Sunday, September 4, 2022
It is a story to cry about, but unfortunately it is the reality. A few weeks ago one of our volunteers saved a skinny Podenco who had followed him to the car and got in without thinking. She had found her own place after having had a hell of a life with a hunter.
Nobody came to ask for her, even though the volunteer had searched everywhere or asked if anyone had lost their dog. Thus began her life with our volunteer, who gave his heart to her and vice versa. He adopted her, and her new life could now begin. But that didn't take the hunters into account.
One day, the volunteer was out walking his two dogs and saw in the distance a group of hunters with their children and grandchildren standing around something. As he approached, he saw to his horror that there was a bunny in a wire cage with about 30 Podencos around it, which they were setting against the defenceless bunny in the wire cage. The parents, children and grandchildren roused the dogs, kicked the cage to make the dogs even fiercer, until the moment they lifted the wire cage and let the Podencos do their business on the defenceless bunny, which was torn into a thousand pieces. Everyone cheered with joy and life went on as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Our volunteer was in shock, it was horrible.
When our volunteer and his friend wanted to pass by, one of the hunters suddenly approached him, and at the same moment, his new Podencote stood right behind him and started shivering like a reed. The hunter said to him: this is my dog! Whereupon the volunteer said that he had found her a month and a half ago, and had kept her with him because she was so skinny and underfed. "It is my dog, and since she has run away I will teach her a lesson, and do you know what that means?" he said to our volunteer. The man looked at him, then continued, "She will learn to play the piano, I guarantee it! We'll hang her from a tree and leave her just above the ground so she has to strum like she's playing the piano until she's dead, that's what we'll do to her! Give me that rotten dog here!!!"
At this the volunteer started walking and they managed to escape the madman, but the next problem came a few days later. When he was walking with his two dogs, he found himself in the middle of the forest again face to face with the same hunter, who this time had come with a friend to take the Podenco away, "It is my dog and I am going to teach him to play the piano". Our volunteer was lucky to escape the hunters again but he could not take any more risks.
He cried tears of sorrow but did not dare to keep his Luna with him, he feared for her life. He asked if we could help, so I immediately went to work and found a foster family. Everything was done to bring her there the next day and make her safe. And then the thing happened that I was so afraid of, knowing hunters and their way of thinking and acting. Our volunteer went for a walk with his dogs in the early evening, and when he returned, he was trapped, and there was a big discussion between the hunters, our volunteer and the police, because the hunter had the documents to prove that it was his dog. The hunter yanked Luna out of the car and away he went, our volunteer had lost her, she was back with the hunter.
And now, what can we do, it will not let us go, we will not leave it at that.