Tourney on Monday will fund a vet team's trip to Romania.
--By Mary Eisenhart

The fancy surroundings of the Oakhurst Country Club in Clayton are far removed from the grim realities facing hundreds of thousands of stray dogs in Romania. But on Monday, April 25, the golfers will take to the Oakhurst's manicured course in a fundraiser to help dogs on the other side of the world.

Like much of Eastern Europe, Romania suffers from enormous social and economic problems, which unsurprisingly spill over into a generally horrific situation for animals. During the thuggish Ceausescu regime, Romanians were driven from their own homes into collective housing, where, of course, pets were not allowed, and hence were abandoned wholesale to their fate on city streets. After a few decades of this, their living conditions were truly miserable.

One day a few years ago, Dana Contin, a woman who lives in the industrial town of Galati, went to the local city dog-holding facility to find her dog, who'd been picked up as a stray. She got her dog back, but in the process was horrified by conditions at the place, which wouldn't begin to qualify as a shelter — in essence, hundreds of dogs of all ages, sizes and conditions were simply warehoused there with little food and no care until they died.

She decided to do something about it, and with the aid of donations from around the world set up ROLDA, now widely praised as the best animal shelter in Eastern Europe. There she takes in stray dogs, providing them with medical care, food, and often the first human kindness they've ever known. The ones who are too damaged to find homes she keeps there; the adoptable ones she finds homes for. Little by little, her efforts are bearing fruit, but by her own estimate there are 14,000 stray dogs in dire straits in Galati alone.

Nancy Janes of Livermore didn't know any of this when she first went to Romania; she was attracted by the hiking, the culture that had once made Bucharest "the Paris of the East," and the country's history. Even though she was a major animal lover, she had no idea of the problems facing Romanian dogs. However, after she connected with Contin, she plunged into the effort. With husband Rory (proprietor of Baughman's Western Outfitters in Livermore and Christesen's English Apparel in Pleasanton) she launched Romania Animal Rescue, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Livermore, to help, and the two have returned to Romania several times.

One result of their efforts is that next Monday golfers will tee off to send a team of vets from the Humane Society of the United States to Galati to train local vets in modern surgical techniques, which because of the country's sorry legacy are all but unknown there.

The problems seem all but insurmountable. Romanian animal lovers are, for example, increasingly aware that spaying and neutering would go a long way to curbing overpopulation and ending animal suffering — but such surgeries cannot be safely performed, as anesthetics, antibiotics, and other medications range from scarce to nonexistent. According to the HSUS, local vets report that post-op painkillers are rarely if ever used, and they lack supplies, resources and often training for the most basic procedures.

"Last year," Janes says, "we were able to send two vets and an anesthesiologist to Romania with the funds from the golf tourney. These vets, led by Dr. Jen Scarlett of San Francisco, taught the vets in Galati how to use modern surgical procedures. Most vets in Romania do not use analgesia or anesthesia for surgery, or antibiotics.

"Dr. Scarlett's team also taught our vets in Romania new surgical procedures for spay/neuter of the 14,000 street dogs that we have to deal with. Previously, the vets in Galati (and Romania) were under the assumption that puppies could not be sterilized. By the time the vets would get a hold of adolescent dogs to sterilize, it was usually too late. They had already had puppies...."

She adds that her group is always on the lookout for basic and medical supplies to send to Romania; especially needed, she says, are:

• Wormers for dogs and puppies
• Puppy formula (dry)
• Frontline, Revolution, Program
• Toys
• Antifungal products
• Dermatitis products
• Products to treat mange
• Vitamins or Pet Tabs

Helping Romanian dogs has transformed the Janes family in other ways. First there was little Stefan. In 2004, says Nancy, the folks at Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation suggested that she and Rory bring back a couple of puppies for adoption, and they found little Stefan under a bench in the snow in Bucharest. "He had infections in both eyes, and much of his hair was missing due to frostbite," she recalls. "We took him with us (snuck him into our hotel!) and wormed him, bathed him, etc." and brought him home. Stefan turned out to be so attached that he never left, and was joined earlier this year by Ion. "We found Ion last May in Transylvania, absolutely full of worms and fleas, and almost dead. He is now our pet," she says.

They're also currently fostering puppy Mihai, from the ROLDA shelter (featured as our Pet of the Week), who will soon be available for adoption from ARF. "Dana had found him at the City Pound in Galati, left with his siblings for dead as an infant. She bottle-fed him and his siblings. Mihai was the runt. He is now to be adopted by ARF and rehomed in the Walnut Creek area, lucky boy that he is!"

For more information about Romania Animal Rescue, Inc., and ROLDA (who are currently in the throes of moving their Web site from one provider to another), email Nancy Janes at romaniadogs@JoiMail.com.

Mary Eisenhart lives in Oakland with her dogs Rex and Callie, and is glad they're not all in Romania.

Pet Column Archives