The good and the bad

As a greyhound owner in New Zealand, I belong to a facebook group called the Greyhound collective. In the group, Greyhound owners can seek advice, help each other and share photos of their hounds.

It's an amazing place that's put me in touch with some truly amazing people. The real depth of the community on the collective can be incredible sometimes. Last week the ironically named Tiny, (a greyhound who at 50Kg, is anything but tiny) got spooked by some kids letting off fireworks in a park and bolted.

Tiny's distraught owners posted on the collective, letting other hound owners know to keep an eye out for their wayward hound. Reading their post my heart was in my mouth. We'd had our first dog, a miniature dachshund called Monty, escape and go missing for 6 long horrifying days.

Reading their post that night, I remembered how utterly horrific a lost dog can be and promised myself that in the morning I'd get out and have a good look for Tiny too. That morning I posted that I was going to get out and have a search and to my delight several others agreed to help.

The area where Tiny had been spooked was large and bordered by hills covered in dense bush. If Tiny wanted to stay hidden, eh;d be pretty hard to find. Wandering around we called out for Tiny (who we never saw). What we did see were others from the collective also looking for Tiny.

After heading home depressed and tired at my lack of success, I checked the collective for any more updates on Tiny and was amazed to see that he'd been found by another amazing collective member who'd been with me looking and had gone back 4 times just in case.

The whole saga has shown me that people can be incredibly decent. No one hesitated to chip in and help a Greyhound owner who needed help. The level of support from other Greyhound owners was nothing short of astonishing.

While the greyhound collective showcases the very best in people, facebook sadly also highlights the other end of the spectrum.

BassGalgo a Spanish based charity that rescues Galgos (the Spanish equivalent of greyhounds) posted an alarming photo of a Galgo that'd been chained to a fence in a carpark and left to starve. The poor Galgo is horribly emaciated but survived but has thankfully been rescued.

Incredibly Spanish hunters who use Galgos during the hunting season seem to think that it's ok to abandon these dogs by tying up in a remote location where they'll endure dehydration and starvation. Its a cruel and sickening way to treat an animal who has shown its owner nothing but loyalty. It needs to be stopped.

Amazingly there seems to be little being done to stop this horrendous practice from happening at the end of each hunting season, and the Brits and Germans who flood into Spain each summer remain blissfully unaware of the horrors being inflicted on these gentle and trusting animals.

Perhaps if the media picked up on these stories and educated tourists, the Spanish Government might be forced to get off its ineffectual behind and craft laws to prevent these sickening acts from happening.

Meanwhile if you want to help, donations can be made to http://galgosdelsol.org/ or www.baasgalgo.com. With the hunting season drawing to a close in Spain, they could really do with your help.