Dear visitor,
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter. We write to you today to appeal for your help, be that by bringing light to our appeal through your social media channels or by being in the position to help us financially.
About us
Louise and myself have worked in animal rescue for over 15 years between us (In the UK and Canada) as well as fostering pets in need of rehoming and behavioural training, adopting rescue dogs into our homes and volunteering. Last year we felt that we needed to take a year out from the stressful and relentless work that we have undertaken to regroup. We often saw very scared, frightened and sick animals that we devoted all of our time and energy to heal. We even lived on site at the rescue centre so that we could help with night duties and protect the dogs through fireworks and thunderstorms.
Over the course of the year, we realised that we needed to get back into rescue work and started following several facebook groups and trying to help as much as we could. We have been lucky enough to gain so much experience from our indepth training that we are in a really good position to help smaller charities.
Galgos Del Sol
Galgos del Sol is a Spanish rescue centre set up by Tina in 2007. She moved out there with her family and one day came face to face with a stray Galgo. Now she runs a charity, rescue centre and educational programme designed to stop the killing and abandoning of these dogs.
Galgos are a sight hound and do look similar to the Greyhounds we have in the UK. Originally they were seen as a prized possession but in recent times they are used and abused. After the very short hunting season in Spain, many of these dogs find themselves in unethical and inhumane killing stations, dumped on the street or tied up and left to starve. If you have a look at Tina’s website https://galgosdelsol.org/ you will read all about the urgent care and poor situations she has rescued these dogs from.
Gladiator
Gladiator was left abandoned on the streets with an open fracture. It took some time for him to be caught as he was so scared and in much pain.
Once he was at the centre they were able to provide him with expert veterinary care and rehabilitation. It was touch and go as to whether they would be able to save his leg but thanks to the work of the shelter and their supporters they were able to pin it. Yesterday he had the pins taken out and is doing well.
Zulema was chained up for most of her life in horrendous conditions but once rescued, the shelter have been able to prepare her for a good life from this point on and help her trust humans again.
Volunteering
Due to the financial strain of running the centre, including heating, food and medical bills, there isn’t much left over to pay for staff to work at the shelter. The shelter depend and rely on donations and support from followers and volunteers.
We were approached directly by Galgos del Sol to assist them for 2-3 months starting in just 5 weeks time – so we haven’t had much time to prepare at all! They need us to be there on site from 8pm every day – 7 days a week with no day off for the duration of our stay. We will be there for all and any eventuality at night and then assisting with cleaning, feeding, training and other tasks through the morning. We will be given 6 hours an afternoon to leave site but that is it.
The hours we will be donating will be the equivalent to £14,500 at minimum wage rate – however we are happy to donate to the shelter.
What can you do to help us?
In order for us to get to Spain, we need to take the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander – around £1k return! We then need fuel to drive to Murcia, an hour south of Alicante, and then feed ourselves a very simple amount of groceries. That is all. We will not be going there for a holiday, the temperatures are still cold there at this time of the year, and time will not allow us to pick up work out there as all of our time will be donated to Galgos del Sol.
With our knowledge and understanding of dogs in a rescue environment and used to seeing some of the horrific sights connected with the abuse of these dogs, we are really hoping that you may be able to help us help the dogs that so desperately need us.
We are trying to raise a small sum of £3500 just to cover the basics and this will also hopefully include a sum to donate to the charity. All of our donated money will be accounted for on a spreadsheet and made available to ensure no profit will be made by us.
Please, If you can help us in any way it would mean to much to us to be able to help the rescue centre, however without the funds we will have to withdraw and we can not afford to let the charity down. Please donate to our go fund me appeal, share our story on social media and help us to help the Galgos.
CLICK HERE FOR OUR GOFUNDME APPEAL
Kindest regards
Emma and Louise
VanLifeDiary 