- Association PEGADAS & BIGODES - friend of animals
“Pegadas & Bigodes” is a dog shelter located in central Portugal, near Figueiró dos Vinhos.
We take in abandoned, abused, or neglected dogs that have nowhere else to go, and our goal is to find new homes for as many of them as possible with responsible adopters.
All of our dogs are spayed or neutered, microchipped, and fully vaccinated.
The Pegadas e Bigodes Association—Animal Friends Association—was born out of the strong determination of a woman who, many years ago, decided to start helping abandoned animals by taking them into her home in Figueiró dos Vinhos.
It was the year 2008… but suddenly, and almost without realizing exactly how, as time went on, the number of animals kept growing, and it became difficult for her to handle everything on her own!
In 2010, some volunteers arrived to help her organize things, and that’s when this entire project truly became an association.
Today, the association is run by three volunteers (Ana Morgado, from Portugal; Natasha Schenkels, from the Netherlands; and Sarah Beach, from England) and relies on the collaboration of several people—also volunteers—most of whom are foreigners.
“Of course, there’s still a lot to be done,” explains Ana Morgado, the current director, with whom we had the pleasure of speaking. “But a lot has already been accomplished. Today we have about 50 dogs living in large kennels with plenty of space to move around, without chains; we have a park where they can run and play…
All the dogs in our care are intended for adoption. They come to us because they were abandoned, or because people handed them over to us since they could no longer care for them, or through the Ansião and Penela Municipal Dog Shelter, with which we have a partnership.”
Our partnership with the ZooSaúde veterinary clinic ensures that the animals receive all necessary health care, including up-to-date vaccinations, spaying or neutering, microchipping… in short, everything needed to make them ready to bring joy to other families, which is always the association’s ultimate goal.
When families contact the association to adopt an animal, they must fill out an identification form and a liability waiver. Whether they’re puppies or adult dogs, it’s always the adopters who choose the dog. In the case of adult dogs, there’s a more in-depth assessment to determine compatibility. Adult dogs often have traumas or fears that may not be compatible with their new family. Sometimes they don’t like cats, don’t get along with other dogs, etc., and this must be taken into account at the time of adoption.
In either case, preference is given to people who want to keep the animal indoors, as another member of the family.
Not all the families that adopt dogs from this association are Portuguese. The association has a partnership with a Belgian organization that promotes their adoption, and when the dogs arrive in Belgium, they go directly to their new homes.
“We regularly take animals to Belgium, which already feels so close to us here.” And for those who might think we lose touch with the animals once they leave, Ana explains that this isn’t quite the case. “We continue to receive lots of updates and even photos, since we truly have a regular and very close relationship with this association and with the adopters. There are adopters from abroad who have already adopted several dogs from us.”
As we mentioned at the beginning, everyone involved is a volunteer, and the association has always operated this way. At one point, the woman who started this project decided to move and sold her house to the association, thus allowing the animals to stay in the same place. Since then, several renovations have been carried out with the help of volunteers and with the funds they’ve managed to raise through fundraising campaigns, at local festivals, through sales of donated items, and, of course, through membership dues and donations—all of which are invaluable for continuing the work they’ve done so far!
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