Help Save the Animals
Here's WHY!
To thousands of holiday-makers the Algarve is one of the most beautiful and awe inspiring locations on the planet. It has a wonderful coastline, perfect weather, pretty houses, spa resorts and a very interesting history.
Last year I took my family there for a Christmas break to escape the commercialism of our Western world and relax in the warmth of the Portuguese sun. I got more than I bargained for.
Feeding a starving mountain dog (the other two were resue dogs we took for a walk up the mountains to find the strays). Doing this everyday builds confidence in the stray, because all she had ever known from a human was getting kicked and beaten!
This wonderful part of the world is the home to the likes of our devout rock and roll personality Cliff Richard, and Dad's Army star Clive Dunn. It is also home to thousands of rich golfers and yachts men, all going about there daily business, soaking up the sun and spending huge amounts of money on their own entertainment. And yet, there remains a terrible secret to this holiday haven, a secret that shames the Portuguese - and mankind in general. It is a secret that local government officials take great efforts to keep undercover and a secret that I intend to reveal and use to shame the conscience of mankind into action.
You see there is a great and terrible suffering in the Algarve that is hidden from our eyes. Starving, brutality and almost institutional torture are rife. But this time, it is not ourselves we inflict this punishment upon; it is not human kind, which could not in this case be called virtuous. Instead it is the most innocent of sentient beings we could possibly imagine - the animals.
In this beautiful Garden of Eden, we torture, murder and starve animals without giving it a second thought and regardless of how much effort one special woman has put in over the course of twenty five years - the process continues unabated and untold.
You see, this cruel phenomena is not new in the Algarve, it is instead an old story - albeit hushed up. Twenty five years ago a unique individual by the name of Bridget Hicks moved to the Algarve to change the situation. In her time there Bridget created LAPS - the Lagos Animal Protection Society - and set about raising money and saving animals from all-manner of abuse. You see there was such an array of abuse that she found there, that Bridget and others like her struggled to make a difference - especially against the complete lack of interest by the authorities.
During her time, Bridget has managed to make some difference though. Those cats and dogs brought in to the authorities kennels used to be put down with strychnine, which simply kills with pain, causing a slow, lingering and painful death. Bridget managed to get this changed. But there is much more to do.
There are also those who come into the Algarve to provide what some call entertainment, but which in effect cause suffering on a level that we can only imagine. One of these is Circo Atlas, a French circus, which hides abuse and about which nothing is done. There is a polar bear - a beautiful animal that has evolved in the cold of the polar region - kept inside a small cage in the boiling heat of the Portuguese sun. When Bridget and others complained bitterly, the bear was given a standard home fan to keep cool, reducing the temperature by a factor of 0. There was a horse, so malnourished that its bones were sticking through its skin. Local donkeys half-starved and half dead, are brought in as live meat for the sorrowful looking caged lion. Pathetic looking monkeys are kept in cages just big enough to turn around in and a hippopotamus is kept in a dirty enclosure not big enough for a small rodent. This whole so-called entertainment fiasco is frequented by the Portuguese and tourists alike without any knowledge of the conditions of the animals. The following pictures we gathered whilst there will tell the tale:
Circus Horse starved to near death
Caged and starving monkeys
This bear should be wild instead it lives in cramped and sweltering conditions
On another score myself and my wife returned to the Algarve recently and saw first hand some of the suffering caused by ignorance and lack of compassion.
We visited Bridget in the Odiexere region and she took us to a local dam where one of the local water board workers breeds hunting dogs. Constant litters are produced and puppies selected for sale. Those puppies that do not make the grade are either kicked to death or set free to starve in the dry, arid heat of the mountains. The temperature here gets so hot that the Algarve is prone to many fires, which seem to be a regular occurrence and accepted by one and all. This is the landscape these newly born and innocent little beings are let loose in. We went to the breeders house, but no-one was home. This not very gentle-man has even threatened Bridget on several occasions - an aged, half blind and half-crippled old lady.
