I don't know how to start this topic. today about 1 hour ago we were visited by a friend of ours, who presented us with the two little puppies below.
They were found in a plastic bag hanging from a tree on the entrance to the tip in Gandesa.
What is wrong with these people, we have been here for nearly 7 years and been rnning our kennels for five years and have never seen such cruelty during or time here, people always seem to come to us with these finds and beleave me there has been many.
Seven puppies dumped last year on the main track, two we found homes for, one also last year, again found on the tip in a plastic bag and now living in france with friends.
A newly born puppy found on the main road in Gandesa, alive but unfortunatly died.
Theres been a dog  chained up for months, day and night, out in this baking heat in Gandesa, ok, complain you say, but if you do you cause trouble for yourself, I know, through experience.
Don't anyone dare to defend these Catalans, there a bloody disgrace and its about time something was done, the rescue centres are full to bursting with no funding from either local councils or government and the problem with the Tortosa Rescue Centre should have been sorted months ago.
If there are Catalans out there reading this, THEN YOU DO SOMETHING, you have the means,there your dogs not pieces of rubbish, if you don't want them then have your dogs spayed, why shoud I keep picking up your cast offs.

                  Terry.

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hi terry  :( it is very sad animals are treated this way :'( we live in tivenys and at the bottom off our road we have 3 rubbish bins ,march /june /sept kittens are found dumped by the bins or in the bins my son and his wife a few months back went to put rubbish in one of the bins and heard kittens crying so my son climbed in the bin to get them out 4 in total(they were only a day or two old were on there last legs and died a few hrs latter :'()we now have 18 cats all clean and tidy all with there own little ways and we love them all  :)cost about 25e a week to feed too but how can you turn them away ?you cant .also we have taken the females to the vets (no more babies)104e each time that is outrages .do you think its the Catalan people who are to blame for all of this (as our neighbour next door as cats and he
loves them he had two of our cats 17 months ago and as still got them and others.well i dont know what to say is all so very sad :'(

Hi Nen.
Thanks for that. all I would like to now is WHY, why hang them in a tree, ive seen the tree and its not that easy to get to, they treat their rubbish better, when they can be bothered.
I would have liked to put a poster around town, but ive been warned not to, my god this is 2009 not 1509. i thought this was a civilised coutry.
Its frightening to think I live with these people and my pets are roaming around, especialy the cats.
What a sick society we live in. I know this happens in the UK, but it is reported on, nationally, here its excepted as, "thats what they do"
Anyway there here with us and surviving although the black one isnt too good hopefully they'l make it through the night, Sandra's got her work cut out.
If anyone wants a puppy, both boys, please give us a ring.
      977055027 or 678970622

yes i know the feeling :'(we have reared kittens on powdered milk in a feeding  bottle HARD WORK like haveing a new baby in the house up half the night bottle feeding.i wish you well and hope you find new homes for them soon. regards nen

I am not going to even attempt at trying to support the people/person who has left these puppies in a tree, but I do not see how you can say that its the Catalan people who have done this unless you have actually seen them put them there.
I have some English 'friends' who cant afford to have their cats spayed and have consequently got more kittens than they can ever find homes for. How many english can kill their kittens in a humane way?
The majority of locals that I know would have no problem in destroying unwanted animal offspring in a humane way, with a cartridge possibly?
So please dont call this a Catalunya disgarace. It is an affront to label a whole race with one incident.
And Terry you have chosen to live here with your british loves,hates and standards, but the Catalans have lived here for generation after generation and fought extremely hard very very recently to maintain their own values, language and way of living so may not be so inclined to feel the same way as you.
I have not replied to this thread to be controversal, but am simply stating my thoughts on your post.
Please keep saving everything, someone has to do it.

So that makes everything OK then.
               MY GOD!!!
What chance have we got to try and educate these people, who else do we blame, i,m not saying there all bad, we have many Catalans come here with their dogs and cats and the majority are as soft as us and good people, but ive heard stories from Catalans of what they do with there  hunting dogs it would make you weep,or maybe not.
You want to read some of the web sites of cruelty in this country, then maybe you wouldnt condone it or defend them.
Maybe its not all Catalans, as you say, it is there country and their problem, we'll just look the other way and say nothing, dam good job we didnt do that in 1938.
I see Spain have rewritten their laws on animal cruelty, with a maximum 100.000€ fines but no mention of bull fighting or the use of animals in fiestas.
                             Terry.

wrote on Aug 17^th, 2009 at 2:07am:

I am not going to even attempt at trying to support the people/person who has left these puppies in a tree, but I do not see how you can say that its the Catalan people who have done this unless you have actually seen them put them there. I have some English 'friends' who cant afford to have their cats spayed and have consequently got more kittens than they can ever find homes for. How many english can kill their kittens in a humane way? The majority of locals that I know would have no problem in destroying unwanted animal offspring in a humane way, with a cartridge possibly? So please dont call this a Catalunya disgarace. It is an affront to label a whole race with one incident. And Terry you have chosen to live here with your british loves,hates and standards, but the Catalans have lived here for generation after generation and fought extremely hard very very recently to maintain their own values, language and way of living so may not be so inclined to feel the same way as you. I have not replied to this thread to be controversal, but am simply stating my thoughts on your post. Please keep saving everything, someone has to do it.

