By Mandy Easter | Project Leader
ASNI is privileged to have an extraordinary veterinary team in Romania the head of which is a charismatic veterinary surgeon named Dr Aurelian Stefan. Known as Dr A he has dedicated his entire life to animals and is a champion for the cause of sterilization. In Romania what he has achieved is rare, he trained as a veterinary surgeon in the 2000’s. Seeing the plight of the strays he came to the conclusion early on that the only effective way to combat the overpopulation of cats and dogs on the streets was spaying and neutering as many animals as possible.
In 2008 Dr A met Nancy Janes from the United States for the first time who was the founder of Romania Animal Rescue and a beautiful collaboration ensued. Deciding to join forces to spay and neuter every animal possible through mass sterilization campaigns known as “Spayathons”. Sterilizing animals at this time was not a popular phenomenon as it involved the prevention of life. Romanians being Orthodox Christians did not believe in what was seen as an unnatural procedure to combat pregnancies.
However they persisted, Dr A needed to train in the simplest, kindest form of surgery that could be used for mass sterilizations; hence a good friend of Nancy’s Dr Jeanne Olson arrived from the United States and taught Dr Aurelian “The Hook Surgical Procedure”. As its name suggest the uterus and ovaries are taken out via a hook, through a very small incision in the torso. Once his training was complete, he was armed with the knowledge to teach his colleagues this form of surgery at The Family Vet in Craiova, where his practice was established.
Through education and going against the grain, Dr A and Nancy persevered with their mission to prevent strays ending up on the streets and to date, together, they have sterilized over 161,000 animals! Opening the first Social Animal Hospital (The Centre of Hope) in 2016 with a view to opening another in Craiova as soon as funding allows. Dr A has also raised thousands of pounds towards their goals through taking part in three Marathons in the Uk, USA and Romania.
A Beautiful Collaboration Indeed!
By Mandy Easter | Project Leader
By Mandy Easter | Project Leader
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