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SO MUCH HAS BEEN
DONE, SO MUCH STILL TO DO
Hi Guys
Welcome to
Romania Animal Aid's August
Newsletter....Somehow I have been persuaded to
be the guest editor this month! Normally I am
the one behind the scenes putting it together
giving me the chance to nag everyone else for
their segments...However, not this time.
First and
foremost myself and on behalf of the rest of the
team at RAA would like to thank the World
Veterinary Service, Pets at Home and last but
never least our supporters who donated towards
our RAA on the road Aid Mission last month.
Thanks to
the donations we received and items we were able
to buy, literally hundreds of stray dogs were
able to benefit from us distributing food, water
and aid as we travelled along the very bumpy
roads of Romania, as well as 7 furry angels were
rescued, one in particular was moments from
death. You will read for yourself from the
report below how your supporting and donating to
Romania Animal Aid really does save lives.
I would
also like to take this opportunity to remind you
guys that the vote to euthanise the strays in
Romania is looming, the last thing we want to do
is allow the pressure opposing the vile proposal
to lapse. Links to petitions, suggestions, even
a wall of speaking faces will be available on
our website by the end of the week. Please do
check these links out and take actions against
what could possibly be the genocide of a
species, and we all know the barbaric methods
they will use to do this!
That's
about it really, have a good read, get involved
and above all....Keep the strays of Romania
always in your hearts and minds, because they
need all the friends they can get, as we need
all the support we can get to help them.
Take care,
and until next month...
My best
wishes to you all
Kendra
ROMANIA ANIMAL AID MISSION JULY 2011 - THE HIGHS &
THE LOWS
On the 8th July 2011,
less than a month ago, representatives of Romania Animal
Aid flew out to Romania, 3 huge suitcases full of aid
and money in the kitty to buy food for the strays we
would encounter on this aid mission. The first thing that
strikes you and not surprisingly is all the stray dogs
everywhere, so very skinny and ill, tiny puppies to
heavily pregnant mummy dogs all needing help, all
needing to be rescued from their life of hell.
Then
the sinking feeling starts to fill your
belly....As yet again you are reminded that you can only
help so many at one time, have only so much space in
your hire car to rescue those in desperate need. Knowing
that when the space in your car has been filled, all you
can do is give basic care for the others you will find
on your way, treat their wounds, feed and water them,
then with tears in your eyes as you look in your rear
view mirror, you have to drive away from them, leaving
behind strays that you know that you could save if only
things were different.
The space in our hire car started to be taken up
on the second day of our journey, Kendra was driving, now she has no sense of
direction when she is in the UK so you can only imagine how many wrong turns she
took during this week. However, after the team having to find an alternative
route to remedy what would become one of many of Kendra's Mystery tours, they
were travelling through a village along a very busy road. A tiny ball of white
fluff was spotted laying lifeless in the middle of the road, behind this ball of
fluff was a similar little figure but this one was moving, sitting on the grass
verge.
The
team immediately stopped the car, got out and went to
what now is known to be two puppies, only a few weeks
old. The white one just lay there, not even moving. The
sun was beating down on her little body but no blood
could be seen, so at this point we had no idea if she
had been hit by a car. We scooped the little one up and
thankfully she started to breath. Though when she tried
to move her neck she was listless and her neck seemed to
be stuck as if unable to move. Also her right eye was
really off centre, it was clearly obvious that this
puppy had internal injuries, but first we had to treat
and care for her, to keep her going till we could find a
vet.
The little brown one too was scooped up, and
thanks to the first aid treatment we were donated or bought with donated funds,
we were able there and then to pump some hydration fluid into both pups, and
immediately afterwards some puppy milk formula. Unless you have rescued pups in
a similar situation, it is hard to describe the relief when they of their own
accord start to guzzle the fluids you are giving them by syringe. This showed to
us, especially with the little white one (now named Baby Bear) that she wanted
to live, and we would help her and little Croc to do this in anyway that we
could.
These
two little guys were the first of our furry passengers,
and would travel around Romania with us until the very
last day when we had to leave. The Second passenger was
a little dog that literally in front of us was
deliberately run into by a car ( a sick past time we
found out for some in Romania) Thankfully the car did
not actually run over him, rather he bounced off of the
drivers side door. The dog was stunned and limping...We slammed on the
breaks, halted the traffic (much to other motorists
annoyance) and our third passenger joined us on our
journey. Shortly after this 2 tiny kittens were spotted
darting in and out of a busy road, cars literally
missing them by a cats whisker...These became our fourth
and fifth passengers. Needless to say as we
travelled through Romania we stopped at veterinary
clinics to get these guys checked over and buy any
treatment they needed.
Only after the vet gave them each the all clear,
we continued on our travels with regular pit stops for feeding time and to let them
do their business.
With Baby bear the vet
confirmed that not only had she and her little brother
been thrown onto the road, but with baby bear she was slammed
so hard onto the concrete this caused her brain to swell,
in turn this affected her neck and why it was so stiff.
Also her eye to be literally
be pushed out of alignment. After an injection from the
vet, 4 days of round the clock care from us, by the time
we left her along with her brother and the rest of our
passengers with a foster carer, she was happily (if not a little wonky) playing grab the big dogs tail and skim
the floor on your belly game! She may never recover 100%
as she was before, after being slammed to the concrete by some
excuse of a human being, but she will lead a full and
happy life. RAA will make sure of that, as we will
with all the passengers that were rescued.
