At this moment we have 160 dogs, many of them neutered by Dr. Aurelian Stefan and his brother, Dr. Petrisor Stefan in July 2010. Our shelter is on a private, the former brewery factory of Turda. But hasn't been in use in over 30 years. Dr Aurelian saw that.
Our shelter is in the back yard, on approximately 3000 square meters (3/4 acre). The problem started 2 years ago, when the Mayor tried to expel us from the property but the owner was on our side. Last summer, everything changed. The owner started to pressure us to move away (this time the Mayor's pressure started to be dangerous for himself). We have tried to find a new location, but nothing was safe enough for our dogs. Then, a Romanian gentleman from Canada heard about us and organized a barbecue event for his Romanian friends from Canada and managed to raise 2000 Ca dollars. We have founded a new land, a former agricultural land, and we have bough 4800 square meters (1 acre) with 2000 Eu. The rest of this amount came from a Dutch organisation whose founder sent to our shelter vet students, in practice, from July until November. The students told him about our situation.
Unfortunately, after that we couldn't do anything else because we had no other funds to start building a new shelter. But the owner representatives together with the Mayor's people kept pressing us in the most dirty ways. One day, the director of the brewery intended to hire a truck to load our dogs in and abandon them in a forest. It was a real adventure to stop the crazy man. But the oppression methods continued: They have cut the electricity down (we couldn't use any more the fridge), then the water (in summer!!!) and we had to carry water in our own hands from a colleague's house. One day the doormen told us that the director ordered them not to let any food to be brought inside the brewery. Then our Canadian friend interfered and through emails he said that it is not normal what they ask because the dogs will die of starvation.
Well, this is the way he have lived last year. Always with the "axe swinging over our head". Meanwhile, Viktoria Tocca from Dinas Ark sponsored us with 3000 EU and we have managed to fence 900 square meters (1/4 acre) with a solid fence to protect the shelter. Now we are looking for more funds in order to start building the kennels. We are in a stupid/forced competition with the Town Hall. They have started the building of a new city pound and the Mayor and Vice Mayor keep declaring in the local media that the first dogs will be taken in there will be ours. In one private meeting, the Mayor has said that he won't keep the dogs more than 3 days in the shelter, his intention is to euthanise every dog. That scared us like hell. That's why we are begging everyone to help us even with building materials, so we can move our dogs on the new land and save them from the Mayor's killings hands. But, no one was impressed. That is why we are really desperate now.
Because it is former agricultural land, the ground is very soft and the engineer told us that we have to cast concrete or stone, as a platform for the kennels. But only the concrete for the 900 square meters costs 3000 EU. Then we need to buy the panels for the kennels. One piece costs 100 lei (23 EU) and we need at least 100 pieces. We have the dog houses, we can reuse them. No need of funds for that. Building strong kennels is the most important step. Because the land is on the country side, we have to build solid kennels so the dogs cannot run away and get lost or get killed by the peasants.
At the brewery, the kennels are improvised with iron wires and the dogs break through all the time. But it is not a real big problem because someone stays there all the time.
Dear Nancy, this is our story. The Trei Frati Patati Association (Three Spotted Brother) needs urgent help. The Mayor has said that the city pound will be ready in March or sooner. We are very aware that the life of our 160 dogs depends on the speed of getting our new shelter built. That's why we say that every bit of help is more than welcome.
Congratulation for all the efforts you are doing. You are a great lady and you have helped lots of Romanian strays.
All my best,
Brindusa
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