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Romanian strays 'plight
Added: (Tue Aug 31 2004)
ROLDA ProLife Shelter
Hello,
My name is Dana Costin and I represent ROLDA,part of Romania Animal
Rescue,Inc.USA ,representant of "Greyhound Action International "for
Eastern Europe and Russia and representant of Canadian Voices for
Animals in Romania!
ROLDA is a group of animal'lovers from Galatzi preoccupied to
improuve living conditions of strays from our town and neighbourn
counties with similar overpopulation problems.
Official number of homeless animals in my town is over 10,000 strays
and those poor souls live in uncertain and miserable conditions.
Since ROLDA start fighting for animals'rights in my country,we lived
many tragic moments,when we saw our furry friends dead because
romanian authorities but we also lived few happy moments,that we
consider our small victories.
Achievments:
1.March 2004:Protest against Hyundai company,that encourage
lambs'slaughter for religious purpouses.
We already collected more than 1,000 protest letters,that our
protester send directly to Hyundai in USA,UK or by mailing to head-
office in Koreea.
ROLDA was the only romanian organisation that protested against
Renault Company,when workers from Renault Romanian factory in
Mioveni started to kill(poisson)stray dogs from factory'garden.
Working together with a german welfare organisation SunDogs ,we were
able to raise more than 2,000 signatures
from all over the World in few days and we contacted all Renault
affiliates companies and pressure them to stop the slaughter.
Campaign against Renault was held in March 2003.
It was a succesful campaign,because they never kill a dog since
than,not neccessairly because they start care about animals,but
because they must protect their own image.
2.Our no-kill shelter "Hope for Homeless" was build with personal
investments and with help offered by "Greyhound Action
International ",UK for purchasing the land and "Romania Animal
Rescue,Inc."USA for house'renovation.
We succeded so far to finance (from personal resources) three
kennels for isolating new comings and a block with ten kennels,that
can accomodate 20 homeless animals.
ROLDA kennels'block are unique in entire Romania:built upon british
standards,with double insulated walls,with plumbing,radiators for
heating,indoor electricity,a ventilation system for dogs in
summer,each kennel has one-two dogbeds,blankets,dog toys,bowls for
water and food.
Shelter'house has a central heating ,a large bathroom to bath
doggies ,a sunny room where dogs can stay in winter indoor,an office
and a bedroom for ROLDA'visitors,who preffer to spend a night at our
shelter and for our volunteers who will supervise dogs during night.
In front of shelter'house,we will create,starting with this spring
a "Memorial garden" called Printz,in loving memory of my beautiful
dog who passed away more than a year back.
In time,I plan to add 5 more block of kennels,to totally shelter at
ROLDA 100 doggies and a block for puppies,a running and playing
field for dogs,a small plastic pool,for dogs in summer and this is
only the begining.For a population of more than 10,000 strays only
in town,we'll need to expand and to build at least one more shelter
here in the next years.
ROLDA no-kill shelter gives a new chance to:
-Very sick dogs we found on streets,who need longterm treatment
-Dogs with lifetime handicaps ,who will never be adopted
We also TEMPORARLY acomodate dogs for recovery after spay/neuter
surgery.Ussually,a recovery period is 3-4 days for a male and 6-7
days for a female,if none complication appears.
Another important achievement is the fact we found a local
veterinary office we are exclusively working with.This veterinary
office is runned by two very compassionate peoples,who promise me
they will help ROLDA'activity as much as possible and in the limit
of their possibilities.
Why founding vets. in Romania represent an "achievement"?!
Because romanian veterinaries are very greedy and have a different
way of treating homeless animals than treating animals with
owners,robably because their lack of education ,not to mention lack
of veterinary items,veterinary equipment,even basic items for a
surgery or medical emergency.
I also can consider an achievement each life we succed to save daily
and each succesful rehomig of a stray,that give to our adopted furry
friend hopes for a better and safer life!
3. ROLDA'staff thanks to our partners from Romania Animal
Rescue,Inc.,who sponsored us to attend to CHAMP Conference(18-21
August 2004),the first big event where ROLDA'voice was heard for
animals suffering in my country!
Articles about ROLDA published in international media:animal
magazines from USA("Animal News Center","American Humane", "Animal
People","Tri-Valley Herald", "San Francisco Chronicle","Paws to
Think"...),Holland and different others publications ("The
ARK" ,"Dogs Monthly"and "Shoreham Protester" UK )are a recognition
of our daily activity and excellent relations/friedship
we kept during time with ALL our collaborators shows we are
following a right direction,but of course we need support from time
to time to achieve our dreams.
4.Since 2002, ROLDA continue an intensive educative program that
have as main target educating peoples about respecting another
creature'life and its'rights.Last year we began a colouring book
program to reach the children of Galatzi. These colouring books were
designed by childrens from Sugar Land, Texas, USA and will be free
distributed (along with a set of colouring crayons,already bought)to
orphanage and poor kidsgardens in Galatzi.
This coloring book shows page after page of children loving dogs.
We hope to get the message across to the children about kindness to
other beings this year as well. Perhaps one day they too will be
inspired to help animals.
Note:ROLDA didn't receive none funding from local authorities
(because we have a private shelter )and none governmental assistance
(because authorities ussually preffer to cheat animal'lovers and
kill dogs instead of trying to humanely fix overpopulation problem!)
All ROLDA'staff is volunteer.
One of our most succesfull campaign :SUPPORT COMMUNITY PROGRAM!
In order to support animal'lovers from local community who decided
to help a stray with health problems, the local veterinary office
(we are exclusively working with) annonce that ROLDA will help each
animal'lover from Galatzi who care a stray by supporting the costs
for each stray'treatment.
In this way,hopefully we will encourage those citizens who don't
have money but have compassion for homeless animals to help our
furry friends in need of medical help!