The
week was filled with so many ups and downs, we visited
shelters and helped where we could, even meeting up with
the Mayor of Botosani after us literally bumping into
him at the city hall where we were lodging an official
complaint after seeing for ourselves his vile dog
shelter where we also donated food. (Video footage will be
available on our site shortly) We were literally covered
in mud and slime after standing up to our ankles in a
swamp made up of dog and rat excrement, refuse spillage and
goodness knows what, this is what surrounds the public
dog shelter. Our clothes were ripped from climbing through the rubbish
and scraping against the bars of the shelter...We must have looked like a right
motley crew, but either way, the man had to sit for over an hour and be grilled
by us.
What we witnessed at that
shelter was heartbreaking and this simply cannot be
allowed to continue the same goes for how strays and
animals are treated in general in Romania. The cruelty
and abuse must be stopped, and the victims must somehow
be saved from this living hell.
Apart
from seeing animals being deliberately driven over in
front of us to stop us saving them. Also being targeted by
trucks trying to run us over when standing in the road
to stop an animal from being killed, one of the lowest
points of our trip was to Moldova. We were desperately
trying to search for a little horse that we had seen on
a YouTube video, only months before being beaten so
badly that he collapsed. We found out that the horse was
within this region, and we were hoping that by speaking
with authorities and to the local people something may
lead us to finding and rescuing him.
It became quickly obvious that no one wanted to know, no
one was interested and no one wanted to help these crazy group of women
searching for one little horse. However that is not the end of it for us, and we
are currently researching into ways to take YouTube to court to find the abusers
details and ip address.( We will update more when we have news)
Apart from rescuing and saving the lives
of Baby bear and co and giving help and relief to
hundreds of strays that we encountered, one of the main
things that has come out of this trip, is our
determination to accomplish more.. The only way that we
can achieve this is by buying a van and organising
regular aid missions to Romania. The money spent on
hiring a car out there would have paid for the petrol we
used for the whole trip! Our own van would mean more
supplies being distributed to where they are needed, our
own van would mean less animals being left behind, our
own van would mean these same animals can be transported
out of Romania to safety and we would open up this offer
to other NGO's and organisations who right now have to
pay high transport costs to corporate companies. We, just
like you want these animals to escape the brutality that
for the majority is common place in their lives.
Something that no animal should have to face....
A more detailed report on our Aid Mission to Romania will
shortly be available on our site
www.romaniaanimalaid.co.uk
Joining together to stop the Romanian amendment
law
We have kick started an Action
alert and hope that you will join with us, and the rest
of the international community in taking action.
You will find 6 basic
steps that will allow you to notify
various contacts of your opposition.
Please click here also click on the
Globe left to add your message to our
wall of international faces and tell the
Romanian Government your opinion.
THE COST PAID FOR UNSTERILISED DOGS
Each unsterilized male and female
dog and their offspring can produce 67,000
puppies in their lifetime. Because the Romanian
Government for the most part prefer the catch
and kill route, this has only led to more
unwanted births and more strays on the streets
of Romania.
This has led to a hatred of
strays within many Romanian communities, which
leads to even more horrific cruelty and abuse.
What we are doing about it
- In conjunction with
Romania Animal Rescue,
we jointly fund the spay and neuter of 50 dogs
every single month in Iasi, the town hall ( one
of the few that do this) also adds additional
funds which means hundreds of neutered and
spayed animals are put back onto the streets,
and the ill and vulnerable taken in and cared
for. None of this would be possible without the
donations from supporters and tons of
fundraising.
Please help support the work we
do in Romania, we may not be one of the largest
Animal Welfare charities in the world, but we
are working just as hard to make a difference.
Without the huge sponsorships others have access
to and what we are up against in Romania, our
work is made just that little bit tougher...but
with your help and raising awareness of the work
we do, we are getting there!
There are so many ways you can
support us, just by forwarding this newsletter
to your friends, will raise awareness to the
plight of these innocent animals that we are
trying our best to help, rescue and save in so
many ways every week, every month, every year.
INTRODUCING
AESOP & MUGUREL
A
Beautiful Romanian Rescue Dog Looking For a Home in the
UK
Mugurel is approx. 2 years old,
extremely handsome, beautiful colourings. He’s
extremely affectionate, likes lots of cuddles. He is a
fairly playful dog and really enjoys canine company.
He’s not too energetic, he does like to sit and sleep on
his own sometimes. He doesn’t seem to like cats
too much but he’s not aggressive towards them. He
would be fine to be rehomed on his own or with other
dogs. Mugurel has been spayed, fully vaccinated
and micro chipped
We cannot express how very grateful we are
to all our supporters and fundraisers. Without you guys we would not be able to
raise awareness of the plight of animals in Romania and certainly would be
unable to carry on our work helping, rescuing, caring and re-homing the animals
that we do.
This month we
would like to say a big thank you to Sandra Newland and her team at Tharfield
Pet Boarding kennels in Chichester who is attending a fun dog show this coming
weekend and has kindly organised a raffle on behalf of our charity and the
proceeds 100% will go towards the work we do in Romania for the strays.
Thanks Guys, words cannot express fully how grateful we
are for your support.
