We cannot let the 250 dogs at Vesna's shelter starve!

1. In Serbia, Vesna has almost no kibble left to feed the 250 dogs in her shelter. They could starve to death!

"I have no more than two or three days of food left. After that, I have nothing, nothing at all, and no one to call. For about thirty days now I've been cutting everyone's portions to stretch out what little is left. Thirty days of measuring, of taking away a handful here, a handful there, telling myself that if I give less today there'll still be something tomorrow. But today, we've reached the end of that arithmetic.

Into the bowls I put stale bread, a little kibble and some fat so it goes down. I know that's not food for dogs. I know it better than anyone: I watch them eat it every day. The bakeries used to give me their leftovers for free. Now I have to pay. So even the stale bread, that last resort, has become an expense I have to squeeze out of a budget that doesn't exist.

I get around €300 in donations in a good month, and I split my small pension between them and me. With that, I have to feed 250 dogs, pay for the old bread and pay back the vet. The last time I put the bowls down, I begged on Facebook for someone to help us, the way I've been doing for years. Some people call me a beggar. I don't care about that. What I do care about is that in three days I'll have nothing left to put in those bowls..."

2. Weak and sick, the dogs are fighting over a few mouthfuls: the frailest ones stand no chance

"The last time I put the bowls down, they ate, yes. But they were tearing it out of each other's mouths because there was so little. There's growling, they rush in, they scrap over a few mouthfuls of bread. The fights are back, and now they happen at every single feeding.

And their health is giving out. They get sick, their defences can't keep up, the smallest thing takes hold and never goes away. I have dogs in hospital at the vet's right now. On bread and fat, no dog recovers from anything, there's nothing in that to rebuild a body with. On top of it all, the ticks are on them every day. I don't have one euro for the treatments, so I pull them off by hand, one by one, dog after dog, all summer long.

Out of my 250 dogs, 100 are old, sick, blind or disabled: Maza, 18 years old, blind and deaf, who can't see her bowl and can't hear me call her; Dule, 14, blind and deaf as well; Flekica, who has skin cancer. Those ones can't fight for their share, so when there isn't enough, they're the ones who get the least. These past months I've already lost some of them, old ones, dogs with liver disease, kidney disease, epileptic dogs. So I know exactly what happens to a frail dog that doesn't get enough to eat. I'm not afraid for myself. I'm afraid of getting up one morning and finding one of them who didn't make it through the night..."

3. Old, with hips that are failing him, without kibble Bobo is losing what little strength still holds him up.

"Bobo is 17 and he's been living with me for ten years. I got him out of the pound, where he had nothing good left to wait for. He has hip dysplasia: getting up takes him a while, walking hurts him. With hips like his, every kilo he loses is a kilo of muscle that no longer holds him up. If he gets thin, he won't get back up again, it's as simple as that...

I've been rationing for a month now. When the others throw themselves at the bowl, Bobo gets there when it's all over... At his age he has no reserves, and an old dog that grows weak doesn't climb back. He's spent ten years here being safe. This is not the moment for him to go hungry."

4. In debt to the vet, with no help and no credit, Vesna has nothing left to fill the bowls with

"My debt at the vet's has climbed to €2,300. It doesn't go down, it goes up, because the dogs keep getting sick and I keep taking them in. But for 50 of them, these past months, I've had to stop or put off treatment, simply because I didn't have the money.

Donations stay at around €300 a month, and that doesn't budge. Here in Serbia people don't have money either, and plenty of them think it's better to help humans than animals. The state gives nothing, the municipality gives nothing, nobody comes to see what's going on in this shelter. I split my pension between the dogs and me, but a Serbian pension doesn't feed 250 mouths!

There's nobody to help me except my granddaughter. She comes every day, she carries what I can't carry anymore. That's no small thing, and without her I don't know how I'd manage. But we're only two women for 250 dogs, and two pairs of hands don't make up for a full bowl. The work, we get it done. It's the food we don't have."

5. Vesna isn't asking for money, only kibble so her dogs don't starve to death.

"I'm tired. At the shelter I drag myself around, I fall, and I keep going: the water has to be fresh, the concrete has to be hosed down because the heat is terrible this summer, the mess has to be picked up. When I'm done, I drag myself to my bed, and that's when my granddaughter arrives.

I've never been able to say no when a dog needed help, that's been my problem forever. They come from everywhere: people leave them at my gate, they bring them to me when their owner dies, they abandon them in the streets and I go and get them. Maza came to me like that six months ago, 18 years old, blind and deaf, after her owner died. Dule, his owner threw him out in front of the shelter entrance...

For myself, I've given up everything. I eat once a day. I don't have a piece of fruit in the house. I don't go to the doctor, I don't have my medication. Everything goes to the dogs, and I don't see it as a sacrifice: that's just how things are here. When they have food, I'm the happiest woman in the world."

6. By taking action now, you can help Vesna receive 3000 kilos of kibble. 

Animal Webaction has a logistics platform directly in Serbia, which enables us to intervene quickly and deliver kibble.

7. 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.

8. In Serbia, street dogs are hunted by the State and ignored by the population, volunteers like Vesna are their only hope!

If you know of a foundation or NGO that could help Vesna, 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 Vesna's dogs, please contact us and we will put you in touch!

If you would like to come to Vesna's shelter to help her or if you would like to send her kibbles or a check directly, please contact Vesna via the association's Facebook page. (Note: direct help is your own responsibility.)

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