One busy Sunday afternoon of shopping in the streets of Benidorm came to a halt, as hundreds of dogs took their owners to the streets to protest. Animal cruelty happens all over the world but in Spain it is the hunting dogs that suffer the most.
Happening at the same time were marches across Spain in Barcelona, Ronda, Zaragoza, Bilbao all with the same aim. Home these dogs.
It was a real family event where even a mother dog was reunited with her pups who have now been adopted! The dogs led the march by wearing orange & encouraged their owners to do the same.
The aim of this silent march. if the dogs kept quiet, was to raise awareness of the cruelty suffered to all animals but especially dogs called hunting dogs.
At the end of the season they are in terrible physical and mental states and get dumped n a road, left in warehouses to die, hung from a tree or if lucky – shot!
Theses are beautiful, loyal and trusting animals who once they have finished their ‘work life’ can easily be introduced into family life as a great pet.
From the beach, were the Spanish looked bemused, to the streets of the Old Town full of English shoppers all wondering what was going on and then the march went to the Town Hall. No leaflets or shouting were allowed but the dogs gave all the encouragement we needed for people to notice us!
To ‘ You’ve got a friend in me” from the film ‘Up’ the march approached the Town Hall. It was our logo blazoned across the front of orange t-shirts we wore.
“Hay un amigo en mi”…. “You’ve got a friend in me”.
Vicenta Sanchez Aracil who is 86, started the Benidorm Dog Pound off in 1973 and said that over 15,000 hunting dogs a year across Spain are killed.
She gave a speech in Spanish asking for legislation to prevent cruelty to all animals and especially the hunting dogs. It was also read by me for the English crowd!
It was a great turnout and support was from many nationalities which shows that we all love a dog. Hunting dogs are faithful and loyal. lovely calm animals who have great trust in humans and could easily become a family pet. The Spanish for hunting is ‘caza’, but by changing the ‘z’ to an ‘s’ it become ‘casa’ which is home…. the idea behind the day was to home these dogs not kill them off.
Help the supporters of Benidorm Dog Pound, by joining us on facebook at Benidorm Dog Homing and lets find these lovely dogs a home.
