies, a transport box, some vet medicine and a bunch of dog-treats! We are very thankful and so are our galgos!
They also sponsored the taxes of the dogs of our last 2 flights when entering  Switzerland and their porter service as in Zuerich they have changed the trolleys and the boxes dont fit anymore!On the 27th we took ALL our galgos loose for a walk and it was incredible how well they all behaved.
I probably enjoyed it as much as they did specially with Merlin, our deaf galgo, who would not leave me
for a minute!On the 29th  our gorgeous Tania flew with Familie Kaufmann to Switzerland. Thank you so much for being her flying-partner.And here is a video from Mirko. Yesterday we receied a great e-mail from Far From Fear: Mirko has a foster family and will be flying on the 14th of July!!!!And to finish off we would like to show you what “Galgo Freedom” means to us in these 3 videos:

Last but not least we would like to make a  “call-for-action” for the projectShades of Love. This project is dedicated to collect new and used sunglasses to later on distribute them to the most needed in the Himalayas and now in the Andes too. Click on the above link to see where thge nearest collection point is. If you are in the USA (usa@shadesoflove.org) or in the UK (united-kingdom@shadesoflove.org), please write them an e-mail to see where you have to send your glasses to.

Until next month and thanks for being there and supporting us.

Galgo Freedom collaborates with “Shades of Love“, collecting new and second-hand sunglasses.

Should you want to donate some sunglasses, please check the collection points here.

Good morning!

8 new galgos have arrived at Galgo Freedom and we have our hands full, so we will tell you what has been happening this month in chronological order.

On the 3rd of may a nightmare started. It would last a whole week. Karma, a hanged galgo was found alive by Elena. She was wandering around La Puebla de Cazalla. Her whole neck was a wound and she was skin and bones. Karma was immediately taken to a vet clinic, but her chances of survival were very low. To make things worse, she also was suffering from an endometritis, so it was very risky to operate her, but it had to be done, otherwise she would have died from the infection. She survived the operation and we thought the worst was over. For 5 more days she tried her best to survive. She was at one of the best vet hospitals in the area, but at the end, Karma decided to let go and died. We were all very sad and extremely upset. But as you know, life keeps going and we had other galgos that needed our help and support.

Video from Karma

One day later we found these 2 girls in a nearby village. They were totally exhausted from running after the car who had abandoned them and had driven away at full speed. Chilly & Lilly are now at Galgo Freedom and we are very happy to have them with us.

Video from Chilly & Lilly

On that same day Eyla and Suerte flew to their fosterfamilies in Germany. Thank you Far From Fear for helping us with Eyla, and thank you Claudia and Frank for being her fosterfamily. We know she will be loved and taken care of. Thank you Karin Wolany for fostering Suerte through Galgo Freedom. We would like to thank our flight partners, as without their help none of our galgos would ever get to their great homes.

On the 7th of may, Claudia Hertel, vicepresident of our partner-association “Freunde von Galgo Freedom” represented us at the Berlin Galgo March. The march wanted to raise public awareness of the situation of thousands of galgos that are mistreated and killed every year in Spain. Many people attended with their galgos. Thank you Claudia and friends for your support.

Video Galgo March

On that same day flew Elena & Esperanza to Berlin to their fosterfamily. We wanted them to be together so Franziska Alber and her family decided to foster them and the 2 old sisters will only leave Franzis home if they find a forever home where they will be adopted together.

On the 11th of may we received bad news:
Suerte had escaped in Germany. Her foster-mother was taking her for a walk when two 2 neraby started a fight. Suerte got scared, pulled hard on the lead and pushed her foster-mother over so that the poor lady landed on the florr and Suerte managed to escape. She didn’t even look back, just ran without knowing where to go. During the next few days many people saw her, but because she didn’t know them she didn’t get near. More than 10 people were trying to catch her, but no luck! She wandered for 5 days until she got hungry, managed to find her way home and got into the dog-trap that was set for her on the fosterfamilies garden. Suerte means “luck” in spanish and she was lucky 2: she managed to get back home and one of the volunteers who tried to catch her, fell in love with her and after going though the home-check and an interview with Suertes fosterfamily, she was happily adopted and is living a great life at Peggy-Bell.

On the 14th of may Yaiza visited Isha, Tiger and Apollo in Switzerland. She went to Tierpension Grisette where Sandra and her husband showed me their home and how they work. I had the chance to spend some time with “my galgos”. They do a great job… congratulations!

