Helping Estrelas in need in Portugal

Where to begin our story is not easy. Let’s start from the first moment I, Marie, set eyes on an Estrela baby in the Estrela Mountains. You all know what those cuddly little bears look like at a few weeks old. This happened more than 30 years ago. They were in a big wicker basket on the mountain top at Tor. A few years later, Adrian and I met in Holland, got married and in 1988 went on “his” first trip to Portugal by car with a small tent in case we couldn’t find a B&B.

Up the mountain we drove looking for those Teddy Bears I had imprinted on my memory. But this time there weren’t any. As we were on our way south, down to our friends in Faro, had plenty of time to spare, so started exploring the villages in the Serra da Estrela. Suddenly, we came across a wooden, hanging sign which read,” Cães para venda”.

Yes! We stopped and as I speak Portuguese had no difficulty in finding the “man” who had the dogs for sale. This man turned out to be Antonio Lourenço of the Montes Herminios kennel. I won’t dwell on our experiences of conditions etc. as all that has changed now but he had two different litters from two different bitches and sires. Two weeks apart in date of birth. We saw the mothers and one father. The other father lived with a family in the village but his photo is in one of the first Estrela books. Because the pups were still very young, we were in dubio of what to do. Adrian said, taking just one was cruel and we should take two, but how? After discussions with Sr. Antonio, we agreed to come back after our visit to Faro and the pups would be 2 weeks older. This we did and took home to Holland our first two Estrelas at 5 and 7 weeks old. No passports, no vaccines, only an ear tattoo, nothing else. (I got the pedigrees later by post). We kept them in a box under my legs and went through every border post with beating hearts. Had to sleep at campsites in our little tent with the pups between us and let them out on the grass in the middle of the night, saying, shush, shush!! Crazy!

They were Shtrela and Bruno dos Montes Herminios.

Sr. Antonio told me there was an Estrela organisation in Holland ( Sietske Christan) so we got in touch with them.

From that moment on we have never looked back and never regretted anything. Adrian was very active in the Dutch Estrela club for more than a decade and we interacted with Estrela lovers and learnt very much about the breed.

That’s how we met Marcia and her friends and UK breeders.

After moving to Portugal permanently in 2003, with all our dogs, we started to get involved with Estrelas here through our good friend Suzette and later Monika, both excellent breeders. I went to all the shows and also visited the mountains to watch the shepherds at work and talk with them, if I could, as they speak an awful dialect. More and more we got involved with these dogs, their habitat, personalities, history and their needs.

This is how we eventually got involved in rescue.

The Estrela is a Portuguese national heritage dog and actually there are two types, short coat and long coat, the latter of which evolved much later due to “beauty before typical breed characteristics”. Dog shows started appearing and the beautiful dogs were the long coats and won all the prizes.

As more and more dogs were bred, they started being found “abandoned” all over the place. Teddy Bears turn into huge canines with strong personalities as well as strong urges to flee over the mountains and far away. Most Portuguese do not neuter their dogs, neither female nor male. Male owners think it is sacrilege to take away their dog’s balls. Others think to spay a female will kill her. All part of the way of thinking of old Portuguese culture. Consequently, females run around on heat and get pregnant and unwanted puppies are born. People say to us, “but my female was on a chain during her heat......”???? How to answer that is way beyond my comprehension.

So, for the last 20 years, we have been rescuing, capturing taking in, housing, sheltering, call it what you will, Estrela Mountain Dogs, simply because a) we love them and b) we cannot bear to see them being mistreated.

These have been found all over the Algarve and everywhere in Portugal. Most do not have a chip and that is exactly what the people who dump them take care of. No chip, no owner.

Some find their way into local council pounds and are noticed. If we notice them, they are lucky, as we will get them out, somehow. Some are brought to private shelters and from there it is much easier to home them. Some are only picked up when they cannot walk any further due to lack of food and exhaustion, full of ticks, fleas and often mange as well. These break my heart. Some are found dead on a highway, RIP. And some are just left to fend for themselves in a field or garden or patio when the owner dies.

We are well known in the Algarve as Estrela people and under our logo, 2ndhand4footers, so often people have asked us directly to take one that has landed in unforeseen circumstances or to help catch one that is running around a Golf Course for example, and we did just that and named him Johnny Walker... (took us hours to catch him walking around)

We have had them with all kinds of injuries; bones, eyes, paws, deep open neck wounds, half a leg missing, bites, mange, etc etc.

Our biggest rescue operation was in 2014 in Arouca, east of Porto and 800km from where we live. We went there twice to get all the dogs out of a hell-hole. That is a separate story you can read on our website. More than 30 Estrelas, all interbred. A good example of what happens to the gene pool when there is no diversity. We still have 4 of these with us now, 8 years later, tough as old boots.

Rescue is an expensive business because we are not a charity. We are just a couple who have a house and land that can accommodate at least some of these dogs in need.

Our Estrelas and other rescues live in house with us as much as possible and sleep each in their own crate at night.

The Arouca dogs have their own kennel and run, right down the garden. Those left, are too traumatised to be homed. Others from this group we have homed to England, Scotland, Wales, Sweden and Holland. Finding homes abroad is also a lot of work as we need the cooperation of others to do our home checks and then the transport. Since Brexit this has all become a lot more complicated but where there’s a strong will, there’s a way.

All our dogs are neutered, chipped, vaccinated and tested for Mediterranean blood diseases, which is of the utmost importance because if they have any, they need to be treated immediately. We do not cut corners with our rescues.

Our goal is to home as many as we can and not to hoard them here with us. I have tried to make a list of the names of all our Estrela rescues up to now

A star (*) means rescued from a shelter.
A cross (+) means from the street, fields, countryside etc.

Milou,* Afoito*, Chaplin+, Goldra+, Nevada and Shiva from friend breeders, Belami and Beatrice from a failed breeding program in the Estrela mountains.

2006-2010

Alfie+, Alex+, Silvie+,Lex+, Faial, ( on death row) Cheri and puppy*

2011-2015

Livia + (gypsies), Wanda*, Boss*, Morna*, all the Arouca Estrelas.

2016- 2020

Rainha* in Holland, Homer+, Codey+,Mario+,Sereia*, Auva+, Seia and Maia*, Mira and Brusco from breeder friends, Flossy*, Cora*, Tansy*, Rufus*, Taksi+

2021- today
Puppy Kali*, Rebecca*, Soul*, Sammy*.

Chaplin and Afoito

DRAMATIC RESCUE 30 SERRAS FROM A DOG'S CONCENTRATION CAMP

AT SERRA DE FREITA NEAR AROUCA, NORTHERN PORTUGAL.

After reading about the plight of an ex-breeder of Serra da Estrelas on FB in June 2014, we decided to help the man home his dogs....... but what we found there was hell on earth.

It is 750km from our house in the Algarve to Arouca but we did it twice, with cars, a van and a jeep with trailer. It was a nightmare and a long story if we go into detail.

PLEASE MAKE A DONATION TO THESE POOR DOGS BY GOING TO THE DONATIONS BUTTON.

THEY NEED YOUR HELP. THANK YOU!