Galatzi is a large industrial town from Romania,300 Km far from
Bucharest,with an officially declared population of 10,000(ten
thousands) stray dogs only in Galati,not to mention the very high
number of strays from the counties close to Galatzi:Braila,Tulcea
and Vrancea.. and our shelter is the only one on an area of few
hundreds Km.As you can imagine,daily we try to help teens strays in
need: hit by cars,beaten,with broken legs,skin diseases,infected
injuries,...
We collaborate perfectly with a veterinary office from my
town,runned by two very special peoples,who make "miracles" for all
my furry babies in need,no matter how difficult the situation is!
They dedicate their time to help as much as possible strays from
Galatzi and often lately,they help me without being paid because I
have big financially difficulties from a while!
We never received funds (or any other help) for our government or
local authorities/City Hall and all our staff is 100% volunteer.
It's very hard to "control" urgent cases of ill dogs from 10,000
inocents and defendless souls with various problems and we daily
face many difficulties and problems:
For ex.,one "problem" is dogfood:because of high cost of dry dogfood
in Romania and because I cannot receive dry dogfood from outside
Romania,according to romanian laws ,feeding even few hundreds dogs
from 10,000 presently living on Galatzi'streets is a big
challenge !!!
I'm very disappointed and discouraged when I'm able to feed only few
teens-hundreds(according to my budget)and see others are not enough
lucky ...I would love to care ,feed and protect them all!!!Each
romanian stray is very special,loving and incredible good
companion ...each furry friend I care is unique and wonderful in its
own way and my life would be simply empty without having my babies
around!
INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS PROGRAM:
ROLDA &Romania Animal Rescue,Inc. started begining with May month an
INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER PROGRAM!!!!
Doesn't matter if you are a veterinary,assistant,or "just"
animal'lover who want to spend (alone or with your familly) a
holiday in Romania this year..YOU ARE WELCOME TO SPEND A HOLIDAY IN
GALATZI,ROMANIA -AT ROLDA SHELTER ,to volunteer to help our dogs in
need from our town!
We can accomodate groups of two persons at our shelter ,where we
have two small bedrooms ,a kitchen and a bathroom and all
accomodation conditions assured.
You can subscribe to our volunteers list and together we can choose
a convinient date for your coming.
As long as you have the desire to give a hug to a romanian stray
(who maybe wasn't ever huged or never heard a good word),as long as
you decided that you might volunteer some time of your vacation to
care a stray in need from here,all others details we can establish
together...ROLDA would love to hear from you and meet you in
person ...and you might have the "surpise" to meet on our streets a
friend for lifetime,a friend that tomorrow might die -happy in his
heart that he actually meet a human the way he dreamed always humans
are!!!
While you volunteer at ROLDA shelter,you might meet our furry
friends "in prison" at City Hall shelter Galatzi and see the
terrible conditions in which they are living,you can also meet some
kids from a Galatzi'orphanage ,dedicated to help our vets. in their
spare time,...there are also animal'lovers in Galatzi who are tired
to fight and lost so much in life...and dogcathcers took away the
only joy of their life ...a furry friend.
There is no hope for the strays in prison at City Hall shelter..they
are waiting and waiting someone to come ,pet and adopt them,...save
them from that Hell !!!!
Hours are too long for those dogs who cannot even breath in that
horrible miserable air ,they are waiting and waiting ...until it's
too late for some of them.
PLEASE VOLUNTEER YOUR SERVICES TO HELP A ROMANIAN STRAY IN NEED!
Rory and Nancy ,two US friends spent 10 wonderful days at ROLDA
shelter,around our furry friends,helping us do the
daily "work":cleaning the kennels,playing with dogs,treating dogs
that need daily special care,going for emergencies at our
vets.,feeding dogs in "prison" in City Hall pounds...!
Rory and Nancy Janes are our partners at "Romania Animal
Rescue",Inc.,a registered 501-c-3 US corporation.They brought a cart
for Merlin ,one of the paralised dogs in our care and they adopted a
puppy when they leaved Romania.
Our UK friends ,Maureen and Sharon ,volunteered their time for one
week to help us with daily activity at ROLDA shelter...They leaved
Romania in June determined to spread the word about us and make the
Hell from City Hall pounds known abroad!
A couple from Germany(americans living temporarly in Germany)just
leaved our shelter'facility convinced that our "dogs home" is better
than their own local shelter and determined to spread out the word
about us in their own country....
OUR WISH LIST:
*4x4 Pick-up car(URGENT NEEDED!!!)
*Blankets and towels(various size)
*Blades and surgical blades
*Scissors for pre-surgery use
*Cleaning and desinfection supplies
*Dog beds(various size)
*Dogs toys
*Vitamins,supplements,treats for dogs
*Coats for dogs(for winter)
*Brushes,clippers,...
*Shampoos, anti-flea soaps
*Puppy milk replacer
*Deparasitation products
*Antibiotics Ointment for wounds
*Antiseptics for wounds treatment
*Flea spray and powder
*Gloves(surgical gloves,exam gloves,...)
*Vet wrap,wrap hands,...
*Terramycin or other ophtalmologic ointment
*Surgery fields(operation camps)
*Wrap elastic bandages
*First aid item
*Bandages(all types)
*Portable kennels
If you have any veterinary item,please donate it to our vet. office
(MEDVIOVET,Galatzi)to help our vets. better care our animals in need!
*digital camera(for website and online updates)
For more details about ROLDA'activity and our current
campaign,please visit ROLDA'website:
www.rolda.home.ro
Thank YOU for care about romanian strays!
Respectfully,
Dana
ROLDA
Phone:+40721759742
Email:rolda@care2.com
www.rolda.home.ro