On October 8, 2008, the Galgo Rescue International Network sent a shipment of nearly 200 pounds of medical and practical supplies to seven galgo welfare organizations in Spain. The shipment included antibiotics and other medications, suture, syringes, wound care supplies, bandage supplies, leashes, collars, ophthalmic and otic medications, anti-inflammatory medications, and literally hundreds and hundreds of doses of flea/tick/heartworm preventative medications. The supplies were transported by volunteers Debbie Grega and Chris Mosey of Ohio. The seven recipient shelters were: Scooby, Arca Sevilla, Refuge San Anton, Recal Extremadura, Pro-Galgo, PAWS/PATAS, and Sofia El Refugio Escuela. Please click the "read more" link to read how all of this happened! We owe this success to our donors and supporters, without whom none of this would have been possible!
One of the Galgo Rescue International Network's primary missions is to provide veterinary and practical supplies to the Spanish shelters and organizations working to save the galgos of Spain. Doing so is no small feat, and it all begins with our donors and supporters. It is a very time-consuming and expensive undertaking, one that GRIN does with love. We have established relationships with over a dozen of the rescue organizations in Spain, and one of the early steps in planning such a mission is to find out what the shelters have the greatest need for.
A continuous piece of the entire puzzle is collecting and sorting the supplies donated by individuals, rescue groups, and veterinarians here in the US. We occasionally purchase medical supplies at cost through our veterinary contacts as well. Once we have the "bee in our bonnet", so to speak, to send a load of supplies to Spain, we have to find willing volunteers to get it there. Because of the ridiculously high cost of shipping, the customs issues, and the likelihood that the supplies would never reach their destination, we send our shipments via excess baggage with volunteers rather than shipping them overseas. We were amazingly fortunate to have two volunteers from Ohio, Debbie Grega and Chris Mosey, agree to take our 2008 fall shipment with them when they went to Spain to volunteer at Scooby.
We work very hard to "share the wealth" with all of the Spanish groups we work with, but unfortunately we cannot help all of them each time we send supplies over. Therefore, the GRIN Board of Directors selects a number of organizations to help and begins to prepare the shipment.
We sort the donated supplies using the lists of requested supplies we receive from the shelters. The images in this story's gallery show the sorting process in action! After the supplies have been sorted we need to get them to the volunteers. Often the volunteers are from Colorado (our home base), but this time we had to get them to Ohio. On October 2, 2008, GRIN sent nearly 200 pounds of supplies via freight on a pallet to Debbie Grega.
On October 8, 2008, Debbie and Chris embarked upon their mission, laden with the huge bags of supplies and six large Vari-Kennel dog crates (to return to the US with 7 lucky new canine immigrants!). Upon arriving in Madrid they were met by a Scooby volunteer who drove them to meet Sandra Baas of Baas Galgo (www.baasgalgo.com). Sandra is an amazing artist who creates jewelry with a galgo theme and donates much of the proceeds of their sales to galgo welfare. Sandra took the supplies bound for the shelters and mailed them from within Spain to six of the seven shelters. The supplies bound for Scooby were delivered by hand to Fermin Perez by Debbie and Chris.
The entire process is time-consuming and exhausting, but it also is an amazing experience to be a part of! Because of the donations from all of our donors and supporters, we were able to provide medications and supplies that will help literally hundreds of animals that may have otherwise gone without such care. There is no way to adequately express the gratitude we feel for the generosity shown to the galgos by the kind friends of GRIN here in the US.
A very special thank you to some very special donors and supporters whose generosity seems to know no bounds or borders: Mike Herman, DVM; Donald and Elaine Irving; Louise Coleman and Greyhound Friends; Debbie Grega and Chris Mosey.
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