We cannot let the 72 dogs at Samira's shelter starve!

1. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Samira has almost no kibble left to feed the 72 dogs in her shelter. They are at risk of starving to death!

"We live in the woods, my husband and me and 72 dogs. There's no electricity here, no neighbours, no real road that comes all the way up to us. There's just the two of us, and those 72 mouths to fill every single day. I don't have a big organisation behind me, nobody who could take over if I stopped.

Today I've got the last of a bag left, and I know exactly why it's still there: because for ten days now, I've been rationing. I cut everyone's share, a little more every day, to stretch out what's left. It isn't a reserve sitting in front of me, it's time I'm stealing by keeping every one of them a little hungry. And behind that last bag, there's nothing. No stock anywhere else, no bag put aside, no way of replacing it.

Before, whenever I got to the end, I always found a way. I'd borrow a bit of money, or the food itself from friends, and I'd make it to the following month. Today that's over. Prices go up every day and not a single shop will let me buy on credit anymore. The friends I used to borrow from are in exactly the same situation as me, with donations collapsing everywhere. I have nobody left to turn to. It's the first time I've said it this plainly: without this campaign, I won't be able to feed my dogs!"

2. The dogs aren't getting enough to eat and fights have already broken out at the shelter.

"You can tell straight away that they're hungry. They clean their bowls right down to the bottom, they eat every last piece, and then they follow me everywhere hoping there's something left. They don't take their eyes off me. At night they don't settle anymore, they're noisy, they pace around. A dog with a full stomach sleeps. Mine don't sleep.

And then the fights started. When dogs live together without getting enough to eat, the tension builds and sooner or later it goes off around the bowls. I always stay close by so I can step in, cut it short before it turns bad. But I can't be everywhere at once with 72 dogs...

The worst part is that the nights are really starting to get cold here. At this time of year my dogs should be getting more generous portions! Their bodies are asking for more to cope with the cold that's coming. And for ten days now, I've been giving them less. I have several sick dogs with nothing in reserve, no strength to spare. For those ones, a few days of rationing never gets made up."

3. At ten years old, Tačka has mange and is only getting half her ration.

"Tačka was only six months old when I got her out of the Prača pound. She was just a baby, and in that place she didn't stand a chance. I took her, and she never left again. She's been with me for almost ten years now, her whole life. She's never known anything but this shelter and me.

And today she's fighting the mange again. It eats away at her, it comes back, it ruins her skin and it wears down whatever defences she has left. Because that's exactly what this is about: mange, with me, never turns up by chance. It turns up when bodies have nothing left to defend themselves with. A dog that's properly fed can keep it away for years. A dog that's been eating half its ration for ten days, no.

I can't afford all the treatment she would need. Some treatments are already on hold for lack of money, and I still owe close to 200 € to the vet. So food has become the only care I can still give her, the last one. And right now, even that one, I can't manage anymore. At her age, with that skin, she won't get back what she loses while I'm rationing. If the kibble doesn't come, her skin is going to get worse week after week in front of me, and after ten years together I'll have nothing to offer her but watching it happen."

4. Samira's debts are piling up, her support has collapsed and she has no margin left.

"I still owe close to 200 € to the vet, and several treatments are on hold because I have no way of paying for them. It doesn't sound like much on paper, but for me it might as well be a wall: I have no income, no savings, nothing coming in each month. Every euro I manage to find goes straight into a bowl or to the vet, and at the moment there isn't enough for both. So I choose, and what I give up is the medical care.

To find kibble, all I have is Facebook. I post, I ask for help, I write in every group I can. Sometimes someone answers and sends me a little money or a bag, and I don't forget a single one of those people. But set against 72 dogs, all of that is very little, and these past months the small group that supported me has shrunk again. The hardest part is what comes back at me: people ask why I take care of dogs if I'm not capable of feeding them. Those words hurt, because nobody else wanted these dogs. They came from the streets, from the Prača pound, from a forest where they'd been left to die.

From the local council, complete silence, as always: no reply to my calls, no help, ever. And for some time now we don't even have water at the shelter: it has to be fetched on foot, several times a day, for the dogs and for us. My body doesn't keep up the way it used to, I do it with a lot of pain, but I do it anyway because nobody else will. There are only two of us, my husband and me, and we've reached the limit of what two people can carry."

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

"It all started at the Prača pound. I was helping the dogs there, they were starving and sick, and when I realised they were being made to disappear at night, out of sight of the volunteers, I got them out. About sixty of them in one go, on top of the ones I'd already picked up off the streets. I was told I couldn't keep them where I was living, so I left and settled in the woods with them. I've never regretted it. These dogs are my family, and this shelter isn't a job, it's my life.

People ask me when I last had a good day. I'll be honest: the only time is when the kibble arrives. That day the bowls are full, the dogs are fed, calm, they start playing again. No more nerves, no more fights, nobody following me and begging. And that day I finally get some rest too, because it's a beautiful thing to see dogs sleeping without being hungry. That's all I'm asking for, and it's exactly what I can no longer give them.

I'm already doing everything humanly possible: I walk for kilometres to fetch water, I post appeals every day, I put up with the criticism, I ration knowing I'm hurting them. But I can't make kibble out of nothing! As long as I can stand, I won't give up on these 72 dogs. The trouble is that in a few days, standing won't be enough anymore."

6. By taking action now, you can help Samira receive 2400 kilos of kibble.

Animal Webaction has a logistics centre in Bosnia which allows 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 Bosnia, stray dogs are tortured and killed illegally without anyone looking...

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

If you represent a foundation or an NGO for animal protection, please help Samira's dogs, contact us and we will put you in touch!

If you want to come to Samira's shelter to help her, or if you want to directly send some kibble or a cheque, contact her via Facebook (note: direct help is done on your own responsibility).

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