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Greetings from Patricia, 14.3.2007
Hello there!
Patricia has come back from England and had a few words to say about the week-long preparation course organised by Dog Trust.
In addition to Patricia, the course was taken part by people from Turkey, Greece and Bosnia-Hertzegovina.
The course consisted of lectures about how to run a modern shelter and
about education in schools. Patricia had visited a few Dog Trust
shelters and said them to be luxury shelters. She had also seen how the
education was done in schools but told it to be very different from the
education in Tg-Jiu. No little books, footage or other presentations is
given, the education is solely based on telling the pupils how to take
care of pets. There is no talk about anything negative. But surely the
situation is so much different in England compared to Romania.
Patricia also told how Dog Trust has over 17 dog shelters in England
and hundreds of people working in different jobs. Last year Dog Trust
collected 14 million pounds of funds which should tell a lot about the
financial soundness of the association. Dog Trust is active in
investment operations which enables it to double its funds. It’s no
wonder that it has money to build luxury shelters. When I asked
Patricia will Dog Trust support shelters or others abroad, the answer
was that at least not in public. Sharing information and organizing
courses and conferences is their way of participating in helping
animals and people outside their own country. It’s a pity since the
organisation could really afford helping financially too.
There are homeless dogs also quite plenty in England too which is some
kind of a surprise to me. In Ireland the situation is actually really
concerning. Luckily raising funds for animals is well practiced in
England and it enables to do a lot of good for the protection of the
animals and make the conditions better in the country.
Then Patricia told about Ewa’s visit to Tg-Jiu. Ewa represents CIWF
which is mainly concentrated on the welfare of farm animals. Ewa along
with her friends had visited Tg-Jiu just before Patricia’s trip to
England and had asked very much about the activity of Pro Animals
Romania and the development of the shelter. Of course, Ewa had tried to
convince Patricia to take the welfare issues of farm animals to the
association’s agenda. Ewa had filmed the shelter and even a sick dog’s
euthanasia. Then, all of a sudden, Ewa had suggested Patricia
cooperation. She had suggested that she could arrange the Tg-Jiu
shelter dogs transportations to Hungary to look for new homes. Patricia
had been pretty shocked since she had always thought things weren’t so
good in Hungary that it would be possible to bring dogs there from
other countries.
Here in
Finland, too, it’s still well remembered how a person in Hungary kept
hundreds of dogs in captivity trying to breed a dog that doesn’t need
food or water. Patricia had declined Ewa’s offer and told that they had
a cooperation partner in Finland who shares the same visions and values
as they do and if there are no others to share these same values, she
has no other choice than to be sorry and sad. Ewa had been very
interested in PAFi and how Pro Animals Romania had managed to find us.
In the very end Patricia couldn’t tell what had been the utmost reason
for Ewa’s visit to Tg-Jiu.
Now Patricia is steaming full ahead in Tg-Jiu to give out the diplomas
and prizes for the School number 8’s pupils, the participants of the
Pro Animal Romania’s educational course on animal welfare issues. Today
she has also met the town mayor and discussed with him about the future
of the education and which schools should be next to be educated.
- Kiia -
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