Contact details:
Sound Sighthounds and Lurchers
Mailing address:
Ruurloseweg 82
7255 MA Hengelo (gld)
Chamber of Commerce number: 74547798
Barbara Willemse
secretary and treasurer
I love dogs, period. Purebred, look-alike, irreducible crossbreed, I love the creature dog. For me, health will always go beyond appearance, no matter how much I love breeds. As soon as it became clear to me that many purebred dogs are in trouble because of us, people who breed them, it became impossible for me to participate. I hope more and more attention will be paid to the importance of genetic diversity in dogs and that slowly but surely there will be a change in breeding and in thinking about the importance of purity. I will do my utmost best to contribute to this, as a breeder and through this foundation.
Gerard Barkema
chairman
In our family there has always been a lot of space for dogs: purebred dogs (Border Collies, shepherds, Irish Wolfhounds) and crossbreeds (Galgos and shepherds), mostly from abroad. With the purebred dogs we have experienced much more health and behavioral problems than with the crossbreeds. At this time I think this is due to a lack of genetic diversity, and we want to work on this problem with the foundation.
Mechtild Jansen
health committee
behavioral therapy and guidance
For years I have earned my living with our dog school and behavioral therapy for dogs, and for years I have found that crossbred dogs are in many ways better than purebred dogs; healthier, more stable. This has also been confirmed time and time again in my daily practice. But only since our breeding plan with a beloved breed, the Irish Wolfhound, did it become clear to me how dramatic the state of this breed and many others are. After a thorough dive in the world of genetics, I became convinced that things have to change and I want to do my bit. In a few years I hope to be an experiential expert with our outcrossing Irish Wolfhound / Tamaskan combined with? We will see!
Jettie Hilhorst
general board member
My name is Jettie Hilhorst, I am married, I live in Soest and I am a dog groomer. Obviously a lover of dogs and especially of sighthounds and Lurchers. I would like to do my bit for healthy dogs by helping wherever possible for this foundation.
Danielle Goedhart
volunteer Promotion and fundraising
My name is Danielle Goedhart, and I love the appearance and the friendly and calm nature of the Irish Wolfhound. But I had also decided that Thor would be my first and last Irish Wolfhound because I do not want to cooperate in continuing the breeding of dogs that are not healthy and have only a very short life expectancy. At a certain time I came in contact with the Sound Sighthounds & Lurchers Foundation and I was immediately enthusiastic about the efforts of Barbara Willemse, the spiritual mother of the foundation; improve the health of the Irish breed that I loved so much through outcross. I immediately signed up as a volunteer and can now also call me a board member of a foundation that will ensure that in a few years' time I may again be willing to provide a loving home to an Irish Wolfhound (or possibly outcross).
Ronny Daniel
webmaster
I used to be more a cat person than a dog person, but now I have been infected by the "dog virus". I like most dogs. Whether it's the big, tough, imposing Wolfies or "our little chinese" (Powder Puffs), I love them (yes, the rest of them too). In the photo I holding Katie; she is a real sweetheart ....