High on the beautiful landscape of the Odiexere region is a marvellous little restaurant run by a caring couple, one Portuguese and one from the Netherlands. Outside this oasis are tables and chairs where you can sit quietly and enjoy the warmth of the evening sun and drink a beer or two. As you sit there, the ghost-like figures of these beautiful sentient beings emerge from the woods looking for our scraps of food. The pain and discomfort caused by their sorrowful descent to death from lack of nutrition and regular abuse causes them to moan out load. A perfect evening is shattered by the conscience as you feel ashamed to be human. What we saw there brought tears to our eyes. Half-dead dogs running around with their skeletal frames visible through their flea bitten and lice infested skin. We spent our evenings feeding and trying to attract these innocent little lives into our car, but to no avail. They are simply too afraid of humans, and yet come to them, still with a small element of trust and faith in us for food.
Our last evening was heart breaking as we made a final attempt to save a bony female that my wife had found impossible to get out of her mind. This time the little lady dog had been joined by her equally distraught brother, who still had the strength to protect his sister. We tried in vain to save the two dogs. Finally we drove back to Bridget's house and through the dozens of barking, happy and saved dogs up to her front door. Bridget had managed to save one of the litter from the mountain and there in her outstretched frail arms was one of the most beautiful and sorrowful dogs I have ever seen. It was another sentient being, in the loving arms of a human who had compassion, taken from the arms of a world in which it knew not how to survive. We breed these poor souls and then we abuse them. We let them loose into a world they are not prepared for and they die slow horrible diseased deaths because of us. And all the time we drive around this holiday escape spending our money ignorant of the suffering that is going on right under our noses.
The wonderful Bridget Hicks with a puppy saved while we were there from certain death. The puppy was terrified, starved and beaten, we never did get the other one...
What we need to do, if we feel the draw of our own inward compassion is to act in anyway we can. We need to raise the conscience of those doing these barbaric acts; we need to stop the breeding programmes of people like our water board man; we need to get the cats and dogs neutered; we need to show the animals, who look up to us with their big dark seal-like eyes, that we care.
Puppy, chained and starved from its birth!
What can we do? You can contact either of the centres below and offer help or you can contact me and I will do my best to put you in touch with the right people. Alternatively you can donate money to these animals via me and I will pass this on in practical aid with the help of my wife who will be working on this project full time soon. We will also be setting up a volunteer bureau of like-minded people who wish to get their hands dirty and go out to the Algarve to help.
Now Do Something!
Well you could donate to the cause here
Or write a letter. Here's how and who to!
Effective Letter Writing
Letter Content
Make sure your letter is addressed to a named individual (instead of "Dear Sir or Madame"). Contact information for political representatives can be found at your local library or via the Internet.
Be polite but firm.
Keep your letter short and to the point.
Make sure the information you give is factually correct.
Be clear about what you want to see happen - tell them exactly what action you would like them to take and make it as concrete as possible. (e.g. " I want you to stop this now" is not as helpful as " I would like you to make it a priority to work with the Soviet Ambassador to find alternate trapping methods.")
Appeal to their Business sense: As a constituent, let your representatives know that the way they deal with this issue (or fail to deal with it) may affect your voting decision in the next election.
If writing to someone in another geographical area, tell them that his/her position on the issue makes you reluctant to visit his/her country, state, or province, and that you are now inclined to spend your money elsewhere.
If you are writing to a company, tell them you will not purchase any more of their products and you will be alerting other consumers.
Give the full name of any proposed law or parliamentary bill that you want to see passed.
Include your name and address and ask for a reply.
Keep the pressure on. Is there anyone else to whom you can write?
Write letters to congratulate organizations and governments if they make changes to improve animal welfare.
