We can't let these abandones puppies starve!

1. In Romania, Iulian is running out of kibble to feed the dozens of abandoned puppies in his area. They have zero chance of surviving without his help!

"We have stray dogs in our care in many several villages near Iasi, we care for a lot of them, there must be around 80 / 100 in our care at the moment. Over the last months we've also been feeding dozens of puppies everyday, and I am not giving up on them. I try to save as many as I can.

There are just me and my wife Maria, she regularly finds the poor puppies in a ditch, woods or isolated places like this. Being a vet, I do my best to save all the ones we find. The living conditions of these dogs are usually bad, but if their health is relatively ok I do not take them straight away to prioritize urgent cases, we really don't have enough place to take them all. We feed daily those we cannot host, on the spot where they stay.

We have about 5 bags of kibble left at this stage, and every help matters. If we do not care for these puppies, they die from hunger, parvovirus or traffic. A bigger dog may survive without help, but not puppies. No one will feed these dogs if we don't."

2. Left for dead in a ditch, Lily was covered in maggots and in a critical condition when Iulian rescued her. Healed from her wounds, Lily is still fragile and needs kibble.

"Someone threw her in a ditch, she was very weak and was sleeping constantly. Flies came and deposited eggs on her, those flies can sense when a dog is dying. I think in a few days she would have died if I had not found her. She had 3 holes on her back caused by the worms.

I can't take her to the shelter as she is too little and only had one vaccine, she needs to do two more. I need to wait 6 weeks for puppies like her to make all their vaccines before I can bring them to the shelter, otherwise if I take them unvaccinated to the shelter they die, and they die in pain most of the time because of the parvovirus, which is a lethal disease that spreads very quickly among puppies."

3. Alongside Iulian's actions, another volunteer, Marusia, also takes care of about 50 puppies. They too are in dire need of puppy food.

"The dogs with owners keep breeding uncontrollably and then the owner abandons the mother with puppies on the streets and keeps only one puppy that will breed again at some point. It’s a cycle that we can not stop, no matter how many actions and campaigns we raise. Unless, someone with more power has a say. 

Dogs regularly leave for adoption, but their place is shortly filled by others, and for each new dog we need to use new resources. I cannot bring most of the puppies to the main shelter where adult dogs are kept, because there are different kind of viruses from parvovirus, distemper to hepatitis, and the puppies need to be vaccinated before they enter, so I do my best to host them.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of quality food for the little ones as it is extremely expensive. I ration it, and I also cook rice from time to time, but still I have about 4 to 5 days left of puppy food only. And if I do not feed them, nobody will feed them."

4. Born from an unwanted litter, Pup was abandoned like many others. Her health is fragile and she has no hope if Marusia can no longer give her kibble.

"This puppy was born in the village, and was too vulnerable to be taken to the shelter. People expect me to take their puppies as soon as they are born because they do not sterilize their pets, or they abandon them in front of the shelter...

Her health is a bit poor, although I have been taking care of her for a month, imagine in which state I found her ! If I do not give her food, she will die because nobody will."

5. With no subsidies and very few donations, Iulian and Marusia struggle to save the abandoned dogs, but can no longer buy kibble for the puppies.

"We cannot cope with the number of dogs we find. Appart from the food, we need to fund the treatments, vaccines, deworming, a lot of dogs for example suffer from babesiosis caused the ticks. Authorities here do not care about our actions. we have faced many closed doors from them to buy a land to build a local shelter. And I had zero support from the Mayor's office here to run my free sterilization campaign, unlike other villages where I received some.

We buy food with our money, pay for the petrol for the rides needed to transport dogs and all these things. Through all this we only receive the support of the French association Coeur d'Asha, but that isn't enough. Even now I buy ten loaves of bread, four milk bottles and chicken spines daily so I can have enough to feed the puppies.

We sometimes cry at night, there are many serious cases that are brought to us, and we try to give the dogs a chance, unfortunately some do not make it. Especially puppies, they die in pain from parvovirus and it is hard to watch."

6. Iulian is not asking for money, only kibble to prevent the dogs from starving.

"I've always loved dogs, and started taking even more care of them since I met my wife Maria. This is a virus, if you commit to saving dogs you can not return back. Two years ago before I came here it was full of dogs.

I went from door to door and sterilised the dogs for free, in over 1 year and a half we sterilised 702 dogs. Now, I am thankful I do not have abandoned dogs in these villages where we sterilised, the ones that remain are the ones we find travelling around in other villages.

We really would like to stop the uncontrolled breeding because the puppies will always suffer otherwise,  and people need to stop abandoning dogs. We fight to reach these goals, and to help the community dogs until then."

7. If this campaign succeeds, Iulian will not receive any money but 1800 kg of junior kibble, delivered from Animal Webaction's logistic platform in Romania.

Animal Webaction has a logistic platform in Romania, which allows us to intervene quickly and deliver kibbles.

8. The French association Coeur d'Asha is already doing its utmost to support the actions of Iulian and Marusia, but is also struggling. It cannot buy kibble for the puppies either and asks us to intervene.

"We collaborate very well, if they were not around I do not think we could have done that much for these dogs. They help us with some of the food, adoptions, sterilization and some of the vaccines costs.

They always try to save the dogs, even the extremely sick ones, and they run multiple checks on the future owners before adoptions, which is very important to us. But Coeur d'Asha already has a lot on its plate to fund the shelter in Pascani; they simply cannot cope with all the needs and dogs we have here. 

On a monthly basis, we receive 20 bags of food from the association, which covers approximately 2 weeks, but we have to find additional support for the rest, and for keeping up with the spaying / neutering we conduct which is the only way to put an end the the suffering of these animals"

9. Campaigns launched on Animal Webaction often fail.

When a campaign fails, Animal Webaction cannot deliver the products. The beneficiary doesn't receive anything and the buyers are refunded. 

10. In Romania, it is difficult to find funds for kibbles, there are no aid, no grants, no foundation... Many abandoned dogs die alone in the streets, in complete indifference...

If you know of a foundation or NGO that could help Iulian, please invite them to contact us so that we can put them in touch.

If you represent an animal welfare foundation or NGO, please help Iasi's street dogs, contact us and we will put you in touch with Iulian!

If you would like to drop by Iasi to help Iulian or if you would like to send him kibbles or a check directly, contact the Coeur d'Asha association via Facebook (note: direct help is your own responsibility).

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