We are very excited to continue the series of blog posts introducing you to the rescue groups with which AAI works. Today's entry is about RescueMe Romania and is written by the wonderful Gill.
RescueMe Romania is based in Targu Mures, which is located in the
historical area of Transylvania. Although the scenery may be beautiful,
the street dogs suffer just as much as all the other street dogs in
Romania, suffering starvation, hostility and even death as they try to
survive.
RescueMe was set up in February 2010 and was the idea of a small group
of people who wanted to do something to alleviate the suffering of the
street dogs. The core volunteers are Mr Rad (pictured above), Doina Milutin (pictured above) and Loredana
Siklodi Luncasu (pictured below). Initially they simply fed the street dogs and tried
to help those needing medical attention. They had hoped one day to find
the money to build a shelter, but any money they managed to raise was
spent on food and vets' bills. I had got to know Doina thorough he
involvement with Fiducia - another shelter - and suggested that we put
RescueMe on Facebook as very few people seemed to see our web page.
Shortly after I started the Facebook page a Hungarian lady living in
Targu Mures, Natasa Kiss-Pusok ,contacted me saying she wanted to help.
I thought she meant to volunteer but actually she wanted to donate
money and thanks to her, RescueMe were able to build pens on some land
belonging to Monia Kovacs who they also pay to look after the dogs on a
daily basis.
Since we started trying to help the dogs we have had our share of
successes and tragedies. We were alerted to a factory dog, Florin, who
had been attacked by some passing sheep dogs. He was badly hurt and
sadly, he died, but we discovered that there were more dogs in the
factory and started taking food to them. With the attention we got on
Facebook we were eventually able to get all the dogs adopted in the UK. One, Molly (pictured below), had a tiny puppy who has grown into a very large GSD cross
and both now have wonderful lives. Sadly, Romania being Romania, more
stray dogs are now living in the factory.
The rescuers in Romania go the extra mile for the animals. Our vet,
Borka-Vitalis Levente, found a poor paralyzed dog dragging himself down
the road. I am sure that in the UK a vet would euthanize such a dog,
but after treating him he asked us to look after him and gradually the
dog, now called Keven, recovered and is now living in the UK with one of
our supporters, Janey Beever-Fortes who became a volunteer through
seeing Keven on Facebook. We also found a small dog called Pepper (pictured below) lying
at the side of a railway track with a mangled back left leg while stray
dogs were trying to eat it. Again, he is in a loving UK home now.
Unfortunately sometimes all we can do isn't enough and we lose them.
Sweet Pea (pictured below) was a tiny puppy found, covered in infected wounds and hanged
by the neck from someone's car door. Although we were full, had
RescueMe not taken her, she would have been treated and released back
onto the street. Sadly, no amount of love and medical attention could
save her.
Currently the situation in Romania has worsened with a new law passed
allowing the authorities to put the street dogs to sleep. This is often
done in the cruelest ways, such as being battered to death with pieces
of wood, as the aim is always to save as much money as possible when
dealing with the street dogs. Our pens are full and we are constantly
looking for adopters, mainly in the UK, and struggling to raise funds.
Having the support of Animal Aid International makes such a difference
as we know that we have someone to turn to when we need help with out
medical bills.
Very very nice job !
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