Carmena Serbanoiu who helps animals in her hometown Tg-Jiu and maintains a shelter of over 500 homeless dogs. The animal welfare association Pro Animals Romania (PAR) Carmena and her daughter, Patricia Paraschiv, have founded, struggles alone in a county of over 500.000 residents to improve the conditions the animals live in. The amount of work is enormous and the women are constantly on the verge of exhaustion. Romania’s stray dog problem is world-known and these dogs are often seen as filthy.
The attitude towards stray dogs is sad – dogs are killed brutally and unethical mass slaughters are silently accepted even by decision-makers on a higher position. At the moment the fate of stray dogs is pondered all the way in the country’s government but so far there have been no decisions on the bill that would allow the killing of stray dogs.
PAR does not only take care of a stray dog shelter. Daily Carmena goes to feed the dogs on the streets and gives a little extra food for the malnourished and maltreated dogs at the municipal shelter of Tg-Jiu, rescues abused and abandoned street animals, calls the authorities to solve animal cruelty cases and tries to educate the locals on how to treat animals properly. In addition to this PAR spays dogs in order to prevent them from reproducing and encourages authorities to a more animal-friendly approach. There is so much work to be done that Carmena simply doesn’t have a personal life of her own.
The sacrifice one has had to make for this kind of a life style is immense. In addition to animal welfare issues, Patricia studies to become a vet in the University of Timisoara and tries to live a normal family life. Animals play a big role in the lives of both. Carmena and Patricia have been running their association over ten years with the help of friendly donators, a small Finnish association, Pro Animals Finland (PAFi), as their most important (and basically only) supporter. At the moment the greatest challenge Pro Animals’ are facing is to renovate an old hall complex rented by the city of Tg-Jiu to a proper new shelter for the dogs PAR is taking care of.
The threat of an eviction lies heavily on the old shelter. The City Hall of Tg-Jiu has given a written note to Pro Animals Romania in order to move dogs out from the old shelter until 1st of December. This because the neighbours of the old shelter are continually making complaints against the old shelter. The problem with the new shelter is that there still aren’t enough funds for it. In the cooperation contract signed by PAR and the city of Tg-Jiu, the city demands an investment worth 50.000 euros at minimum to improve the hall complex. Out of this PAFi has collected about 42.000 euros and first part of the new shelter is ready according to the contract. 1/3 dogs of the old shelter has been already moved to the new shelter but over 300 dogs are still in old shelter and their destiny is in our hands. We are desperately seeking help for our project in order to complete it. If the project fails, over 300 well-kept and –fed stray dogs at PAR's old shelter will likely be sentenced to death. So we don’t have the luxury of quitting. The new shelter-project is remarkable from many perspectives. First of all, it’s an important step forward that the city is willing to cooperate with an animal welfare association. The city of Tg-Jiu has also offered, without any rental costs, PAR an old hall complex to be used as their new shelter. When finished, the shelter will be a centre of animal protection in the area as well as an employer for locals. We are proudly participating in this challenge that will bring lots of positive things for the whole community.
 "Please, help us to get a new sanctuary!"
Photos of the new shelter project.
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