News from Tg-Jiu

The winter in Tg-Jiu is soon over but long and heavy rains have now caused some extra trouble at the shelter. In January we managed to overcome the threatening shortage of food and for the time being the situation is stable. Once again – thank you, our dear friends, for your wonderful help!

With our fundraising for the previously mentioned food crisis we managed to collect in total over 5.000 euros. This was used for buying c. 7000 kilos of food for the shelter dogs. Brigitte Bardot Foundation also sent 2000 kilos of dog food for the emergency when they heard of the critical situation of the shelter but when it comes to the rest of the year the foundation still haven’t informed whether they will continue to deliver food donations.

Carmena and Patricia have as busy days as they normally have at the shelter and they are dealing with different kinds of animal cruelty cases every day. They are constantly receiving calls from the city citizens who inform of dogs that they have been looking after and feeding that have now disappeared. When asking about the dogs from the city dog catchers, these tell that the dogs have been brought to the shelter next to Pro Animals Romania’s shelter. After Carmena tried to find out why these dogs haven’t been brought to the city shelter, these “dog catchers” told that they have been ordered to take the dogs outside the city and leave them there. Of course, Carmena and Patricia have left several complaints for the city authorities of this matter.

Patricia takes dogs to the vet every day to get treatments and to be spayed. She has also improved Dona’s (the horse) stall on her own so that the stall can easily be used as a puppy pen. The ground in Dona’s stall was very muddy and rain turned it into a swamp. Patricia got some gravel that she spread on the ground and used plastic to isolate the roof and walls. Now puppies have a “cozy kindergarten” and the rain causes no problems anymore.

Numerous poachers have been caught in Tg-Jiu. These poachers have used greyhounds that they have trained. One of these hunting greyhounds have been found and brought to the shelter and the police are now looking for other 3-5 dogs used in hunting to take them under custody. Patricia told that according to the rules these dogs should be put down right away but they managed to negotiate with the authorities that they will take the dogs to the shelter if necessary and take care of them. The dogs are also a living proof in trial against the poachers.

Perhaps you recall last year when I told you of a Romani man who had threatened to kill Carmena and Patricia. This man threatened the women face to face as well as by SMS and calls and the women drew a charge against him. The man got a fine of 500 RON (c. 150 euros) since at the interrogations he claimed to regret what he had done and told he had just “played” with the women. Patricia told that in Romania a person has to actually kill someone before becoming convicted and of course, that depends whether you get caught or not. When reflecting this on what are people’s attitudes towards animal cruelty crimes you can comprehend in some way what for and what against the women are forced to fight everyday. Next Carmena and Patricia have to fight for their rights against the city shelter worker who attacked the women physically but after the police arrived he had the nerve to accuse the women of abusing him first and according to him that was the reason why he had to defend himself by attacking!

Searching for a piece of land for the new shelter

Patricia and Carmena have actively tried to find a new lot for the new shelter since it’s highly unlikely that the city will donate them one. Search for a new piece of land is very hard and takes time since it has to be located on an area that will not be used for building people houses. However, the site can’t be too far either so it won’t cost too much to get electricity and sewerage to the shelter. There have been a few lovely sites available for a reasonable price but so far these lots have unfortunately been too far away for the reasons mentioned above. We have agreed that when the suitable lot is found and bought the ownership will be divided 50/50 between Pro Animals’ so Pro Animals Finland registered association will own half the site.

Contact with EU

PAFi has also been a busy little bee as in January we sent the suggestions on improving animal welfare we drew up last year to EU in much larger distribution and translated to English. In early-February a couple of PAFi-team members visited in work related matters in Brussels and reminded of the stray dogs issues of Romania. We are constantly trying to wake up authorities in a local level as well as on a larger scale to understand the inadequacy of animal welfare law and its supervision. These suggestions we drew up were sent very conveniently as Alain Hutchinson of EU has drawn up a bill to protect pets and homeless dogs and the votes for the bill will be in during the spring.

Cotton bag as the new product of PAFi & the courses, lectures, trainings and products of Rakkaat Haukut

We are glad to inform that PAFi-shop has a new product: a light cotton bag! Do remember that PAFi’s members and the godparents of Tg-Jiu shelter receive 15 per cent discount of PAFi-products. Please, remind us of your membership/godparenting when ordering products.

At this point we want to remind you of the possibility to order Happy Dog-products of Rakkaat Haukut with 10 per cent discount IF you are a PAFi member or a godparent of Tg-Jiu shelter (shelter godparent or have a goddog). PAFi will also get 10 per cent of every order.

Also the courses, trainings and lectures provided by Rakkaat Haukut PAFi members and godparents of Tg-Jiu shelter will get 10 per cent discount and PAFi 10 per cent of the enrolment fee. Please, remember to mention of your PAFi membership or godparenting when enrolling!

Rakkaat Haukut is also ready to provide education and courses tailored according to PAFi-members and godparents’ needs. Please, do tell your ideas so we can make them reality together!

More news coming soon!

-Kiia-