Dear friends,
Almost 1,600 of you, from 90 countries, have signed to end the blood farming of hunting dogs in Portugal. Thank you.
Here's why we need you again.
Francisco Almeida — the pack master exposed by TVI and CNN Portugal — never lost his licence. Within a month of the Lavre dogs being rescued, he had gathered more than 80 new ones in Palmela. The GNR seized over 50, emaciated and dehydrated; the exhausted rescue groups had no room and were forced to leave 30 more behind. He is now starting another pack in Moita, where he was investigated in 2022. He builds packs faster than anyone can empty them.
And the record is damning. Portugal's own DGAV tracked his operation across three inspections and found only 11% of the dogs still present two years later — 22 microchipped animals had simply vanished from the state's database. DGAV has a long record of this horrific abuse of animals to only shelf the case. They did not rescue any animal from Almeida or banned him from handling a hunting pack. Hunting dogs continued to be used as hunting objects and living blood bags as a result.
In TVI's report (from 11:12), the on-screen findings of the Procuradora do Ministério Público state that no feeding bowls were found on the property, and that the dogs are fed all at once on raw meat — by Almeida's own account. What the footage shows being stored as that feed is raw carcass and bone, piled in open crates inside a chest freezer standing outdoors on the grass — no ice, no refrigeration.. Watch, and judge for yourself, from 11:12: https://tvi.iol.pt/noticias/animais/maus-tratos/negocio-do-sangue-animal-caes-envolvidos-em-caso-de-maus-tratos-sao-dadores-de-empresa-que-lucra-1-4-milhoes-por-ano/20260506/69fba85ed34edcee7c63d9b6
Three authorities: The ICNF held the power to revoke his hunting-pack licence, and never did — so he remains legally entitled to keep and run a pack. The DGAV compiled the file itself: three inspections, nine in ten dogs gone in two years, twenty-two microchipped animals vanished from the state's own database, and documented failures in housing, hygiene and welfare — and enforced none of it. The Ordem dos Médicos Veterinários announced an inquiry into the veterinarians who ran blood collections in a cramped shed with no signs of sterilisation — a shed where TVI's own footage showed a dead dog — and nothing has been seen to follow; the vet responsible has faced no known consequence. Three bodies, each with the evidence in hand, each with the power to act. Not one of them stopped it. That is not an oversight. That is a system.
The rescues cannot save their way out of this. Only exposure and enforcement can. So today, one thing: Please continue to share this petition, most importantly, share it with intention, with the people who can amplify it and can initiate change —
– Journalists who cover animal welfare, investigations, or corporate accountability.
– Animal-rights advocates and organizations with the reach we don't have.
Sign and share: https://c.org/jWYNNBBkHK
The dogs of Lavre were freed because people refused to stay silent. Let's be their voice again.
With gratitude and resolve,
End Blood Farming of Hunting Dogs in Portugal
endbloodfarmingofhuntingdogs@proton.me