Rest easy, Polaco. Argentina just lost one of the best. If you don’t know the name Eduardo “El Polaco” Groh Riemersma yet, here’s who we lost few days ago!
For almost 20 years, he ran a shelter called El Montecito de los Canichones in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. It started after his own dog passed away, when his father-in-law gave him a dog rescued off the street. That one dog changed the entire direction of his life.
From there, he built something extraordinary. Nearly 4,200 rescues over two decades. At the time of his death, he was caring for roughly 500 dogs, needing about 6,000 kilos of food every single month just to keep them fed. He didn’t just take in the easy cases either — dogs with disabilities, chronic illness, old age, the ones most shelters pass on, he made room for.
He passed away on August 27th after a motorcycle accident in Santiago del Estero. He was only 49.
Hundreds of people showed up at a vigil for him the very next night. Strangers, volunteers, people whose dogs he’d personally rescued years ago. That’s not the kind of turnout you get for just anyone. That’s what two decades of showing up for animals nobody else wanted actually earns you.
The shelter itself will continue, it’s registered as its own legal entity, but it needs the community now more than ever to hold up what was largely one man’s life’s work.
If his name is new to you today, we hope it stays with you. This is what it actually looks like to spend a life on something that matters.
Rest easy, Polaco. 🐾❤️
What’s one person, known or not, who’s shown you what real dedication to animals looks like?