Fundraising

It has been a very tough winter in Romania, in particular for the puppies in the shelter.  There is a 90% mortality rate for puppies in the general shelter where they succumb to disease, starvation and cold, or they get attacked, injured and killed by the adult dogs.  The conditions in the shelter are heartbreaking, with our volunteers finding new dead and dying dogs with each visit, while the survivors huddle in the mud and snow. It would be so much easier to turn a blind eye and walk away rather go to visit and be subjected to such misery, but our visits can mean life or death to so many dogs we cannot do that.

Through all this bleakness however are happy stories and there is always hope and it is this, along with the possibility of alleviating some of the animals’ misery, that keeps us going.  Recently we have taken in a large number of puppies, in some cases stopping people at the shelter gates and offering to pay for the animals upkeep if they can keep them in their care until we can find them homes.  This of course uses up our precious resources but we have no choice – watching as people abandon the puppies at the shelter means inevitably means watching the puppies die and we cannot do this.  We have also taken particularly ill or weak puppies out of the shelter into care and we are working with the shelter to try to encourage them to create separate areas for puppies and weak dogs.

All of this takes resources however and as always we have very limited funds and are 100% dependent on donations.  Every cent goes to the animals – whether it be to vaccinate puppies, get adult dogs neutered or pay for vet bills; we make no profit nor do we take any money as “admin” fees.  We donate our time and love and we are grateful to everyone who can donate even a few Euros to help us carry on this work.

And it is worth it!  Looking at some of the dogs we have rescued and found homes for (post coming soon) and watching the puppies we have found foster care for outside of the shelter grow and play is a huge reward.  To be able to carry on funding this vital work we have now launched a fundraiser and will be starting various activities to try to raise more funds – to pay off our mounting debts with the local vets but also to pay for improved conditions in the shelter and more care for these poor souls left to fend for themselves in the most appalling conditions.  Please join us in raising funds – donate via paypal (hopeforstrays@yahoo.com) or bank, share our posts and stories, or contact us to find out how you can help.