Coo Cactus you are very brave to counter the brits on anything to do with puppies and kittens

But I agree with you who is to say it is a Catalan it could well be a gitano or a brit short of money

Like any right minded human, I detest animal cruelty but if you ever watch daytime TV (during this rather warmish spell where working outside is uncomfortable to say the least) you may have come accross programs that show what the NSPCA have to contend with in UK.  All societies and cultures have good and bad members.  As for "educating these people", I wouldn't have thought that was part of our remit.
I think there are laws to cover most bad practices in Spain but the policing of them does appear to leave a bit to be desired sometimes.
I think we might have to put bullfighting into a seperate catagory in this case, perhaps simialar to foxhunting, hare coursing, pitbull and cockfighting etc.
Having said all that, it would be good if we finally find out exactly who has been poisoning the dogs so that the blame can be placed in the right area.

Bigyin wrote on Aug 18^th, 2009 at 11:08am:

I think we might have to put bullfighting into a seperate catagory in this case, perhaps simialar to foxhunting, hare coursing, pitbull and cockfighting etc.

It is nice to see Bigyin that you have included all the British practices that we try to forget about.  I presume that the etc includes deer hunting, otter hunting and badger baiting.  I am afraid that in the UK we have people just as bad as anywhere else in this world however animal loving the majority may be.

That was exactly my point.  I didn't think a comprehensive list would be needed to get the point accross.  I'm not trying to start an argument here (I sometimes manage that without trying) but the old adage about glass houses comes to mind.

See news report. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/1420103/Dogs-in-Spain-face-barbaric-hanging.html

Now tell me its not the locals, they even admit it.
                   Terry.

I stand corrected regarding the adequacy of Spanish animal protection laws.  The article is a damning indictment of the legal situation here and of course the perpetrators.  By the same token, I know of many local people who are indeed animal lovers.  As I said before, there are good and bad etc.  I just think that stereotyping is not the best practice especially as we have chosen to live here.

wrote on Aug 18^th, 2009 at 9:09pm:

See news report. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/1420103/Dogs-in-Spain-face-barbaric-hanging.html Now tell me its not the locals, they even admit it.                    Terry.

Well I just read that report and I saw nothing that said anything about Catalunya only Andalucia (the other end of the country).
Are you aware that the best bit of evidence you could find is in fact from an article from 2003, SIX AND A HALF YEARS AGO

I own a greyhound or galgo and the majority of people whom I meet in Catalunya dont even recognise the breed let alone go around hanging them in trees.
My dog is a rescue dog from Northern Ireland (part of the UK), incidently the largest breeders of greyhounds in the world, and if a dog doesnt live up to standards it is just left to starve to death, much slower than in a 'news report' in a british paper.
So Yes I do love animals and I am glad that people like you do things to help them. What I dont like is self opinionated generalisation of a race. Which is also known as RACISM.

I'd be a little surprised if hare coursing was a popular sport in this area anyway.  I've never come across it or heard about it.  Although in my four years here I've seen thousands of rabbits (unfortunately),   >:( I only saw my first hare a couple of weeks ago.  :o

I think the thing here is that animal cruelty takes place in whatever part of the world we live in and that it is up to people like Terry and ourselves to do something about it rather than just sit back, moan and blame any particular race.  I thank him for bringing the practice to our attention and now lets see if anyone has any ideas about what can be done to get the perpetrators brought to justice.

wrote on Aug 19^th, 2009 at 9:18am:

and now lets see if anyone has any ideas about what can be done to get the perpetrators brought to justice.

The first step is obviously to be well informed.  Is it possible to find out what the law actually states regarding animal welfare ?  Secondly, to find out who the perpetrators are which would obviously fall to the people in the areas affected.  Thirdly, make the decision on the wisdom of getting involved bearing in mind the obvious possible adverse consequences.

I had a phone call from a client yesterday saying that six dogs were found hanging in trees in the Freginals area, this was confirmed by a second person that same day from Freginals.
I agree with bigyin, nobody wants to stick their neck out, i think this is why most people on here wont except the truth, frightened of reprisals.
Stand up for what you believe in, its nothing to do with raceism, why is that always mentioned. nough said.
                           Terry.

That's shocking news.  That's not far from me.
I'm too old to be worrying about bumps in the night etc. but surely, if it can be discovered who's doing this, a quiet annonymous word to whichever branch of the police covers this sort of thing wouldn't go amiss.  Perhaps the Mossas would be the best bet so the snitching can't be localised.  You don't know who knows who round here.  Mind you, finding out who's doing it ain't gonna be easy.
For what it's worth.

Great news, a home has been found for the little black one, thanks to two lovely ladies from the Mora area.
Both doing well, pups that is.
                                  Terry.