The Torture, the Misery, the Fight to Survive ….

Firstly let me refer to U.K. rescue dogs, it’s not so easy to just start homing local stray dogs. They are already often in a rescue centre. We don’t often see stray dogs roaming the streets? We would need to already be set up as a sanctuary in order to take some pressure off local rescues, but we aren’t there yet, we aren’t even close.  We don’t want any dog to live in a kennel, but it’s a lot easier than the experience of rescue dogs on the streets in Romania. It’s a lot better than being dragged into a Romanian kill shelter.

In fact, the plight of the stray dogs in Romania is so distressing and so violent, it is quite hard to believe it is happening, but it is, and I’ve seen it. The brutality can be like none you have ever witnessed before or would ever want to. We all want to sleep well at night and when you know certain things or see them you can never unknow or unsee. That’s why my colleagues and friends over in Romania do all they can but it can never be enough. In the near decade I’ve been doing this its still the same problems. But we must have hope, or we have nothing. The dogs over there are depending on our hope, our motivation and need us to see and to take action for them as they are voiceless,

In Bucharest there aren’t as many dogs there these days and there’s a reason. It’s a big city, the government ‘cleans’ the streets and so the stray dogs are often found in the Countryside. In fact, shortly after leaving the hustle and bustle of Bucharest you start to see them lining the pavements. Many are driven to the Countryside and thrown out of cars. Some are taken to certain fast-moving roads on purpose, and they don’t stand a chance. Sadly, on my most recent trip there they were this time lining the roads as I saw so many deceased that is was heart breaking and traumatic to witness. There were more than I’ve ever seen before, but there’s been a lot more movement in Romania in the last two years, more people, cars and trucks. There’s a microchip bill and so people have also abandoned their animals.

I remember on one road trip some 5 years ago a man was walking by the roadside with a dog slung over his shoulder. To this day I feel sick about what was happening. We turned around to follow him, but he had gone. It was like he had a sack of potatoes just strewn over his shoulder. I wish I could know the motive was innocent.

The Romanian stray dog policy is brutal: capture, hold and kill. Dogcatchers paid by the government round them up, dragging them whining and trembling with fear and throw them into the "kill shelter" for money, where they are underfed and kept in cold cages on stone floors, often inches deep in excrement, for 14 days before they are killed. Many do not survive the two weeks. It must be so terrifying. The dogs are often full of wounds, kennels covered in blood. Local rescuers do their best to take as many dogs out as possible, but not by any stretch is it all of them, not even close. And all the while numbers of dogs are multiplying on the streets.

I’ve been into public shelters and its horrifying. Your heart breaks for all of them desperately trying to get to you from the cages. When I headed Romanian Rescue Appeal, we were one of the largest charities at the time and whenever we could we literally took every dog, no matter what age, personality, look. There was no bias. Of course though, as years passed it was really hard to find adopters for so many dogs and they remain in the safe shelter now, but they shouldn’t still be there and others need their places and so that is the reason I have set up this organisation, set to be a charity. My heart will always be in Romania with my dogs and until my last breath I will know I did everything I could to give them a chance, a home or a home from home in the Sanctuary. One by one until there are none!

We really need your help to help them so please donate if you can. Many thanks