Nice bed, hard bread and flat land is the slogan that have been used for many years by people dedicated to these activities to describe their relationship with greyhound dogs. Because that is what the learnt from their parents, grandparents or uncles, and that is how they keep this bond with their animals and traditions.
Quintana de la Serena, one of Extremadura's places with important greyhound tradition This is one of the greyhound's monuments in one of the entrances of the city.
Many of the greyhound owners train their dogs chained to the moving car. Others prefer to let them go at their own pace. This usually happens with retired competitors.
"My greyhound eats better than my children." A very common phrase among greyhound owners. They usually look for the remains of the butchers to feed their dogs.
The hunting season and the National Greyhound Championship in Spain lasts from October to February. The owners take their greyhounds early to the fields to hunt hares. These animals have very thin skin and often suffer wounds during hunting
Greyhounds are transported in the rear of cars. Some have special vehicles to transport them and others, not so lucky, simply travel in the trunk of the car
Topics
Abandonment, Abuse, Animals, Crime, Documentary, Education, Family, Photography, Racing
My interest in developing this project starts in my concern about the relationship between human beings and animals and how to understand it from different aspects: the animal as way of livelihood, as a tool for working, as an entertainment, as a partner, as a form of therapy, as a mean for education, as a science tool, etc. All these aspects are always pointing to benefit mankind. My work is a search to understand different shades in this relationship, further to what I can understand from my own experience. The project was born from a big controversy that exists in many European countries, especially in Spain; the hunting and the racings with greyhound dogs. These are centuries old traditions that are forbidden in other countries but they have remained entrenched in Spain, despite big campaign against them from a political party and other associations that see hunting and racing using greyhound dogs as the cause of abuse, abandonment, and indiscriminate deaths of the greyhound dogs involved in those activities. Why there are still communities that defend these traditions and refuse to eradicate them? What are their principles and how they relate to other animals? Because one reality is the consequence of other but they assure me the opposite. They do not consider themselves capable of mistreating their animals and they blame the increase of robberies that are being perpetrated by people who are not part of the greyhound dogs tradition. Nice bed, hard bread and flat land is the slogan that have been used for many years by people dedicated to these activities to describe their relationship with greyhound dogs. Because that is what the learnt from their parents, grandparents or uncles, and that is how they keep this bond with their animals and traditions.