On the 16th Suerte went to her forever home and Amy, a baby-galgo was rescued. She’s now with us at Galgo Freedom. A white female and a grey male were brought to our foster-family in Brenes.

We also rescued Tania, a white galga and a grey galgo because they were “useless”.
A few days later Rumba was adopted in Switzerland and is very happy in her forever home. Thank you Pension Grisette for finding great homes to our rescues and thank you Linda, for having fostered Rumba.

Punto was visited in his foster-family by a man who was interested in adopting him. It was love at first sight, but the adoptant wanted to know him better to make sure it was going to be a good match. At the beginning of june, Punto will go to his forever home! Congratulations to both of you!

On the 19th we published Karmas vet bills. We needed to raise 570,83€. Thanks to our loyal donors we were able to pay the bills. Thanks you very much for your help. It makes our life so much easier!

Blanca flew on the 20th to Switzerland with Mr. Staub-Haug. Thank you so much for being a recurrent flight-partner.

On the 27th we picked 8 new galgos up from Brenes. We had to leave 5 galgos behind. We wil lbe picking them up in july. So in question of 1 day we had a total of 16 daogs at home!!! I’m sure you can imagine that we have had our hands full since then.

And just at the end of may, on the 29th at 23:00 Lydia found an 8 month old black male galgo. The poor boy wanted some love and immediately got close to Lydia when she called him. He’s been taken to our fosterfamily in Brenes.

In this newsletter we want to say a special “Thank You” to 3 very special people:
Thank you Uschi Koch for organising all the foster-families from Galgo Freedom in Germany, their foster-contracts, the adoption visits and contracts, the galgos flights, etc.
Thank you Claudia Hertel for being in charge of the paperwork needed to keep Freunde von Galgo Freedom alive and having organized the Berlin Galgo March .

And thank you Bienvenida for fostering our galgos when we find them in La Puebla de Cazalla. You never complain and never say “no” to an animal in need. Thank you too for caring for them and giving them all your love.

Good morning!

¡We are back!

A whole month has gone by and many things have happened.

At the beginning of april we received an order of 120 “polivalente” and 60 rabies vaccines. Without your help we could have never managed. This covers our vaccination needs for 1 year.

And thanks to a Swiss donation we had the possibility of buying 39 sacks of Dingo food for our galgos. We hope to have food until mid june… ¡Wishful thinking!

During this month TALÍA and CAMPEÓN left us. I (Yaiza) cried until she received this picture and the following message:

“Talia and Campeon just arrived safe and sound at home. The two were very calm when we picked them up and slept the entire ride home. They are absolutely gorgeous and in a stunningly good condition. I think they will quickly settle into their new lives at the foster home since they are so trusting and loving. We will find wonderful forever homes for them.”

Thank you Far From Fear!

LISA flew to her foster family and they all love her and she loves them all! We want to thank Barbara Raith for picking her up and taking her to family Mamelis home! Barbara is also the fosterfamily of LEILA and DOLCE!

PUNTO and BAILEY also took-off to their foster family. Thank you family Zimmermann for being their flying partner. We would also like to thank Cindy Stegmann for fostering them both. How lucky to be so relaxed!

SANDY is growing, learning and having a great time at her foster family!

SUERTE will be flying to München where her foster family will be waiting for her. Thank you Tatjana Gies for flying her over.
LISA, PUNTO, BAILEY, ELLA and SANDY are in foster families waiting for their forever families to come and adopt them. Thank you Uschi for organising these foster families.

GALÁN is still at Galgo Freedom and has changed dramatically. He has become a very gentle and relaxed dog. He seems to have a constant smile on his face! Loves to run free and it’s a pleasure to watch him enjoy life!

On the first week of may we will have a few airport runs to do:

SUERTE will fly with Tatjana Gies, EYLA with Melina Urban and ELENA & ESPERANZA with Banu Berkholz. SUERTE will be fostered by Karin Wolany, EYLA by Claudia and Frank Siegels and the inseparable sisters ELENA & ESPERANZA will be permanently fostered by Franziska Alber unless we find an adoptive family that will adopt them together. They have been living together for more than 8 years, it would be cruel to separate them now!

