November 23rd Romanian Dog rescue week
It’s Romanian Dog rescue week! Myself and the team, Teela Caroline, Gavin and Anne are flying to Romania and traveling by car approx. 1 hour, to reach our destination of Olentia. Here we visit the killing shelter and try our hardest to pick the dogs most in need. Although as you can imagine this is an emotionally draining task as every dog in there is at risk of being beaten, starved to death, attacked by other (starved) dogs in the pack and attacked by the dog catchers and even death through serve weather conditions.
These dogs are captured on the streets by the Dog catchers that have been ordered by the mare to eliminate their street Dog infestation. This is in humane and cruel; these dogs are not caught and euthanised in the correct manor they are aggressively treated and some tortured to death.
Caring across the continent works closely with two local people they help as many dogs as they can survive this dreadful way of life, they try with little time and money to give these dogs quality of life, this is just food, water and shelter. They don’t have time to cuddle, love, handle and give all the things we give our pets in England. This shelter is called Andica which was built by funds raised by Anne and Caroline. They work tirelessly finding good loyal homes for the rescue dogs in their care.
Having visited Romania myself twice in 2016 this opened my eyes to reality over there. The others in the team visit around 4 times a year, which after this trip I intend to do the same. There are of course a few groups from over Europe that visit and try and help this brutal situation. There’s not enough help, there’s not enough funding and there’s too much ignorance. These dogs and cats have rights. I right to eat, drink and a right to be loved and cared for.
Caring across the continent has rescued over 150 dogs and helped many others along the way, weather that’ll be feeding the strays or helping the injured. Our pledge is to neuter and re home as many as we can to get the number of street dogs down and put these dog catchers out of business.
Why Romania is a popular question. For myself Romania is well up there with the worst or the worst animal cruelty countries. They don’t just capture them they beat them for money. I will be posting photos and videos on our Facebook page “Sam’s Woof Wash Grooming Studio” & “Caring across the continent” this will help you understand the question ‘why Romania’.
Day 1
Were up bright and early to have some much-needed breakfast, there’s nowhere to eat around here so we go to the Romanian couple Diana and Dimitar for breakfast, there kind enough to keep our bellies full! This morning we will be buying a car full of dog food for the strays, stopping in prime locations along our travels. Putting out wet & dry food and water. Helping the injured is of course very challenging as you can imagine scared injured animals used to running from humans and were trying to persuade them were one of the good ones!
We’re off to Diana’s sisters to take some photos of the dogs and cats they have in their care to try and find them homes, the more homes we find the quicker the turn around the dogs free space to get the next dogs in. She lives with over 20 homeless dogs running around her house. She feeds them before she feeds herself she also has an outdoor shelter which Anne raised the funds to build, these are 6 separate kennels with dog houses and beds inside under shelter, this isn’t a permanent home for any dog it’s simply a safe place for the Dogs to sleep eat drink and free from danger of the public, Dog catchers and being hit by the cars.
Day 2
What a challenge ahead of us, feeding the strays and taking in the ones in need, with little space left from the summer months as the whole adoption and travel process takes so long we can only help a handful, there are other foster homes around the area but of course some Romanians use the street Dog problem to their advantage and make money out of it, we have no choice but to pay a foster fee as it’s that or leave them there! Today we did around 100 miles feeding strays, we went places unsuitable for cars so approached on foot, hot spots by bins, butchers and waste land, we have feed over 50 dogs in one day and of course if you keep up via Facebook you’ll know we came across two puppies a Mum and two adult dogs guarding them at a nearby college, of which was an emotional, overwhelming feeling but at the same time put us under extreme pressure to make a decision to take these puppies of the street, it’s not about picking up every dog it’s about the right decision for the Mum Dog, the puppies, the dogs in our care, we have to question their health, they could be carrying distemper, Parvo, worms, we can’t risk the health of the healthy dogs back at the shelter. So our first port of call is Diana, she contacts the vets and gets them to go out for First vaccines to make them safe. Then when we can catch the Mum, which is a hard task as she’s street wise we can take her pups too, we’d made the decision they had to go together as the pups looked young and we felt they still needed milk. After an hour attempt we had to leave them with food and water and let her calm down before we tried again the next day. So onwards we go feeding more dogs, these dogs on the waste land were street dogs- they were happy as street dogs, it’s like they knew their home. It was an awful sight to see them rummaging through bins, eating remains of dead animals, including dogs and cats, but they were free and they gave off an impression of feed me but please don’t take me from my pack! Around 3 adult bitches had sagging teats with fresh milk so there were obviously puppies around, but where? We don’t know, they could have been anywhere and with the mums growling at us warning us off we have to think of our own safety. We feed lots of kittens here too some of which approached us to play!
