1983 – Adopted 11 year old Labrador (retired guide dog) and started caring for abandoned dogs in refuges in UK and became aware of the problem of unwanted greyhounds in UK. (1/3rd of inmates of refuges were greyhounds). Took blankets and supplies to refuges for them and walked and groomed the greyhounds
1986 – Adopted Emma – greyhound.
Started to be interested in promoting greyhounds as pets in order to help the massive problem in the UK. Worked with Ann Shannon of Retired Greyhound Trust homing greyhounds all over UK (about 200 per year) and doing political work in their defence.
1989-90 – started to do political work against Ireland exporting greyhounds to Spain.
1991 – Went to Mallorca to investigate abuses there and returned with 4 dogs.
Went to Ireland to campaign openly against Spanish lorry taking dogs.
1992 – Went to Valencia, Barcelona, returned with more dogs. Inspection (following my reports) now having taken place by World Greyhound Racing Federation.
1992-93 – Started exporting greyhounds from Spain to Switzerland (Pro Levrier-Renate Schmidlin and Evelyne Bader)
Liaison initiated with Hans van der Steen and Aad in Holland (later moved to France) re retired greyhounds.
1993-94 – started homing dogs (approx 100, plus the UK 200 per year) from UK and Spain to American Forces in Germany with help from Melinie Lemay.
1995 – Created 2 hour long educational video in Spanish “El Cuidado del Galgo de Carreras” and circulated 1000 free copies to dog tracks and hunters in Spain.
Started homing Spanish dogs to German nationals (Windhund in Not), with help from Ellen Poppendick, Norbert Witzmann, Ute Rashcke, Veronike Erley, Monike Fleischmann. Liaised with Johanna Wothke, Pro Animale, Germany, and shared with her the problem of greyhounds in Spain and Ireland and she offered refuge and adoption to some brought up from Spain.
1995-96 Others contacted me from Belgium (Jean-Pierre Van Mellaert, Danielle Forrest, Mireille Broeders, Sandrine Fedorowicz, Katia Van Hauwaert wanting to adopt/help and to assist our promotion of greyhounds in Belgium and did translation work for our newsletters.
Started campaign against the hanging of galgos in internal Spain after seeing video in Madrid of hanged galgos in Granada. Visited Granada and publicity made and galgos rescued from the refuges there. Copied the video for USA Spanish Embassy helped by visit there by Scotti Devens of Save The Greyhound Dogs USA.
Received regularly 6-16 greyhounds at a time coming from Barcelona to Calais for homing in Belgium and Germany.
Contribution to Californian publication “Rescue Tales Of Compassion and Love”.
London and International Greyhound Forums are formed – 6 meetings per year in London and Dublin, to discuss greyhound welfare between rescue groups(including GIN) in UK and Ireland and the greyhound racing authorities.
1997-98 – Accepted offer for sheltering Spanish greyhounds from Mallorca and Barcelona by Celia Holmgren and Katrin Goerner in Hamburg of Greyhounds in Not.
Wrote first book in Europe on homing the retired greyhound “Pet Owners Guide To The Greyhound”, also available in German.
Birgit and Dieter Muller, Germany, offer help and take dogs for homing.
Diana Haenggi and Marlies Muller of Switzerland offer and take dogs for homing
Princess Elisabeth de Croy in Thiernay refuge, France, offers and takes dogs for homing
Contacted Scooby Association, Medina del Campo and 2 year co-operation began there. Built kennels, fences and doors in their warehouse; donated kennelling materials, tranquillizer gun, medical/surgical supplies, an entire operating theatre and massive amounts of steel kennelling for their new refuge plus financial help and publicity work in 6 languages and shared all our contacts with Scooby, bringing out over 1000 dogs for adoption in Europe.
May 1998 – became registered as Greyhounds in Need.
Mireille Broeders renewed contact offering help, introducing us to Ganin Dumolin who arranged for Spanish greyhounds/galgos from Medina del Campo to go to Animaux en Peril, Brussels.
Hans van der Steen introduced us to Resy Haanan in Holland who also offered to take dogs for homing.
1999 -Mallorca and Pabellon tracks close. Hundreds of dogs removed to Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, UK and Holland plus many galgos from Spain.
Sept. 99 – GIN summit meeting in Gent chaired by Aad. GIN recommends that Mireille and Resy form own groups independently of GIN and provide own funding and transportation (GIN Nederlands, Greyhounds in Nood, Belgium)
Sept/Oct. 1999 – Invited by Greyhounds as Companions and Greyhound Friends MA to Dewey Beach Reunion of 2000 dogs, Delaware, USA.
Anne goes to Naples and Rome dog tracks and arranges for their dogs to go to Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, UK. Dogs continue to be taken from Barcelona track and refuges.
December 1999 – Josephine Van Den Bergh offers help and homes and forms Greyhounds Rescue Belgium, taking dogs first from Scooby association.
Contribution of the chapter “The Galgos and Greyhounds of Spain” written for North Carolina publication ‘All Bets are Off ‘
Jan 2000 Anne and another Trustee visit Maryse Lehnen in Luxembourg to look at the possibilities of forming a holding station there.
April 2000 – 35 galgos from 5 refuges in Madrid go to Austria with help of Jutta Grohall and Barbel Steinfellner.
Anne is invited to visit Greyhound Friends North Carolina, to discuss work together.
We place dogs for boarding at Perrotel kennels, Campello, Alicante from the Barcelona track and refuges at Cordoba, Sevilla, Madrid, Murcia, Caceres, Almendralejo, Albacete, Torrevieja, Segovia, Granada, Guadalajara.
SOS Galgos, Barcelona, take 4 greyhounds/galgos from Perrotel for homing in Spain and invite Anne to dog show in Barcelona for the greyhounds.
May 2000 – Sue North opens the GIN shop (second hand shop) in Bournemouth and manages the sponsorship scheme of pet passport/quarantine dogs for GIN
Year 2000 – 650 dogs homed including 91 from Rome, 30 from Ireland, 20 to USA and the rest from Spain.
3 chapters on Greyhound Retirement written for UK publication “The Ultimate Greyhound”
Anne is made Associate Member of the Society of Greyhound Veterinarians (British/Irish)
Catherine Madry offers help and forms Levriers en Detresse in France. French SPA shelters and helps with adoption of GIN dogs.
2001 – GIN continues to home dogs in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and France and Luxembourg.
Anne takes dog to home in Finland and initiates interest there. More dogs on the way next week.
Three dogs go to Sweden, two to Norway and about 30 dogs go to USA.
More dogs rescued from Italy(50). We take 30 dogs from Ireland; Irish Animals, Dublin, PAWS, Sallins, Kildare Animal Welfare, Eire.
Greyhound groups in USA lend help; Personalised Greyhounds, National Greyhound Adoption Programme, Make Peace With Animals, and Suzanne Stack work with GIN to adopt dogs and contribute medical materials.
30 to 40 boxes of medical supplies and antiparasitics are distributed 2-3 monthly by GIN to 20 refuges in Spain.
Patricia Osborne in Perrotel forms her own charity, El Galgo Senior.
Betty and Fred Mercey form Greyhounds Rescue Holland in conjunction with GIN.
Diana Jork with the help of Thomas Gerwers discuss formation of German foundation, Galgos in Not, to work in partnership with GIN.
Sigurd Tenbieg of des Tierschutzforderverein e.V., offers shelter and adoption of GIN dogs.
Geoffrey Levy takes over as treasurer.
Anne Finch 20 11 01