Spain: Green light for animal cruelty
Animal welfare amendment facilitates the killing of Spanish greyhounds.
As of September 29, 2023, a new legal regulation has come into force in Spain that exempts the galgo, the native greyhound, from animal protection. This will make the cruel killing of these dogs at the end of the hunting season even easier. This in a member state of the European Union, which supposedly upholds “Western values”.
Every year in February, when the hunting season is over, the cruel death of the galgos, the Spanish greyhounds, begins. The hunters get rid of all the animals that are no longer useful in their eyes: They drown, hang and burn them alive, douse them with acid, gas them, poison them or at best put them to sleep with T61. According to animal welfare organizations, up to 60,000 galgos are killed in agony each year in this way. Profits around hunting and greyhound racing are estimated at up to 1 billion euros. So far there was a legal clearance on provincial level, in order to stop the driving. However, the new regulation applies nationwide and makes regional exceptions impossible, says Anna Clements, director and co-founder of the animal protection organization “S.O.S. Galgos” in Barcelona.
Shelters specializing in greyhounds have teams that go out and rescue surviving galgos. Volunteers from all over the world help with their care and a placement to Germany and the USA, among other places. Animal welfare advocates realize that this is a symptom treatment. Solving the problem requires cooperation with local politics and at the EU level. Because also from Ireland greyhounds are sent to Spain to be used and consumed for races. In order to achieve a rethinking in the population, “S.O.S. Galgos” in collaboration with the British organization Greyhounds in Need has developed teaching material, which should convey understanding and compassion for the galgos to children in schools. The following video is produced by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) International.
How can the European Union tolerate such cruelty to animals in a member state? What possibilities are there to exert influence?
I asked the following 21 Spanish Members of the European Parliament for an opinion – and received no reply from any of them:
However, there is also an Intergroup on the Welfare of Animals, a bipartisan group of Members of the European Parliament specifically dedicated to animal welfare. On February 3, 2021 they organized an online debate on galgos, to which Anna Clements of S.O.S. Galgos and Yeray Lopez, director of the award winning documentary “Yo Galgo” also contributed their expertise. You can read and see the two speeches and a recording of the debate here.
On March 11, 2021 the parliamentary group appealed to the 17 autonomous communities, the two autonomous cities and the Spanish government in an “Open Letter on the welfare of hunting dogs in Spain”. The MEPs stressed that the mistreatment of hunting dogs in Spain violates European values and is also incompatible with Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty. This obliges EU member states to adapt their national legislation so that animals are recognized as sentient beings. However, "the customs of a country" must be taken into account - particularly with regard to cultural and religious characteristics. In the eyes of its supporters in Spain, this still includes hunting.
Trailer Yo Galgo with English subtitles ©MoonLeaks Yeray Lopez
Film clip Yo Galgo with English subtitles ©MoonLeaks Yeray Lopez