Animal Welfare Education in Romania

Dear Friends,

We at Romania Animal Rescue use "out of the box" thinking and strategy to try to engage more and more people, young and old, to respect animals and treat them well. 

The Danube Delta near the border with Bulgaria is a very impoverished area.  Young people have very few chances to advance themselves out of the poverty, even tho there are many human charities helping in the region.  Clothes, glasses, shoes and basic items for a decent quality of life are provided by charities. But what about the animals?

Last year, we were contacted by Elizabeth, a teacher in the area.  She asked us to help a dog who had a cancerous tumor, and we convinced her to start a spay project.  Our Dream Team of vets and techs traveled to the Delta area to spay and neuter and realized how little the young people had....but they did have dogs and cats.  Our Dr. Aurelian Stefan began organizing with Elizabeth on how these young people could be engaged with their history, learn about animal welfare, and have fun doing it.  A trip was arranged for the kids to travel to Bucharest, stay at the Center of Hope animal clinic, and tour Bucharest.  What a great experience for everyone!   These students were taught the ins and outs of veterinary work with the hopes that some of them choose this as a great profession to help in their region and get them out of poverty.  This was a very fun and successful event that we hope to continue. 

HOPE, our mobile clinic, was on tour in 2018.  Our friend Frank from Handicap Pets Germany and RAR vet nurse Ruth organized and planned this massive event that reached many miles of the country. Please see the HOPE Tour video from the animal welfare tour of 2018.  In 2019, we hope to do another massive tour to help hundreds more animals.

Dr. Aurelian Stefan has his weekly TV show on Medika TV called "Medika Vet".  He is able to reach mass audiences and focus on the animals needs for the country.  This past week, a private shelter in Romania was exposed for animal neglect and abuse......horribly close to 70 dogs died of starvation and 15 cats.  We still don't know what measures the Romanian government will take, if any, against this abuser who is now in police custody, but we refuse to "wait and see".  This was the topic of Dr. A's TV program this week.  Enlightening potentially thousands to be aware, look where you assume all is well, and ACT.

This year will bring more challenges and progress for our charity.  We always rely on your help to be able to build more, help more, treat more, run the Vet Patrol project, the Homeless Animals Hospital project, more spays and neuters.  The more active we are, the more animals are helped and the more people engaged with our "Compassion is Cool" message. 

Thank you for reading this long report.  And thank you for helping us to help the animals of Romania.

Links:

• Hope Tour 2018 video
• our Facebook page
• our website