On the 13th of april Augusto and I, took off towards La Puebla de Cazalla and later on to Brenes picking these galgos up:

TIGER, APOLLO, BLANCA, MARY-JANE, a galgo mix that was hiding behind a rubbish-bin, ELENA & ESPERANZA, TIBA and EYLA, a granny that recently had given birth and was “useless” once she had weaned them.

We arrived at dusk. Thanks Augusto for being our vet, our galgo-chaffeur, my friend and rescue companion.

On the 15th Lydia finally managed to catch this white galga. She had been trying it for weeks and when she was starting to lose hope, she caiught her! Whilst our foster family is overbooked, she will stay at the dog pound. But, don’t worry.This pound does not kill animals so she is safe.

Sandra from Pension Grisette and her sister Linda arrived on the 18 of april. We had a good time together. We thank them for taking TIGER and APOLLO back. They will be staying with Sandra until she finds them the best home possible. From 25ºC they flew back to cold Switzerland at 0ºC… Thank God they all had thick and warm coats (galgos too) and are all well and enjoying life. Video

They brought donated leashes and martingale collars from NIFEU– Thank you very much, we had no more left.

14 transport boxes arrived from Hamburg and Lörrach. They will be transporting the next galgos that will be flying to their foster families.Inside one of the transport boxes was a cardboard box with donated blankets, collars, leashes, dog coats and treats for the dogs. We were all very happy! Thank you Nadine Partikel for fostering SANDY and also collecting these donations with your friends for us.

Thanks also to our neighbour, Danielle, for having made some lovely dog coats.

We are in desperate need for a flying partner that will take MARY-JANE from Málaga to Köln or Düsseldorf from the 16th of May. Could you please spread the word?

GALÁN and TIBA are still searching for a foster family or an adoptive family. Meanwhile they are enjoying their life at Galgo Freedom.

Around the 20th of may Augusto and I will be going again to Brenes to pick 7 more galgos up. For now we will only be leaving 2 galgos behind, which we will pick up in June.

Good morning to everyone!

March has been a very busy month. Our FaceBook followers already know what has been going on, but for those who don’t follow us via FaceBook, here are our monthly news.

We had a great start of the month. Cindy Stegmann decided to foster PUNTO and a few days later she decided to also foster BAILEY. They will fly together on the 8th of april. Thank you, Cindy, for your enormours help!

On the 9th TANGO flew to München with Mª Carmen Gil. Thank you very much for helping TANGO get to his new home.

On the 13th, Augusto (our vet) and Yaiza drove to La Puebla de Cazalla to pick LISA, PUNTO, BAILEY and GALÁN up. They had already spent a month at our foster family and it was time for them to come to us. Welcome to Galgo Freedom!

Some months ago TALÍA and CAMPEÓN found a foster family where they could be living together. They had to fly to Hamburg, but the fosterhome could not take them on until the beginning of April. Our friend Hadmute Paulsen offered us to fly with them to Hamburg so they will be leaving us on the 4th of april.
We will cry our eyes out, because they have been with us since the 2nd of january and it’s going to be very hard to say good bye, even though we know they are going to have a great life!

ORIÓN (black&white galgo left) flew to Vienna with Carolyn Aignerartig. Thank you Carolyn for taking him with you. He really needed it!

On the 21st of March DOLCE and LEILAs fosterfamily posted some photos of the 2 girls. Oh God, do they look happy!!!

The next day Claudia Hertel came to visit us. She’s the vicepresident of our partner association “Freunde von Galgo Freedom”. It was lovely to spend some time with her and we made lots of plans!

On the 23rd ISHA and JAZZ flew to Zürich with Katharina Hagenbucher. Thank you very much Katharina!
It was very hard to say good bye to JAZZ, because when he arrived, he had witnessed a terrible scene and was very traumatized. He slowly started to trust us and when he left on the 23rd, he was a cheerful, happy, affectionate and loving boy. We miss him a lot but we know that he is in the best of hands and was ready to find his final home!

A day later SANDY and ELLA arrived in their foster homes. Family Weber came to visit us with their motorhome, Sultán (a galgo mix they adopted from us) and Louis, their other galgo. On their way home, they took the two ladies to their foster homes in Germany… Not many people do that! Thank you very much!

Veronika Pausch will fly to Köln on the 5th of april and she will take LISA with her. Barbara will be at the airport waiting for them and will drive LISA to her foster family which is 500 km away from the airport. LISA will be living with MARA, a galga that was adopted from us and found her loving home. Thank you so much!That is a wonderful human chain!

