The sterilization
and microchipping of dogs may be lawfully compulsory in Romania, yet not all
dog owners comply with the existing law. As for the dog shelters, be they private
or under the management of municipalities, they are rapidly crammed and
abandoned dogs. As of late, there is a growing amount of info about on dogs being
abandoned on the public domain, even though such an act is also a criminal
violation of the existing law. Quite a few of the abandoned dogs breed and are
highly likely to become aggressive.
Nobody wants to yet again go
through the episodes of the early 2000, when Romanian hit the headlines of the
foreign papers because of the violent action perpetrated against the stray
dogs. We recall that back then, for instance, the Speranta, Hope, in English, a dog shelter nearby Bucharest, was created, in a bid to support the speechless
friends nobody wanted.
Veterinarian and PR for the
dog shelter, Anca Tomescu, recalls:
I once
was in the Pallady base, doing volunteer work together with veterinarians and
other people who were getting involved in the rescuing of the animals, when we
learned their killing had been decided. At that time, in the shelter, there
were 100-150 dogs we took over, actually by mother did that, Florina Tomescu. We
didn’t have any place to take so many dogs to, so we called all our friends,
every one of them offered shelter to 2,3,5,7,8 dogs, in their cars, in their
homes and suchlike. We did that until we succeeded and we built a makeshift, if
you will, of the first segment of the Speranta Shelter, which was located somewhere
in the commune of Berceni, in a derelict farm building, a farm we developed
into a shelter for the stray dogs. It was a difficult, ugly time that we had,
back then, with many problems. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was when
we were told we had to vacate the premises! Just like that, in one night alone
we had to decide where we should relocate 500 dogs. They had become 500 in the
meantime! I came into a plot of land in Popesti-Leordeni with nothing built on
it and, from the development of that plot of land to the time when we had to
vacate the plot of land in Berceni, for about year, maybe, we got ourselves accommodated
somewhere in the commune of Jilava, we rented several halls. That was another
hard, ugly time we had ! We relocated to Popești-Leordeni, a plot of land of our own, no
more rents to be paid, the expenses were enormous, and there our shelter worked
properly. And that is how this year we celebrated 22 years since we have had
this shelter.
Since the early 2000 and to
the present day the condition of the stray dogs and the care they benefit from
have changed a great deal for the better. As for the Speranta (Hope) Shelter,
it is the living proof of how things really are. Anca Tomescu has extended
an invitation for us to pay a visit to the place:
I should
like to begin by saying that there is a golden rule in the Speranta Shelter,
saying the dogs are the priority. Whoever steps can see, from the first paddock
and to the last one, that all the dogs that have been given shelter here are
friendly, they look good, you can easily see our dogs are very well taken care
of, they are dogs who do not stay in the paddock alone. It is important for
them to run, to play, to feel the human warmth, hear a word of kindness, to get
the food they actually need. The shelter, as we speak, has 105 paddocks, of
which only six are heated in the winter. The 7th one is due to
arrive soon, thanks to my very good friend, the actress Carmen Tănase, who made
a donation for the 7th paddock to be heated. It has three veterinarian clinics,
one of them very well equipped, since we realized that, with so many dogs, you
should always see to it that they are in good health, that they take medical
tests, that they should be vaccinated. It was useless paying for private
medical consulting room. Also in a bid to save the budget and make it easier,
for us, but also for the dogs, we created a physiotherapy office where we
treated and still treat the dogs with quadriplegic problems. Some of them kind
of got rid of the wheelchair, others didn’t, yet they undergo physiotherapy
treatment. Also, we built three new playgrounds. We had a bigger one before, yet we had three more
built. We have three swimming pool especially built for dog, precisely because we
want all dogs in the Speranta shelter, no matter how long their stay is, to
feel good and leave the shelter like some normal dogs, with a quiet temper,
without being scared or having behaviour problems.
However,
says veterinarian Anca Tomescu, there is no such place as a shelter for the
dogs, they must be adopted. In time, from the Speranta Shelter, thousands and
thousands of dogs were adopted. For about two years now, they have been on a special
training program, The Messengers of Hope, so they can be given to the adoptive
family in mint condition. However, in Romania, the rate of adoption is low,
while at the other end of the scale, the rate of adoption is very high. Why
does that happen?
Abandoning
a dog means lack of education, obviously. People need to understand that with
that dog you will experience very fine episodes, but also episodes when you’re
likely to get mad, just as if you had your own child. in the case of a child. It’s
just that the child, at a given moment, can speak an eventually may tell you what
the problem is. And the dog gnaws at your objects, the dog may pee inside, the
dog can steal your favorite pair of shoes, the dog may even fall ill and may
need a doctor, the dog will have to be walked. There is another aspect I should
like to emphasize – a dog is not Christmas present! Do not offer living animals
as gifts, since it is not okay to offer a dog to a family that may not be
prepared for that, may not want that, they can enjoy that on the spot, how nice
it is, but on January 5th they resume work and there is nobody they can
leave the dog with. There is another aspect: I want a big dog, so people my
fear me when they pass me by! Yeah, well, you weigh 50 kilos, you cannot
possibly have a big dog, you need to adopt a dog to suit your needs, wants and
necessities! If, for instance you live in a bedroom suite, you cannot adopt a
60-kilogram dog, if you work 12 hours a day, you cannot do that either, if your
wife, the husband, the child, the grandmother do not want that, you cannot impose
bringing a dog home on them, if you do not have the money for its upkeep, it’s
just the same. Adoption, yes, that is wonderful! I recommend the adoption of a
dog to anybody. Your life will change for the better, the whose family will
become happier, more responsible, more friendly. But if you cannot adopt and,
nonetheless, you love animals and want to get involved, you can either be a
volunteer worker for one of the shelter or you can donate, you can also do many
other things for the animals.
In a bid
to educate the public opinion, at the Speranta Shelter there is a museum of the
stray dogs. We have allowed pupils to pay us a visit as part of the Doing
School Differently program. Also we have initiated another action, with VIPs
getting involved in cooking for our dogs, in every edition. Also, construction
works are in progress for a center tailored for those people, be they young or
adult, who are eager to learn what the care for animals means. We even are dead
positive that, paying it forward in the right mind, the right mind can even be
more righteous, our warm-hearted interlocutor, Anca Tomescu, hopes.