Bulgaria has many street dogs
who are often subjected to the most horrendous cruelty. They are kicked, beaten
and shot on a regular basis for no other reason than that it provides certain individuals
with amusement. Many of these dogs are injured, in pain, or starving and
in the winter there is a high chance that they will freeze to death.
Rudozem
Street Dog Rescue (RSDR) is
a non-profit foundation that rescues Street Dogs in Bulgaria and finds loving
homes for them.
Siddhant Sadangi gets a chance to talk to Diane Rowles, founder of RSDR.
SS: Can you walk us
through the events and the set up which led to the inception of this idea?
DR: In August 2007, I, along with my husband Tony Rowles and our 4
children, moved to Rudozem, Bulgaria from the United Kingdom. We were shocked
by the local’s abuse towards street dogs in Bulgaria. Dogs are spat on, kicked,
shot or have stones thrown at them. The family started to feed the dogs on the
streets out of their own money.
In September 2007, our youngest
son Luke befriended a street dog named Ranger, and the dog started following
him. Ranger became our first rescue dog
when a man was trying to shoot him.
With the continuing number of
street dogs needing to be fed on the streets, we registered a foundation,
Rudozem Street Dog Rescue known also as RSDR.
This was registered in March 2009. Since March 2009, RSDR have taken
over two hundred and fifty (250) dogs and puppies off the streets of Rudozem.
The story
of Ranger (as told by Diane)
Ranger was one of the many hungry and abused street dogs in Bulgaria. At
some stage in his life, he had received a horrific head injury which has left
him with an odd shaped skull and his face is paralysed down one side. My youngest son, Luke would see him when he
went to the town centre. He told me about the dog and how he had been told by
his friends that someone had caused the dogs head injury by hitting him over
the head with a large stone. The dog was very wary and would have nothing to do
with people. Luke was told to keep away from him in case he got bitten. However
he carried on talking to the dog and throwing him bits of food and before long,
the dog was following him everywhere and waiting outside all night for him,
sometimes in the pouring rain. We told Luke not to encourage him as there would
be fighting with our other dogs but despite trying to send him away, he would
not go. Neighbours were not happy about a street dog hanging about. Many times,
old ladies would beat him badly with large sticks; children would throw stones
at him and shoot him with air rifles. One day, children were being cruel to him
and he turned and jumped at one of them. Although she wasn’t bitten, the girl
was shocked and her father came after Ranger with a shotgun, firing it at him
outside the house while Liam and Luke were trying to get him in the garden. The
police then came to the house and we explained that he wasn’t our dog, he was a
street dog, but if people weren’t cruel to him, there wasn’t a problem. We were
still told that if we didn’t keep him on a chain, we would have to take him to
be put down. We tried to keep him on a chain but because of his odd shaped
head, he could slip a collar. One day he escaped for no longer than five
minutes. He had a run about with Liam and Luke trying to catch him then ran
straight back. He never bothered anyone. Minutes later, I saw a man at the gate
and went out to see what he wanted. He started shouting and waving a handgun at
me. At this point I just wanted to be back in the UK where people couldn’t get
away with such cruelty or wave a handgun at a woman. The police told us it
would be best if Ranger was put to sleep. As we had just recently moved there,
we were slightly intimidated and never thought to question the legal rights of it
all. The police told my husband Tony to take the dog to a town 25kms away, meet
the guy, pay him and Ranger would be put down. Tony took Ranger to be put down.
We were all heartbroken, especially Luke who blamed himself for making friends
with the dog in the first place. Four nights later, I couldn’t sleep. I kept
thinking Ranger is somehow alive and trying to find his way back. The next
morning, there he was at the doorstep, hungry and exhausted. . We realised
after Ranger came back the whole thing wasn’t quite right and no way would we
let him go again without a battle. We never found out what happened to him in
those few days and didn’t pursue it. My guess is that instead of putting him
down, the guy sold him as a guard dog and he escaped. Despite being locked up,
Ranger came back to where he would be fed and cared for and to a young boy who
probably showed him the first bit of kindness in his life.
SS: Could you
provide a brief outline of your purpose, mission and vision?
DR: RSDR’s mission
is to raise enough funds to renovate a dog shelter to save many more street
dogs, start a neuter / spay programme once the shelter is established, and
integrate education on Animal Welfare to the local community.
SS: What is your primary approach to promoting
this concept?
DR: The primary approach is to get the shelter
renovated, so it is structurally sound and safe. This not only ensures the continuity of
saving dogs in the streets, but gives protection to these animals in the winter
months.