The Boos family also came to visit us with their motorhome and MIRO (before LAGARTIJO), a very scared galgo they had adopted from us a year ago.
MIRO was in perfect shape, adoring his family, not scared at all and totaly tuned in with his owner. They had decided they wanted MIRO to have a new companion and wanted MIRO to choose. He immediately fell in love with FARAONA, now named DALÍ, and after 3 days, no one could separate them. Very touching!

THIS MONTHS URGENT CASES:

But life is full with good news but also bad news.
On the 27th and 28th of March the phone didn’t stop ringing and we had lots of whatapps. Lydia, the lady in charge of dealing with the “galgueros” and the urgent cases was going crazy, and so were we.
On the 27th we took on 4 galgos from a “galguero” and we were told that there were 2 abandoned galgos no one could catch. We are trying to leave food always in the same place, so that we can at least have certain control over them and try to slowly gain their confidence. Let’s see if we can catch them.

On the morning of the 28th we received an urgent call saying that there was a baby galgo in the killing station from Sevilla. After this call, another one: 2 more galgos from a galguero. He didn’t want them anymore and threatened to hang them up!!

7 galgos in 2 days!!!

We immediately started to organize his rescue, but because we are in Spain, it wasn’t so easy. Yesterday they went to pick him up and took him directly to a clinic where he will get the attention he needs until recovered.

Apart from these 7 galgos, we have 6 more at our foster family in Brenes:

A 1.6 year old galgo-mix
2 galgo females confiscated by the police. They ended up in the dogpound from La Puebla de Cazalla from where we took them out.
2 black galgos: a male and a female in a terrible state.
A stroked galga

Bienvenida and her husband are our foster family in Brenes. They also rescue abandoned dogs and have to face all the vet and food expenses. We have agreed to pay them 50€ and a bag of food per month per galgo. They take our galgos to the vet if necessary and never charge us extra, they cook for the weakest ones and care for them as if they were their “children”. We think the deal is fair, but it means that we have more expenses!

Even though we enjoy helping, we are a very small association with a maximum capacity of 10 galgos at Galgo Freedom. Up to now we have helped 100% of all galgos that have crossed our way, we don’t know how long we will be able to keep up this rythm. It is very hard to deny help to an animal in need, specially if you know that this means it will be abandoned or killed.

We are also in need of foster families in the area of Köln, Germany.

If you wish to help us, we invite you to sponsor any of our galgos. 25€ a month will pay for a galgos monthly food. Every month you will receive an e-mail with “your” galgos update and some photos.

Good morning!

We have very good news:
Our 10 rescued galgos have either found foster families or have been adopted abroad but they need flying partners!

5 of them will be leaving us in the next 10 days, so on the 13th of March I will be driving together with our vet to pick up 5 new Galgos that are waiting for us. We will introduce them to you further down.

Who has left us? Zambra and Rumba flew to their foster families this past month:

Zambra flew on the 27th of March and stole the heart of her foster family as soon as she arrived, so she might be adopted by them.

Rumba flew on the 2nd of February to Zürich. She is very happy living with Sandra and Christian in Pension Grisette! We wish you a lot of luck Rumbita!!!

These are our new urgent cases:

A pregnant Galgo mother (Mamma and Mía) was taken to the dog pound and gave birth to just 1 baby because she was skin and bones and very stressed. They have both been adopted by a foster family in Sevilla.

This Galgo mother gave birth to 4 puppies. Their „owner“ sent us the photo and added „I will get rid of the mother tomorrow, but I’m keeping the pups“.We could not change his mind and will have to only take the mother. She will arrive on the 13th at Galgo Freedom. It’s very sad! She is called Suerte, which means „luck“ in spanish.

This is Tigger, a 6 month old Galgo! He was handed over to us by this gypsy!Notice the size of the galgo in comparison to the person!
He is in a foster-home right now and will come to us on the 13th and he will enjoy having so much space and so many other galgos to play with.

We found an abandoned Galga next to 2 dead dogs. She spent 2 days at our foster family and on the 3rd day she decided to jump over a 2 meter high wall!!! It took 2 days to catch her again and she is now living in a flat where she cannot escape. Another galgo association is in charge of her now and they will find a good home for her !!!