Using the correct form address
There are no hard and fast rules for addressing important officials. The following simple rules will help you achieve the right tone:
Presidents:
Dear Mr./Ms. President
Mailing address to Members of Congress:
The Honorable John Doe
Greeting to Member, Senate:
Dear Senator
Greeting to Member, House of Representatives:
Dear Congressman/woman
Mailing Address to Ambassadors:
His/Her Excellency John/Jane Doe
Greeting to Ambassador:
Dear Ambassador Doe
Prime Ministers:
Dear Prime Minister Doe
End your letters:
Respectfully yours or Sincerely
Other Officials and elected representatives:
Write to these!
The Portuguese Embassy
11 Belgrave Square
London
SW1C 8PP
The Portuguese Tourist Office
Palacio Foz,
Praca Dos Restauradores
1200 Lisboa
Portugal
UK/Portugal Tourist Office
22-25a Sackville Street
London
W1X 1DE
Or you could come and Help the Animals in the Algarve
If you love dogs and cats you will love it here. The LAPS (Largos Animals Protection) needs volunteers all year round to help its growing family of rescued dogs.
Situated in the heart of the beautiful Algarve at Odiexere, just 15 minutes drive from the picturesque harbour town of Lagos and the sandy beaches of this Southern Portugal holiday spot. Bridget Hicks has pioneered the rescue of strays and beaten animals in this part of the world for 25 years and now needs your help.
Why not spend some of you spare time and dedicate yourself to making a difference in the Algarve sun.
Animals lovers are needed, preferably with experience of caring for cats and dogs and to help out this wonderful fighter for the animals.
Come and work alongside a lady who has dedicated her life to caring for the innocent. Free on-site accommodation is available but you will have to fund the airfare.
To apply for this exciting opportunity to make a difference contact Bridget at the address below.
LAGOS ANIMAL PROTECTION SOCIETY (LAPS), Monte Ruivo, Odiaxere, 8600 Lagos, Algarve, Portugal. Telephone +351 282 687 334. Email: laps@sapo.pt
Its better if you ring because the email thing is dodgy!
Donate to LAPS and help today
If you have donated, written or anything else then let Philip or his wife know on info@philipgardiner.net because we would like to build a list of those who have helped.
To thousands of holiday-makers the Algarve is one of the most beautiful and awe inspiring locations on the planet. It has a wonderful coastline, perfect weather, pretty houses, spa resorts and a very interesting history.
Last year I took my family there for a Christmas break to escape the commercialism of our Western world and relax in the warmth of the Portuguese sun. I got more than I bargained for.
Feeding a starving mountain dog (the other two were resue dogs we took for a walk up the mountains to find the strays). Doing this everyday builds confidence in the stray, because all she had ever known from a human was getting kicked and beaten!This wonderful part of the world is the home to the likes of our devout rock and roll personality Cliff Richard, and Dad's Army star Clive Dunn. It is also home to thousands of rich golfers and yachts men, all going about there daily business, soaking up the sun and spending huge amounts of money on their own entertainment. And yet, there remains a terrible secret to this holiday haven, a secret that shames the Portuguese - and mankind in general. It is a secret that local government officials take great efforts to keep undercover and a secret that I intend to reveal and use to shame the conscience of mankind into action.
You see there is a great and terrible suffering in the Algarve that is hidden from our eyes. Starving, brutality and almost institutional torture are rife. But this time, it is not ourselves we inflict this punishment upon; it is not human kind, which could not in this case be called virtuous. Instead it is the most innocent of sentient beings we could possibly imagine - the animals.
In this beautiful Garden of Eden, we torture, murder and starve animals without giving it a second thought and regardless of how much effort one special woman has put in over the course of twenty five years - the process continues unabated and untold.
You see, this cruel phenomena is not new in the Algarve, it is instead an old story - albeit hushed up. Twenty five years ago a unique individual by the name of Bridget Hicks moved to the Algarve to change the situation. In her time there Bridget created LAPS - the Lagos Animal Protection Society - and set about raising money and saving animals from all-manner of abuse. You see there was such an array of abuse that she found there, that Bridget and others like her struggled to make a difference - especially against the complete lack of interest by the authorities.