During this last winter, there was the reality that
the roof would collapse at any stage due to the heavy snow and could fall on
top of the 100 dogs inside as well as humans.
To read more about the dangers with the roof with
photos, please go to our blog at: http://www.streetdogrescue.com/apps/blog/
We appeal through social applications like Facebook
for persons to donate to our “roof” widget, which is on the donate / help page
of our website, as well as through emails and newsletters.
Donate page: http://www.streetdogrescue.com/donatehelp.htm
The importance of the appeal for renovations is due
to the harsh reality that if there is no shelter for the dogs, then it is most
likely they will die in the winter months if the roof collapses.
For over 2 years RSDR had been trying to raise enough funds for a
dog shelter / clinic to save the many dogs in the Rudozem area. We had made numerous appeals to the mayor
and the municipality but had been told that they cannot help. Since early 2010, we started looking for
plots of land that might be suitable for a dog shelter /clinic. In October 2010
we found a plot of land with an existing building. Although the building needed
lots of work, it was an ideal place for the shelter/clinic. Previously we had been working from our own
family home. We also had complaints from
neighbours in the past year about the noise level from the dogs. There was the
constant worry that we could have been asked, to get rid of the dogs at any
time, and the dogs sent to a Dog Isolator. This is the last thing we would want
to have happen - as the Dog Isolators are places of torture.
A worldwide appeal for donations for the dog shelter / clinic
through our website, Facebook and other social applications was implemented and
we received numerous support and kind donations from persons all across the
world who helped fundraise to achieve our target goal. The contracts were signed on the 22 December
2010.
Now that we have the shelter, we
need to urgently renovate it, as the roof is quite dangerous with the danger of
it collapsing due to the heavy snow.
SS: Bulgaria is certainly not
one of the best places for street dogs, what challenges did you face while
establishing and conducting your activities?
DR: There are many street dogs and
street cats in the area of Rudozem. Many
of them are starving and hungry and have horrible skin conditions and are
abused by the local community.
Many puppies are born on the streets and are left so survive and in
the winter months they usually freeze to death.
The majority of the street dogs are not
dangerous. Many of them are terrified of
people and would not go near them. Most
of the time if a human went near a street dog, it would most likely run
away. The dogs are extremely wary of
people, not used to human contact and are scared you are going to hurt
them. It takes many weeks and months to
gain the trust of these animals.
A lot of the community are not educated on Animal Welfare and have
been brought up to fear street dogs and treat them like vermin. You will see many people throw stones at the
dogs, kick them, beat them with sticks, or even shoot them. It is no wonder the dogs are so scared of
mankind. They have not been treated
kindly.
There has been a lot of opposition from officials, the municipality
and locals. Many people can’t understand why anyone would bother trying to help
the street dogs as they regard them as vermin. Municipalities are allocated
money to deal with the problem of street dogs but this rarely gets spent on
dogs. There is a lot of corruption and illegal shootings still go on. 2011 was a very difficult and stressful year
for us. We had intended to renovate the building we bought as a shelter before
moving dogs there. However we had many urgent cases and nowhere for them so we
built temporary pens and moved there with the dogs. We had numerous visits from
police, the municipality and other officials trying to close the shelter. We
had to wait months before the prosecutor decided if he could make any charges
against us. Eventually we were granted
a certificate which meant we could legally keep dogs there.
SS: While you battled such
challenges, what was the motivation that kept you going?
DR: Knowing that there was no one else
to help these dogs… We are responsible for all the dogs that we have already
rescued. Things do get very hard. At times, we are exhausted both physically
and emotionally but we have to keep going because our dogs depend on us and so
do many more that are on the streets. No one else here will help, feed or speak
up for these dogs.
SS: Can you provide us a
sneak into the activities conducted by you?
DR: We usually get up at about 6.30 am and let the dogs out that live with us
in the staff room. Any sick pups or dogs recovering from operations are kept
next to the staff room which is where we sleep. We start by seeing to those
dogs and pups, feeding them and giving them any medications that they are on.
The boys who work here arrive at 8.30 am and start letting dogs out, feeding
them and cleaning pens. Dogs are walked throughout the day. Yards have to be
tidied, rubbish has to be taken to the landfill, and we have to collect sawdust
for the pens. At some stage during the day we drive to Rudozem and feed and
check on any street dogs that we feed and make a note of any new dogs that
appear on the streets. Sometimes we have to take dogs to be spayed; which is an
hour’s drive away.
We will sometimes receive a phone
call or see pups or dogs that urgently need help so we have to drop whatever we
are doing and go out on a rescue. There is always so much admin to do and
sometimes I can be doing admin from 8am until the early hours of the next
morning.
