GRIN has had the immense pleasure of working with many of the Spanish organizations through our "Shelter Representative" program. In the fall of 2007, one of our representatives, Gary Lopez, approached us with a novel idea. His shelter, DDEVIDA, had been trying to capture a galga who had been loose for some time. He offered to donate the purchase price of a live animal trap, which we had delivered to the shelter with the help of his daughter, Maria, who lives in Spain. Though the trap was ultimately not how the galga was captured, Encarni of DDEVIDA recently shared with us the story of how they were able to capture a dog in desperate condition thanks to the live trap.
On Friday Jan. 4 a lady very fond of animals got in touch with us. She had been feeding a mastiff female for almost 2 yrs, the dog was always with a horse , but didn't allow any contact. She would run around in the open country and would come inside certain properties through holes in the fences that she herself had made, this made the owners mad who would threaten to get rid of her in a bad way. She had deformed front legs and had become pregnant. By the way she looked you could see that the puppies would be born soon. In the afternoon we went to see her (pictures 0, 1, 2). It was really impossible to get close to her.
So yesterday, Jan. 8, around 6 in the afternoon, we set the trap cage (photos 3, 4, 5,and 6). At 8 in the evening we returned to the place but we had made a mistake, we put the food inside the cage but in a food bowl. She very cleverly had gone inside the cage, took the food bowl with her teeth and took it outside. She ate her food but didn't get trapped!! So we decided to change a small detail. We put the food directly over the base of the cage. Some good sausages!! It was around 11 at night and we went to see if anything had happened. Yes!!! There she was, very nervous and crying, but it worked!! (photos 10, 11, 12, and 13). I'm sending you some photos of the dog in the home of the people that had been feeding her (pictures 14-18). We arrived home around one in the morning, but we were all very satisfied.
I wanted you to know that the cage trap works stupendously and that you are aware of the change of life that it is affording this animal. Many thanks to all of you (Gary Lopez, Abby Christman, GRIN and Marie Lopez) for having given us the cage as a way of helping more animals, and of course, for all the donations that you bring our way.
A hug for all of you.
Encarni
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