During her time, Bridget has managed to make some difference though. Those cats and dogs brought in to the authorities kennels used to be put down with strychnine, which simply kills with pain, causing a slow, lingering and painful death. Bridget managed to get this changed. But there is much more to do.
There are also those who come into the Algarve to provide what some call entertainment, but which in effect cause suffering on a level that we can only imagine. One of these is Circo Atlas, a French circus, which hides abuse and about which nothing is done. There is a polar bear - a beautiful animal that has evolved in the cold of the polar region - kept inside a small cage in the boiling heat of the Portuguese sun. When Bridget and others complained bitterly, the bear was given a standard home fan to keep cool, reducing the temperature by a factor of 0. There was a horse, so malnourished that its bones were sticking through its skin. Local donkeys half-starved and half dead, are brought in as live meat for the sorrowful looking caged lion. Pathetic looking monkeys are kept in cages just big enough to turn around in and a hippopotamus is kept in a dirty enclosure not big enough for a small rodent. This whole so-called entertainment fiasco is frequented by the Portuguese and tourists alike without any knowledge of the conditions of the animals. The following pictures we gathered whilst there will tell the tale:
Circus Horse starved to near death Caged and starving monkeys This bear should be wild instead it lives in cramped and sweltering conditionsOn another score myself and my wife returned to the Algarve recently and saw first hand some of the suffering caused by ignorance and lack of compassion.
We visited Bridget in the Odiexere region and she took us to a local dam where one of the local water board workers breeds hunting dogs. Constant litters are produced and puppies selected for sale. Those puppies that do not make the grade are either kicked to death or set free to starve in the dry, arid heat of the mountains. The temperature here gets so hot that the Algarve is prone to many fires, which seem to be a regular occurrence and accepted by one and all. This is the landscape these newly born and innocent little beings are let loose in. We went to the breeders house, but no-one was home. This not very gentle-man has even threatened Bridget on several occasions - an aged, half blind and half-crippled old lady.
High on the beautiful landscape of the Odiexere region is a marvellous little restaurant run by a caring couple, one Portuguese and one from the Netherlands. Outside this oasis are tables and chairs where you can sit quietly and enjoy the warmth of the evening sun and drink a beer or two. As you sit there, the ghost-like figures of these beautiful sentient beings emerge from the woods looking for our scraps of food. The pain and discomfort caused by their sorrowful descent to death from lack of nutrition and regular abuse causes them to moan out load. A perfect evening is shattered by the conscience as you feel ashamed to be human. What we saw there brought tears to our eyes. Half-dead dogs running around with their skeletal frames visible through their flea bitten and lice infested skin. We spent our evenings feeding and trying to attract these innocent little lives into our car, but to no avail. They are simply too afraid of humans, and yet come to them, still with a small element of trust and faith in us for food.
Our last evening was heart breaking as we made a final attempt to save a bony female that my wife had found impossible to get out of her mind. This time the little lady dog had been joined by her equally distraught brother, who still had the strength to protect his sister. We tried in vain to save the two dogs. Finally we drove back to Bridget's house and through the dozens of barking, happy and saved dogs up to her front door. Bridget had managed to save one of the litter from the mountain and there in her outstretched frail arms was one of the most beautiful and sorrowful dogs I have ever seen. It was another sentient being, in the loving arms of a human who had compassion, taken from the arms of a world in which it knew not how to survive. We breed these poor souls and then we abuse them. We let them loose into a world they are not prepared for and they die slow horrible diseased deaths because of us. And all the time we drive around this holiday escape spending our money ignorant of the suffering that is going on right under our noses.
The wonderful Bridget Hicks with a puppy saved while we were there from certain death. The puppy was terrified, starved and beaten, we never did get the other one...
What we need to do, if we feel the draw of our own inward compassion is to act in anyway we can. We need to raise the conscience of those doing these barbaric acts; we need to stop the breeding programmes of people like our water board man; we need to get the cats and dogs neutered; we need to show the animals, who look up to us with their big dark seal-like eyes, that we care.
