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It’s time to update the situation at Tg-Jiu shelter as well as Pro Animals’. There are quite of number of things to tell about.

Let’s start by telling about the newest twists in acquiring the site for the new shelter. We were already about to purchase a piece of land from outside the city of Tg-Jiu and Carmena and Patricia were inquiring how to get electricity, water, sewage etc. to the site. At this point everything turned upside down. The authorities told that getting the infrastructure to the site would be very expensive since there’s not e.g. sewage in every corner of the city either. The authorities thought it was insane to start the project without support from the government etc. What makes this confusing is that we actually have focused on getting support from the government as well as EU but we can’t get it on our own. We need an instance much bigger as cooperation partner for this project and this is in no way easy task let alone perhaps even possible in these days.

The temporary city shelter located next to Tg-Jiu shelter will be shut down in a couple of weeks and its residents will be transported to the new city shelter built in an old industry hall. According to Carmena and Patricia the new city shelter is like a prison not meeting any kind of demands of animal welfare. If I remember correctly the city had reserved 250.000 euros for the building of this shelter and I swear most of this money has once again found its way to some decision-maker’s pocket. The city shelter is also located almost in the middle of the city and it had no trouble getting permits…

At the same time the city officials told Carmena and Patricia that the dogs of the city shelter will be removed from the current shelter, they had also told that the dogs of Pro Animals Romania’s shelter have to be moved as soon as possible elsewhere since the shelter area will be transformed to apartments. The authorities had encouraged the women to build a new shelter soon. Carmena and Patricia, of course, have protested against this issue and debated e.g. that for years they have tried to find a new site for the shelter but it has been made impossible since the authorities have not helped in any way, on the contrary, only slowed them down. For countless times the women have asked the city for a site for the shelter but the answer has always been “no”. Carmena had also once again told the authorities that she doesn’t sweat 24 hours a day for the shelter and animal protection issues just for her own interest but for common good. This seems to be incomprehensible for the city decision-makers.

As a result of this heated debate, the city decision-makers “accidentally” promised to donate a site for Pro Animals Romania’s shelter near the new city shelter. We already got a little joyous of this small step forward in cooperation with the authorities. However, for some reason Carmena and Patricia had to draw another application only to acquire this donated site from the city! It’s been already three weeks since the application was left and yesterday Carmena was informed that the lands next to the city shelter are owned by a private person and donating any site for Pro Animals Romania would be impossible! Other options are now examined.

Carmena told me that it is likely that the decision-makers are only delaying as much as they can but she doesn’t understand what the point of it all is. It’s devastating to think that after working long hours at the shelter Carmena and Patricia are forced to fight with the local authorities and no instance “on a higher position” seems to be able to intervene or help to solve these issues.

Luckily the dogs of Tg-Jiu shelter are clueless how their fates are fought for every single day. The dogs are happy as long as they get food and get to enjoy the company of Carmena and Patricia every day.

Dona the horse’s tummy has grown quite much and she’s getting ready to deliver. Last Saturday Dona set up quite of a surprise for Carmena and Patricia when she had broken down her fence and ran to the neighbour’s side. Carmena had already thought Dona had been stolen again and was so shocked she almost had a heart attack. Luckily it all sorted out and Dona was once again returned to her own fence. Most likely the grass had been greener on the other side and Dona had wanted to stop by at the neighbour’s.

Soon we are heading again to the shelter and we have quite a high travel fever! In Tg-Jiu we have the honour to participate in Carmena’s 50th Birthday that will probably be celebrated partly at the shelter. We are aiming to fix up some kind of a pampering day for Carmena herself and try to cover her at the shelter as much as we can. Fortunately Tuuli is joining us at the shelter. Last Autumn she spent a couple of months at the shelter and is able to lead our group in shelter chores. Tuuli is also staying at the shelter for about a month to help out and Carmena and Patricia are more than happy to get Tuuli as their helper. Patricia has already reserved Tuuli as her spaying & neutering assistant since there are numerous female dogs at the shelter that have to spayed during the summer. Doing this all alone is quite laborious since the spayed dogs must be carefully nursed when they recover.

Once again we will take antibiotics, tick & flea treatments as well as worming treatments for the puppies to the shelter. Everyone willing and able can participate in covering these costs. Antibiotics are used for dogs recovering from operations and neutering, Stronghold-flea treatments for dogs with skin problems. We have also vitamins and additional nutrients etc. for Dona, thanks to Dona’s godparent Kirsi and our teammember Anu.

Here’s what we are planning to take with us to the shelter. Behind there are gifts for Carmena.

We were planning on taking a fox trap with us to catch timid dogs but it turned out to be so large it doesn’t fit in our car and weighs about 25 kilos which means we would have to pay a decent amount of overweigh if we even managed to get in onboard. We already sent a raccoon dog trap to the shelter which was kindly transported to Patricia in Bucharest by Jenny and Pia of association Kodittomien Koirien Ystävät.

Below pictures of traps

The trap is much needed since for a long time Patricia along with her friends has tried to catch a dog that has been living in the basement of an apartment house. The dog cannot get out of his prison by himself. Whenever someone lands to the basement, the dog escapes to a corner that can’t be reached. Defining the size of the dog has been quite problematic. The trap for raccoon dogs turned out to be so small the dog is not willing or able to get inside of it. We are now trying to set a trap a size larger and if this doesn’t work either we have directions on how to make a dog trap, thanks to Etsijäkoiraliitto who kindly has documented these instructions for us. Hopefully we could find a person in Tg-Jiu who would be able to follow through the instructions and make a trap. It’s impossible to catch the dog by using sedatives since every time the dog eats, he goes to sleep in his hideaway.

Sure we have also other kinds of useful things to be taken to the shelter and we are taking as much as we possibly can with us. Of course, like always, we stop by at a local market when going to the shelter in the mornings so the back of the car is always full of e.g. cleaning equipment.

Surely you remember Inkeri and Tuuli and their couple of months of job practice at the shelter related to their studies. They have written about their travelling and shelter experiences already earlier but now after graduating and processing all they had experienced in Tg-Jiu they have answered some important and common questions related to the shelter as well as animal protection and people’s attitudes. We have also created a topic in PAFi Forum about this subject so you can add you questions in there, too, if you will. Tuuli will probably try to take a quick look at the forum every once in a while in Tg-Jiu whenever she has time and energy and will report of the interesting issues and happenings in there.

Here's some pictures of DogPicnic.

We have compiled and summarized some PAFi-info to our website. As you know, there is already so much info in PAFi website that it’s useful to compile these essential elements of our activity as info packages to get a quicker and easier overall look. Info packages can be found here .

Make a Difference with One Euro! - campaign

We’d like to remind you all also of the euro campaign launched a month ago. We are hoping to spread the word about this campaign all over Finland and that way all over the world. With euro campaign we support the building of the new shelter since it lies ahead of us despite the way the site issue turns out. We have collected a nice nest egg already but we need a multiple amount of funds in order to sleep relatively peacefully. The challenge to build the new shelter is also still very topical. 

Do remember to buy items from our PAFi-shop , too! Hot summer days are still coming and it’s better to prepare for those days by using dog blankets and T-shirts. All profits from PAFi-shop will be directed at the moment for the building of the new shelter. 

You get to read the next newsletter in July after our shelter trip.

Waiting for and wishing a sunny Midsummer and summer,

Kiia