A Cry For Help !

Dear Podenco Power readers,

I had intended the next part of my blog to be about Little Leo. He has won so very many hearts and had such a tough start in life, it's the obvious next story.

However, last night I was chatting to a person I consider a very good Facebook friend. She herself has several rescue podencos and does an awful lot very quietly behind the scenes. She is modest to a fault and most of her successes never publicly see the light of day. This case is different. When she told me the unbelievable story you are about to read, I just knew I had to share this with you all. She needs our help this time, and above all, two podencos need our help. Together, we can resolve this. We are banging the podenco drum and we have, podenco power!

Please note that this story is being told only to try to get these two dogs re-homed. We are not interested in castigating any individual whose actions are described below. It's about the dogs. It's always about the dogs.

Please, read this story, share with your friends and if you even think you can help, please contact Anne O'Connor on Facebook or via Email at : annemonique88@yahoo.co.uk

Thank you everyone,

Alex xxxx

Hi Alex,

This letter is an appeal for help to rescue a couple of dogs I have been following on Facebook for some time now. The really sad thing is, I am hoping that someone can help rescue them from their “Rescuer”. Let me tell you about the dogs.

Polo

Polo was in the perrera in Huesca, Aragon back in January 2012. He is a real little scruffy podenco, very loving and affectionate. He was in need of a home as he had been in the perrera for quite a few months and the place was filling up. The situation was getting serious so his plight was posted onto Beryl Brennan's Podenco Post page. That's where I first saw him. I reserved Polo with a view to finding him a new home. However, he was then removed from the perrera by a man, who for legal reasons I must call by a different name, Juan.  At that time Juan worked for a local refuge. I spoke to Juan and he told me that Polo would be travelling to a new life in Italy. All seemed OK, Polo would be saved so I took another young podenco who was struggling in the perrera, instead.

Later that year I received a message from Juan to say that he was not working for the refuge any longer. I didn't think much of it until I had some further business with them in June. When I visited the refuge, I saw that Polo was actually still there and not in his new home in Italy. Polo did not belong to the refuge, he was registered to Juan. Juan had left him there after he left their employ. Polo, after being moved to the refuge was to stay there for another 20 months. Polo is a fairly young dog with a normal level of energy and curiosity. Because of some incidents with other dogs, Polo has had to spend most of that time in his own little pen away from the others. Add to this the fact that Polo has a low level Leishmaniasis infection, and his chances of finding a good home diminish significantly.

Polo did have treatment thanks to a very generous donation from a friend, but I do not think he is on any maintenance medication. When you add to that the inevitable stress of being locked away for two years, he is likely to be at risk of a recurrence, never mind the psychological damage that this kind of incarceration has caused. 

Polo at the very least needs to find a home where he is loved and looked after properly, after the ordeals he has faced.

It transpires that Juan left the country for most of this year and has returned demanding the return of these dogs, dogs that he abandoned, from the refuge. When he did not get his way, he accused the refuge of stealing the dogs and the police were called in to requisition the animals. So where do you imagine poor Polo is now? He's back in the perrera!

Estrella

A couple from a different organisation approached me to help share little Estrella. This dog had been “rescued”, re-homed to the Netherlands, rejected by her adopters through no fault of her own, and sent back to Spain. She ended up being handed over to Juan and has spent most of this year in the same refuge she came from. In all that time she has not been neutered! She has been living at the refuge at their expense. But now, as a result of the denuncia made by Juan she too is sitting back in a perrera waiting for salvation.

I do not want to dwell too much on this man and his antics, suffice to say I believe that he has been running up debts with private kennels, posing as a charity to get donations and extorting money from people by saying that he will be denounced and his dogs will go back into a perrera. He has used the dogs in his “care” shamelessly. Who ever heard of a dog being rescued, re-homed and then returned to Spain to land back in a perrera?! What has happened here is beyond disgusting and it's got to stop. These poor vulnerable creatures have been exploited and left in a sort of purgatory for long enough. Polo is safe for now but if his Leishmaniasis flares up again, what will become of him? Ironically, going to the perrera may be their best hope of escape.

The perrera manager says that she will ask the judge to release the dogs to an adopter and she will allow them to travel out of the country. They will be registered to the adopter and Juan will have no claim on them any longer. No one wants to see Juan get hold of these dogs again, but this is still a reality if they cannot be adopted out of this never-ending hell.

I believe Juan will no longer be allowed to remove dogs from perreras in future. Someone does need to do something about him but this post is really about the animals that have been suffering his neglect, greed and ego for too long.

I know your blog is read by some of the leading lights in podenco rescue, so I am hoping against hope that something can be done for these poor wretches. Perhaps a rescue organisation can step up for them, perhaps someone who wants to adopt may be found. 

If anyone wants to help in any small way, please get in touch and I can forward details. I have a contact in the area who can help.

Anne O'Connor

annemonique88@yahoo.co.uk

Step up, Podenco Power readers, please. Someone out there has a space on a sofa, I'm sure. Don't let these dogs spend yet another winter behind bars after having once been 'saved'.

Alex xxx