Happy leap day for everyone!

At first I want to inform you that PAFi’s new and wonderful homepages have opened for everyone to see. They have been carefully built and with such devotion that we are proud to present them for you! Thanks to Anja for creating this new website, for months she has devoted her time and energy admirably for this project. Thanks also to other members of PAFi-team who have voluntarily participated in this project.

I wish you all welcome to get to know to our new website in a www-address familiar to many of you. You can find the address in the end of this newsletter.

Since the newsletter in the beginning of February a lot of things have once again happened in Tg-Jiu. In the shelter maintained by Carmena and Patricia things are pretty much the same and the dog house elements are still waiting for people to put the pieces together. Mauri Ojala who was supposed to help at the shelter has been suffering from severe fever and influenza so for the time being he hasn’t been able to lend a hand. However, in less than three weeks our troop of four people is soon heading towards the shelter so then at the latest the dog houses will be put together even if it means we’d had to use only our bare hands to do it.

Here are pictures of the load (that includes the dog house elements among other things)
http://www.proanimalsfinland.net/html/Uutisten_liitteet/Uutiskuvia_022008.htm

The newly-built expansion part connected to the Tg-Jiu shelter that was arranged by the city government to bring stray dogs captured from the city streets is now completely packed. No rabies vaccinations have been given to the dogs, which is against what was understood. So most likely the dogs have come to the shelter to stay or they are meant to be put down. Even though Carmena and Patricia have tried to clarify things, none of the official people have given any answers of the dogs’ fate.

After the shelter filled up with the stray dogs collected from the streets an epidemic of poisonings started yet again in the city. There have been not only victims consisting of homeless dogs but pets also. People have called Carmena and Patricia in panic, hoping that they could do something about it. In order to start some kind of an uproar about the poisonings the locals would have to make reports to the authorities themselves, too. Unfortunately people still have no courage to stand and protest against the city’s decision-makers and authorities in fear of getting revenge upon themselves in some way.

Yesterday Patricia had received a call from a young woman who had returned to her old hometown, Tg-Jiu, a month ago after living years abroad. The woman and her husband had about a 1-year-old dog that during a walk had most likely eaten poison and died very painfully. The woman had been really upset and told that she and her lawyer-husband would do everything they could to support Carmena and Patricia in stopping this madness. Hopefully this group of supporters would grow in numbers since it would really help Carmena and Patricia to fight against the cruelty.

Here are some pictures of what has happened in the shelter:
http://www.proanimalsfinland.net/html/Uutisten_liitteet/Uutiskuvia_022008_2.htm

Patricia also told that there had been an exhibit of exotic animals that had had an enormously big snake. On one of the days of exhibit in Tg-Jiu Carmena had received a call from a panicked visitor of the show. This person had told that they had put a living goose in the same terrarium with the snake, the snake was supposed to kill and eat this bird. When Carmena and Patricia had arrived in the scene, the exhibit for that part had already been over for the day. This time the goose had survived since apparently the snake hadn’t been hungry. The person in charge of the show had told Carmena and Patricia that they didn’t understand what the fuss was all about since they had travelled around Romania for a long time and in no other place had anyone complained about the show or reported to the animal protection associations. I can’t believe that someone is actually that stupid to think that such a cruel show would entertain people?!

Carmena and Patricia have tried to find a suitable piece of land outside the city of Tg-Jiu to build the new shelter on but people there are surprisingly aware of the rising value of the land and are not willing to sell cheap at this moment. So the search continues. The challenge “New shelter for the Christmas 2008” has now been changed into “New shelter for Christmas 2009”-challenge since we are not able in any way to get enough resources during this year. Our project relating to the development of the countryside demands a thorough research and it will be done during this year. The total of the funds we have collected for the new shelter has been updated on the 27th of February 2008. You can check the situation from here: http://www.proanimalsfinland.net/content/view/58/2/lang,finnish/

With the help of friendly people PAFi got the opportunity to forward a memo of its activity and cooperation with Pro Animals Romania to the Finnish Ministry of Justice. In our memo we emphasized that there are a lot of small associations in Finland with volunteers working to the point of exhaustion and they need support from the country, too. Usually e.g. aid and support are given to help only the big organisations. Of course, we hope that there are friends of animals in Ministry of Justice and that they would personally contribute as far as possible to improve the animal protection here in Finland as well as outside the borders.

PAFi’s annual report 2007 and strategy for the year 2008 can be read in the INFO-pages of our new website. The final accounts will be published by the end of May and it will clarify the key information of the year 2007. In fundraising we achieved our goal for 2007 which means that we managed to gather up over 50.000 euros.

Yesterday there was a small article of homeless dogs of the world in the internet news of the Finnish TV-channel, Nelonen. If you haven’t spotted it already, I recommend you to check it out.
Here is the link: http://nelonen.fi/uutiset/uutinen.asp?cat=6&d=26219

With spring mood,

Kiia

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PAFi ry
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