While myself, Teela and Gavin were feeding the strays Caroline and Anne went with Diana to spay the Mum Dog of the factory, Caroline rescued her 8 pups in September, she never managed to catch her that day, but we got her this time with the help of a factory worker!!
Day 3
Factory Mum, now named Azora was very happy where she lived and could not in our eyes adapt to a pet, our mission on this occasion was to spay, vaccinate de flea and worm and put her back in the factory with her 3 friends, here she was feed by workers and was out of danger from the dog catcher, decisions aren’t easy out here, but this was by far the best! I’ve never seen a dog so happy to be at home!! She was barking and wagging her tail like she was telling her friends she was pleased she’d been spay and she was never having pups again!! Happy outcome all round! After the release of Azora we went to the superstore in town where Anne stocked up on winter food for Dimitar and Diana and myself and Caroline stocked up on food for the kill shelter. The pups Caroline rescued in September and more food for the strays! This is our biggest cost, alongside vet bills!
We then disturbed the food across our foster homes and fed more strays… seeing some sad sights we stumbled across a really old Pomeranian type dog that had been attacked numerous times with scars and fresh wounds, after him biting us through fear we managed to get him in the car and to safety, his health checks and vaccinations will start tomorrow as there’s no time to get to the vets now it’s an hour drive! Me Caroline Teela and Gavin carry on and feed the strays, ending up back at the butchers as we spotted a bitch with teats there yesterday we had a feeling there would be pups somewhere, as you can imagine it’s not the safest place to just get out the car and rummage, no one speaks English, we can’t speak Romanian, there’s beggars all around wanting anything they can get their hands on. I got out the car, and stood back a little to watch where the Mum went, and at my surprise she had hidden her pups in a hole underground by a drain and under a house, I gently approached the Mum who was very friendly gave her some food and called the others over to witness the feeling I had just got… there were 5 very healthy chubby pups huddled in a ball in freezing temperatures with a doting Mum watching over them as if to say please take them and keep them safe. The look in her eye was unforgettable, it brings a tear to my eye writing this. We sit for a while and check the pups over for obvious signs of illness, the Mum seemed so happy and content with us near her pups. We box them up and can you believe what we discovered. Another mother coming from under a fence with obvious signs of having puppies… myself and Gavin find a way of getting around the back of the fence, we search woodland and come across and old building with broken glass oils rusty metal and stenches indescribable to find 4 more beautiful puppies, these pups were so scared and cold at around 7 weeks one puppy now named grizzle was growling at us! Little monkey!! We carefully entered the building and boxed up the puppies, we went straight to the vet to vaccinate them and do the relevant tests to make sure they were safe to mix with the other dogs in our care. We then take the puppies to our foster home and make the best out of the hospitality we can offer- this is still by far from good enough but there safe and looked after. Here we pay £65 a month for their care this is for 9 puppies, we get regular updates and photos weekly, this is the most important part of their little journey with us, they have a long road ahead to there forever homes but as a team we are determined to get them there. I think our mission is complete today!
Day 4
This to us is the worst day of our trip, it’s the day we have to run around the town getting everything we need for the dogs in our care and finishing off any last little jobs until we return, making sure all the relevant tests and vaccinations are done and ensuring Dimitar and Diana are stocked up for the winter.
Thank you for following our journey, please like our page and share, social media will save these poor souls life’s, donations can be made via our PayPal: