Animal Welfare Education in Romania

Romania Animal Rescue is now approaching 15,000 educational books printed and distributed in schools and community events in Romania!  The young and elderly are learning how to care for the animals, that Compassion is Cool, and the importance of spay/neuter to stop abandonment and for the well-being of their pets.  For years, Romania had poor infrastructure in place for people to understand and provide the needs for their animals. 

RAR's mission provides a circle of help and compassion.   We educate the public in schools and community events, provide free spay/neuter services throughout Romania, fund the treatment for homeless and animals of the impoverished through our Homeless Animals Hospital program and combine this with the local charity so that the animals go into foster or shelter care and are put up for adoption (not returned to streets), and provide sponsorships to the Veterinary Training Camp.

I would like to share with you what one colleague, Oliviu,  sent to me in regards to our work in Romania:

"It's been four and a half years since Speranta Pentru Animale completed the first RAR sponsored spay/neuter program and in the span of this period there were also two Spayathons (the first of them probably the largest event of this kind that ever took place in Romania) and several other RAR sponsored programs. Thinking of all these I realized how many things have changed due to the RAR campaigns and the free spay/neuter programs hosted by the Family Vet clinic.
I remember the first time I took a stray dog, a female, to be spayed. It was in 1995 and the experience, which I prefer not to describe in detail, was so gruesome, that, despite my conviction that it was a very necessary step, a 'must' in order to protect the lives of stray dogs, it took me two years before I could gather enough mental strength to take another female to be spayed in a vet practice recently opened at that time. It was closer to what it should be and since then I have been involved constantly in this volunteer activity. But it was only years later, when we got the chance of meeting the wonderful vets of the RAR team, doctor Aurelian Stefan and doctor Petrisor Stefan that my efforts and those of other animal lovers in Craiova, who struggled to find a humane method for stray dogs population control, reached a scale that we could have only dreamed of.
Beyond the very obvious benefits of the thousands (and this is not a typing error) of spays/neuters done in these last four years since our collaboration has started, which meant curbing down the strays population, there are other things that have changed that are not always noticed since they don't have a statistic or quantitative nature.
First of all RAR campaigns have spread a new mentality towards spay/neuter in itself as surgical procedure, they shattered some cultural barriers that kept people away, like some unwanted consequences for the health of the animals, or radical modifications of behavior following spay/neuter. Years ago I kept hearing these arguments even from people who had a certain level of education. I can say that I rarely hear these arguments again today.
Bearing in mind what I have said about how spay/neuter was done before, I know that RAR campaigns have set a standard regarding anesthesia protocol, the sterile work, the quality of suture materials. These methods were copied and this resulted in progress of the medical act even for some vets who would not admit they 'stole' it. The RAR team of doctors of vet techs is growing steadily, I can say that a new generation of fine professionals is growing under our own eyes. This means RAR is actually filling a gap in the system, it takes over where the official veterinarian educational system still fails to produce skilled and dedicated professionals.
One other benefit derived from the intense collaboration with RAR is that during these very special events the real 'roll-up sleeves volunteers' were tested and selected. Some have started from zero, with no previous knowledge or experience about spay/neuter and they are now enthusiastic 'preachers', showing the way to many others.
By bringing together at RAR campaigns so many people who shared interest and love for their own animals and for stray animals too, there was the perfect opportunity to meet, to talk, to exchange views and hopes and in many cases afterwards to work together. So, in an unseen way, RAR has also contributed to the formation of rescue groups, not only ours, but others across the country as well."

Nancy Janes recently spoke at the 2014 Animal Law Symposium at UC Hastings Law School in San Francisco.  She introduced the students and attendees to the situation in Romania.   This well-received presentation educated more Americans and law students in particular on the situation at hand for the animals in Romania.  Thank you to all who attended!  

Thank you to those of you who donate and support our programs for education in Romania.  Thank goodness we are making positive strides on a daily basis!

Links:

• Facebook page to Law Symposium
• our website
• our international sister charity