PUNTO belonged to a Galguero. He’s a lovely boy and has been in our foster family for 2 months now. He is ready to fly and even though he will be coming to Galgo Freedom on the 13th, he could fly on the 5th of April to Cologne with Veronika Pausch. Veronika was very kind to reserve a box for us on her return flight , but we need to find a foster family for him around Cologne. After publishing this, a foster family offered their help.

And this is BAILEY. He was handed over to us by his owner in the last days and will also come on the 13th.

And Galán is our latest rescue. He will also arrive on the 13th!

Talía and Campeón have found a foster family where they can stay together. Thank you Far From Fear! They need to fly from April onwards to Hamburg.

Orión has also found a foster family in Austria and also needs to fly there. He will fly soon!

If you would like to support our project we invite you to sponsor one of our rescued galgos. A monthly donation of 25€ pays for the food of 1 galgo!
We will send you monthly updates and photos of your sponsored dog. Click here, choose „your“ Galgo and send us an e-mail with the name of your chosen Galgo, and with a monthly donation of 25€ you will receive a monthly e-mail!

Good morning,

We hope that the year 2016 has started well for you too!
On the 2nd of January, Augusto (our vet) and Yaiza drove to La Puebla de Cazalla, Sevilla, to pick up 6 galgos: Campeón, Jazz, Tango, Talía, Rumba and Ella. 3 males and 3 females were handed over to us because their owner found them “useless” for hunting and had threatened to hang them up (which he had done in past ocasions) .
Jazz is an exception, and this is his story.
Jazz’s owner called us for help and asked us to take him. His neighbour is the caretaker of a hunting reserve and when the owner was shopping in the village, he entered the premises and hang all the dogs up… Jazz survived because he was faster but is very traumatised.
When the owner of Jazz handed him over to us, the poor man had tears in his eyes.

JAZZ is, after living with us for some weeks much more relaxed.We can stroke him,he plays with the other dogs, eats well and when we massage him at night to relax him and put on his warm coat he looks at us with those beautiful eyes you can see on the foto.

Here is the rest of the gang:

From left to right: ELLA, ZAMBRA, CAMPEÓN, TANGO and RUMBA.

We have been very lucky, because Rumba has also found a home in Switzerland and will be flying on the 2nd of February to Zürich.We feel very happy for her.

But there are already 4 more galgos waiting for us in Sevilla in a foster family. We will pick them up on the 6th of February.

If you click here you will see our group of galgos and how happy and relaxed they are at Galgo Freedom.

Happy new year!

Here we are again; Yaiza and Karin. We were in charge of Refugio Cantalobos, but due to family issues we had to leave the shelter and another non-for-profit took over, rescuing abandoned animals and finding them good homes.

We are now living in the countryside of Frigiliana. We have realised that we cannot live without helping animals and have decided to create a mini-shelter in our own house, where we live with our own 5 dogs and 10 mistreated galgos (spanish greyhounds) which will live with us from the 2nd of January 2016 until we find good homes for them in Germany and Switzerland through our 2 collaborating associations.
For us it was essential to be legal and so have created a legally constituted non-for-profit called Asociación Galgo Freedom with NIF.: G-93446094.

At Refugio Cantalobos, our major fundraiser was the pet hotel. But now at Galgo Freedom we depend 100% on donations to be able to cover the needs of our mistreated galgos for them to recover from their physical and psychological wounds.

Most galgos live in garages with no light or ventilation, scarce food and water, no hygiene. Their owners see them as mere hunting tools. A galgo that is “useless” is hang from an olive tree, thrown to a well where it perishes or abandoned. The “galgueros” (galgo owners) don’t hide this fact and they tell you this in the face with total normality. It’s a tradition. 50.000 galgos are abandoned and killed every year in Spain.

A month ago I went to la Puebla de Cazalla, a village in the province of Sevilla, where a group of 3 young ladies that belong to our team leave their personal lives aside (family, children, studies and their jobs) to help. They immerse themselves into the “galgo world”, dealing with the galgueros to convince them to give us the “unwanted” galgos and rescue the abandoned galgos from the street.

In this trip we rescued 5 galgos: 2 from the street and 3 from a galguero who had them locked in, in individual cages inside a garage. As our house was not fenced in, we could not bring them home, so we took them to our foster family in Sevilla where they will be staying until the 2nd of January when our vet, Augusto and I (Yaiza) will be driving a van to pick them up and bring them home.