Update on Dona’s story Fri November 17th 2008

 
Though you might well remember the sad story of a horse named Dona, I’m going to quickly repeat it all the way from the beginning since Dona has played a big role in recent happenings in Tg-Jiu. Last spring, in early-April, Carmena and Patricia were forced to witness a shocking case when seeing three Romani men beating a half-dead horse on a yard behind the shelter. They were literally trying to beat the horse up on her feet. Carmena managed to call armed policemen to the spot, however, no one of the Romani admitted to own the horse. After some time of pointless talking the men brought a carriage from their village and took the exhausted horse away while the appalled women watched them go. The police were once again completely useless to do anything about the case!  

Dona in April, almost beaten and abused to death

The next day the horse was once again found lying on the yard behind the shelter. This time there were nobody around, even the authorities didn’t seem to be interested in the case anymore. Patricia and Carmena tried to give the horse first-aid and pondered what they could do for the animal. There was a stall built for Rona behind the shelter and the women decided to move Dona there. Late at night with the help of Vasile who works at the shelter and a man who works at the city shelter Carmena and Patricia managed to move the horse to the stall. They named the horse Dona. The women thought they could breathe a bit easily for a moment now but little did they know.

During the night Dona had been stolen from its stall and later in the afternoon found abandoned by the main road that leads to downtown. Now there were already a big crowd on the spot as well as media. Of course the police were then there, too. Dona’s owners, however, were nowhere to be seen. Eventually Carmena and Patricia came to be responsible of Dona and they managed to move Dona back to her stall and hoped to be left alone already. However, during the ongoing day the Romani came to threaten the women several times to the shelter. This was nothing unusual since the women had been threatened by the Romani countless times before. As long as the threats would stay merely as threats…

After the rough start Dona was left alone. She got to wander around the shelter during daytime and rest in her little stall behind the shelter whenever she felt like it. Carmena and Patricia were still very afraid of Dona’s safety and in a couple of weeks transported the horse to the yard across Carmena’s home, behind sturdy iron bars. In that yard Dona spent a peaceful summer and got stronger. During this time she became very dear to Patricia. In August Dona was accompanied by a foal named Zuzu. These friends managed to spend 1,5 months together until Zuzu couldn’t fight anymore though Carmena and Patricia did everything they could to the save the little one’s life. Zuzu was just too young when she was abandoned so she didn’t have enough strength to live.  

Dona and Zuzu in August

Dona and Zuzu in September

Dona got stronger day by day and turned into a real beauty! Patricia had found a place from a farm nearby for Dona to spend the winter season in and they had already agreed that Dona would “hibernate” in a place with some friends and a warm stall. Then suddenly something unexplainable happened. One day after Carmena had come home, brought Dona to the front yard of the yard across her home to eat grass, closed the gate carefully behind her and gone to feed the dozens of dogs in her home she all of a sudden received a call from Vasile, the shelter’s worker. He told that Dona’s ex-owner had come to brag to him how he had retrieved his horse! In pure panic Carmena ran to check outside, hoping and praying that this would be just another twisted joke from Vasile. This wasn’t the case - Dona had disappeared from the yard Carmena owns. The lock of the iron gate had been broken. Though Carmena was in a shock she managed to call Patricia who almost fainted when hearing the news. The women called the police, of course, and after begging for help they promised to accompany the women the next day in search of Dona.

The next day when Carmena, Patricia and the police arrived to the Romani village they didn’t manage to find the home of Dona’s ex-owner. The villagers weren’t cooperative to help them to search Dona though everyone knew exactly where Dona was! It’s unbelievable but so very true. When Carmena and Patricia wanted to negotiate with the head of the village, he informed that Dona’s ex-owner wanted 100 ron (appr. 300 euros) of Dona. This wasn’t all, the ex-owner with his buddies also wanted that Pro Animals Romania would pull all the charges made against them and stop interfering their way of treating animals in future. This means that they simply want to blackmail Carmena and Patricia using Dona.

What makes it all the more complicated is that the authorities haven’t done their job properly and didn’t register Dona’s ownership to Carmena and Patricia so officially the horse still belongs to her ex-owner. Carmena and Patricia have nursed Dona so intensively for the past 6 months that she has no sign of abuse anymore and now they are being blackmailed money so they could get Dona back. Even though the Romani have committed a crime when entering Carmena’s yard the police can’t get the Romani under control. They have just managed to call the head of the Romani and told that the villagers must not do anything radical against Carmena, Patricia or the shelter. This is because Carmena and Patricia have gotten threats from the Romani all the time. They have even been threatened to kill if they interfere with the Romani and how they treat their animals.

Dona’s case has been made public in local newspaper of Tg-Jiu but for some reason the things always get twisted somehow. For example, now they are telling that Dona’s ex-owner claims his horse to have been in a great shape when ending up under Carmena and Patricia’s care. However, he says that the horse has gotten sick since the women started to look after it!

At least Carmena and Patricia get to see Dona almost every day when the Romani bring their horses to eat grass on the land behind the shelter. The women are afraid to get too close since there are always several men with the horses. The women have tried to ask the police to guard at the shelter in these pitch black evenings since they are sincerely afraid that something bad will happen.

Though it’s horrifying to live this nightmare from day to another and worry of Dona’s health and how she is treated, it’s not sensible to give in to the Romani’s blackmailing. If the women give in now they might be blackmailed in thousand other ways every week in future. Of course we hope from the bottom of our hearts that there is some way Dona can be rescued and brought to safety.

Dona’s story is just an example why the animal welfare issues of countries like Romania must be addressed e.g. on EU-level and why solutions to them must be found so the animals wouldn’t suffer still for decades only because we who respect and care for animals can’t help these animals in their despair alone.

-Kiia-