Romania
Overcrowded, diseased and dirty public pounds in Romania are full to bursting with dogs that have experienced severe injury, abuse and trauma. Thousands of dogs contained in this environment have no bright future to look forward to.
The alternative is a life on the streets. Survival is a daily challenge due to gruelling weather, a stark lack of food and immense human cruelty. The situation in Romania is dire, and one that we’ve been passionate about combatting from the earliest moments of Wild at Heart Foundation.
Our Project Partner and Support - Anca
We were first made aware of the issues Romanian dogs face when our founder Nikki adopted a puppy in 2014 from a litter found by Anca in a forest, next to their mother who had been killed. A devoted dog-lover, an incredible independent rescuer and not least, a vet, Anca, along with this litter of pups, were the catalyst for the inception of Wild at Heart Foundation in 2015.
Anca runs a small shelter from her family home, caring for the neglected and unloved stray dogs of her area; providing a safe haven, regular food, and making sure their medical needs are met. She feeds many more who are living on the streets, too scarred by human interaction to be tempted into a house or garden. We are proud to regularly financially support Anca with ensuring the welfare of these abandoned dogs.
Anca facilitates and also personally carries out the sterilisation of strays in her community, a project for which we have provided funding over the years and which has allowed almost 200 street dogs to be sterilised.
Your donations allow us to support our work in Romania, and ensure that even more dogs are given a chance to live a healthy, happy life, free from the threat of pain, suffering, cruelty or neglect.
If a regular donation towards a specific project is set up and we subsequently cease to provide support in the future, any recurring donations will be allocated to the areas of our other work requiring the most support.
Our Project Partner and Support - Sava's Safe Haven
Sava’s Safe Haven is a family-run animal shelter, founded in 2012, near Galati in Romania, with capacity for 250 animals. Over their 10-year history they have helped 5000 animals in need.
As a shelter located close to the border with Ukraine, we have been supporting Sava’s Safe Haven to help the the dogs of Ukraine since April 2022. You can read more about this work via our Global Emergency Aid page.
Sadly, Romania remains a country synonymous with a persistent lack of compassion towards stray dogs and inadequate animal welfare regulations. Due to this, we are now also supporting Sava’s Safe Haven with regular welfare funds to enable them to meet the nourishment and medical needs of the Romanian dogs in their care and also maintain the upkeep of the shelter.
In rural South-East Romania there is also a woeful lack of accessible veterinary care for dog owners, and those clinics which do exist tend to focus on care for farm animals only; so, not just strays, but also owned dogs, go without treatment which leads to pain and suffering, followed by potential abandonment by their owners.
With support via sponsorship funds from Waggel, we are also assisting Sava’s Safe Haven with the launch of a Mobile Vet Clinic. The funds are facilitating the purchase of items such as vaccinations and microchipping kits, rapid diagnostic facilities and general medication. The mobile vet clinic will also act as a Pet Ambulance for transferring dogs for sterilisation and more major treatments to either their own or other available clinics.
We are so grateful to Waggel for their support of this initiative, and we can’t wait to see the difference this community outreach project will make for the dogs of Romania.
If a regular donation towards a specific project is set up and we subsequently cease to provide support in the future, any recurring donations will be allocated to the areas of our other work requiring the most support.