Puppy, chained and starved from its birth!
What can we do? You can contact either of the centres below and offer help or you can contact me and I will do my best to put you in touch with the right people. Alternatively you can donate money to these animals via me and I will pass this on in practical aid with the help of my wife who will be working on this project full time soon. We will also be setting up a volunteer bureau of like-minded people who wish to get their hands dirty and go out to the Algarve to help.
Now Do Something!
Well you could donate to the cause here
Or write a letter. Here's how and who to!
Effective Letter Writing
Letter Content
Make sure your letter is addressed to a named individual (instead of "Dear Sir or Madame"). Contact information for political representatives can be found at your local library or via the Internet.
Be polite but firm.
Keep your letter short and to the point.
Make sure the information you give is factually correct.
Be clear about what you want to see happen - tell them exactly what action you would like them to take and make it as concrete as possible. (e.g. " I want you to stop this now" is not as helpful as " I would like you to make it a priority to work with the Soviet Ambassador to find alternate trapping methods.")
Appeal to their Business sense: As a constituent, let your representatives know that the way they deal with this issue (or fail to deal with it) may affect your voting decision in the next election.
If writing to someone in another geographical area, tell them that his/her position on the issue makes you reluctant to visit his/her country, state, or province, and that you are now inclined to spend your money elsewhere.
If you are writing to a company, tell them you will not purchase any more of their products and you will be alerting other consumers.
Give the full name of any proposed law or parliamentary bill that you want to see passed.
Include your name and address and ask for a reply.
Keep the pressure on. Is there anyone else to whom you can write?
Write letters to congratulate organizations and governments if they make changes to improve animal welfare.
Using the correct form address
There are no hard and fast rules for addressing important officials. The following simple rules will help you achieve the right tone:
Presidents:
Dear Mr./Ms. President
Mailing address to Members of Congress:
The Honorable John Doe
Greeting to Member, Senate:
Dear Senator
Greeting to Member, House of Representatives:
Dear Congressman/woman
Mailing Address to Ambassadors:
His/Her Excellency John/Jane Doe
Greeting to Ambassador:
Dear Ambassador Doe
Prime Ministers:
Dear Prime Minister Doe
End your letters:
Respectfully yours or Sincerely
Other Officials and elected representatives:
Write to these!
The Portuguese Embassy
11 Belgrave Square
London
SW1C 8PP
The Portuguese Tourist Office
Palacio Foz,
Praca Dos Restauradores
1200 Lisboa
Portugal
UK/Portugal Tourist Office
22-25a Sackville Street
London
W1X 1DE
Or you could come and Help the Animals in the Algarve
If you love dogs and cats you will love it here. The LAPS (Largos Animals Protection) needs volunteers all year round to help its growing family of rescued dogs.
Situated in the heart of the beautiful Algarve at Odiexere, just 15 minutes drive from the picturesque harbour town of Lagos and the sandy beaches of this Southern Portugal holiday spot. Bridget Hicks has pioneered the rescue of strays and beaten animals in this part of the world for 25 years and now needs your help.
Why not spend some of you spare time and dedicate yourself to making a difference in the Algarve sun.
Animals lovers are needed, preferably with experience of caring for cats and dogs and to help out this wonderful fighter for the animals.
Come and work alongside a lady who has dedicated her life to caring for the innocent. Free on-site accommodation is available but you will have to fund the airfare.
To apply for this exciting opportunity to make a difference contact Bridget at the address below.
LAGOS ANIMAL PROTECTION SOCIETY (LAPS), Monte Ruivo, Odiaxere, 8600 Lagos, Algarve, Portugal. Telephone +351 282 687 334. Email: laps@sapo.pt
Its better if you ring because the email thing is dodgy!
Donate to LAPS and help today
If you have donated, written or anything else then let Philip or his wife know on info@philipgardiner.net because we would like to build a list of those who have helped.
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