Siempre Fiel is a non-profit organisation that, without any form of government support, fights against animal abuse, especially of greyhounds. Finding responsible families for the discarded dogs, committed to sterilisation and advocating animal rights are the main goals of Siempre Fiel.
Siempre Fiel is located in the center of Spain, in Salamanca. Although they take care of every needy dog, it is mainly greyhounds (galgos) that Siempre Fiel stands up for. This breed is used in central and southern Spain for hunting rabbits and hares (to a lesser extent also for dog races). After the hunting season, many galgos are discarded. They are either killed or left to their fate. Many of these stray dogs die in traffic, after walking around fearfully for some time. The galgos that survive the hunting season spend their days in terrible conditions, waiting for the next hunting season. In rare cases the Galguero (the owner of a galgo) brings the unusable dogs to the shelter.
Siempre Fiel was created eleven years ago and has found a permanent home for more than a thousand dogs in the last five years alone.
Currently, Siempre Fiel has about hundred dogs under her care, of which more than ninety are taken care of by foster parents.
If anything is characteristic of Siempre Fiel, besides the dedication and tireless struggle for these defenseless and abused animals, it is the unique foster parent system.
Salamanca is a historic city with more than 25,000 university students, many of whom come from abroad and complete their Erasmus year there. Siempre Fiel has succeeded in creating a network of foster families among these students. While the student gives the animal shelter and accustoms it to a family life, Siempre Fiel takes care of all expenses.
This means that they not only rescue animals, but also contribute to the awareness of young generations about the major problem of the neglect and animal abuse of the galgos in Spain.
The students who are or have been foster parents are without doubt a valuable medium for spreading this message around the world.
You can run into a student with a foster dog in town at any time of the day. This is very important to make their work visible to the visitors of this very touristic city.
It is clear that the organisation of all these foster parents involves an enormous amount of work and one of the biggest problems arises during the holiday periods. When the students temporarily return home or when they permanently end their stay in Salamanca, finding temporary accommodation becomes an almost impossible task. The dog often has to go back to the shelter. The current shelter of Siempre Fiel are not or hardly suitable for this and for many dogs it is therefore a step back in their development.
That is why it is a priority that Siempre Fiel gets new shelter in the short term, which meet the requirements to temporarily house the dogs before they find a new foster parent or even better get “a forever family”.
We emphasise once again that Siempre Fiel does not receive any form of government support and relies on volunteer help (collecting food, flea markets, teaming, etc.)
Aware of this situation and after several donations (both financial and material), Wings for Animals will from now on include Siempre Fiel as a permanent project in its mission and stand up together for the welfare and rights of the galgos and other dogs in Spain.
