RSSImportant Details About Spanish Greyhounds
Apr 24
Greyhounds are utilized extensively by hunters during the hunting season in Spain. Generally known as Galgos in the local language these dogs are exceptionally skilled and possess a natural instinct to serve as hunting dogs. However there is another element to the story of greyhounds in Spain which has attracted international attention, particularly from animal rights groups.
It has been a traditional practice of hunters in Spain to slaughter their hunting dogs when the season is over. The hunting season ends in January and the large majority of hunters are not keen on keeping their dogs as pets until the next season. Hence they end their dogs’ lives. There are places in the countryside of Spain where you can find a large number of carcasses after the end of hunting season.
It is not known how this practice originated but history records that nobles in the olden days would display hanged and tortured greyhounds publicly to prevent the peasants who may be thinking about protesting in groups from doing so. The Spanish usually torture the dogs, instead of hanging them to die in an instant.
The hunters purposefully tie the hanging noose in a way that allows the greyhounds to support themselves up with their back legs for some days. When they eventually succumb to thirst and hunger, they lack the energy needed for support and they fall into the noose and die as a result of suffocation.
The Spanish have practiced this for a lot of centuries but it is only in recent years that people have come to know about it. People currently condemn the Spaniards for their bad treatment of bulls in bullfighting, which is one of their traditional sports. Nevertheless, this barbaric practice of killing greyhounds is apparently worse than that of bullfighting in cruelty.
Many people think about the practice in which the Spanish use the greyhounds and then kill them very brutal. Other people consider the way of killing the greyhounds as something disturbing. The estimated number of greyhounds hanged like this each year is ten thousand and above.
Hanging is not the only way in which greyhounds are killed in Spain. Some are thrown down abandoned wells or left to wander in the woods to die of starvation. Sometimes burnt carcasses of greyhounds have also been found in the countryside.
The number of people in Spain who practice farming activities and hunting as their major way of getting food is over thirty million. Many of these people use greyhounds in the hunting season.
However the farmers argue that they do not possess the facilities to give adequate lodging and food for the greyhounds for the whole year and that is why they are killed after the hunting season. The real question then pertains to the way they are killed and not necessarily the reason for which they are killed.
There is a great variety of exotic Animals in Spain. To learn where you can spot them see our guide to national parks of Spain.
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