We have to keep a note of which
dogs are due for worming, flea treatments and vaccinations and order
vaccinations and arrange for the vet to come out.
Tony has to find time during the
day to take photos, do videos and measure or weigh dogs that people are
interested in adopting.
SS: How is RSDR different
from other rescue organisations?
DR: The difference between RSDR and
other rescue organisations is that there is no help from the government or
local municipality or local people themselves unless we pay them to help us.
We have many dogs that are
unsuitable for adoption but we don’t put them to sleep. We can work for months
with a dog that has been badly abused and has serious trust issues and as long
as just one person is able to handle and care for that dog, we will be
responsible for it. We love and care for each dog that we rescue as if it were
our only family pet.
SS: Is there any moment,
incident, or person that has carved a special place in this journey? Our
readers will like to hear about this?
DR: It is mainly dogs themselves that
have carved a special place along this journey. The first was Ranger. We felt
that what we had given him was so little and yet he travelled for miles and
days to get back to us.
Honey was a street dog that was in
the town with a litter of pups. We had known her for quite some time and fed
her every day. This was before we became a registered charity or had an
adoption scheme in place so we were limited as to how many dogs we could take
in. Seeing cruelty on a daily basis, we had serious doubts about even staying
in Bulgaria. Honey and all but one of her pups were shot; the remaining pup was
badly beaten and much traumatised. We were all heartbroken. My youngest son was
in tears and begged us to move as he said he couldn’t take any more. I had to
question my role as a parent that I was subjecting my kids to all this upset so
I said we would move. One of the proudest moments as a mother was when my son
later came back to me and said, “Mum, we can’t move can we? If we go, there
will be no one who will look out for the
dogs”. After a long time of indecision
as to whether we would stay, that was a turning point. We knew from then on
that no matter how tough things got, we would stay for the sake of the dogs.
In the early days we contacted
many organisations and asked them for help and advice regarding becoming a
charity. Not a single one helped us. The only advice we received was to forget
it and try and raise funds for them instead. We made our own website and
started our own Facebook group and had to learn as we went along. We will never
forget the people who donated and had faith in us in the early days.
We now have adoption teams in
different countries and Anita, RSDR secretary. All of these people give up so much of their time
voluntarily. We cannot do what we do without them and they have all carved a
special place in our lives.
SS: Anybody whom you would
give credit for supporting (inspiring) you in this mission?
DR: The people who donate and support
us and the people who have adopted our dogs.
I can’t mention everyone individually but everyone in the RSDR team.
They work tirelessly to find homes for our dogs; raise funds and give us moral
and emotional support when things get tough. Anita introduced many things which
were beyond my technical capabilities and has kept things going for us when we
have been ill, busy or not had internet. Some team members have been over to
see us and help with the dogs.
SS: Do you have any future
road map for your RSDR considering the positive response it has garnered?
DR: The future map is still our
current goals which is to renovate the shelter, start a spay/neuter programme
and implement education on animal welfare.
These goals are long term goals
that can take years before they will be accomplished. However RSDR is in it for the long haul.
SS: Any breakthroughs or achievements which you would like to share?
DR: *Purchase of the shelter building /
land in December 2010.
*Over 250 of our dogs have been
adopted in other countries since March 2009.
SS: There are people and
organizations which want to serve the cause; can you guide them about ways to
join?
DR: If persons want to volunteer to
help our adoption teams in their relevant country, they can contact any of our
adoption teams on the contact page of our website at:
If persons would like to help with
fundraising, we have a fundraising form they can fill out on our website if
they would like to do their own fundraising event:
If they would like to be daily
updated on what is happening at RSDR, they can join as a member on our website
on the home page at: www.streetdogrescue.com
Or they can join our Facebook page
at: http://www.facebook.com/rudozemstreetdogrescue
SS: What would be your message for the youngsters reading this?
DR: For anyone thinking of going into
rescue work with animals, it is a tough road to travel and often there are more
bad times than good. At times you find it difficult to rejoice in the success
stories because you beat yourself up over the ones that you couldn’t save. You
will have little time to yourself and probably little money. People you thought
were your friends may turn their backs on you and fail to see the value of what
you do but for every one of them you will find a true friend who does support
you through thick or thin.
Some people measure their success
by what car they drive, what clothes they wear, the company they keep and where
they live. All of that can be lost in just a day and they are left with
nothing. If you dedicate your life to helping other people or animals, no one
can take away from you the fact that you have lived a life that matters. No
matter how big or small, you will have made a difference in your time spent on
this earth.
‘You may not be able to change the world for all animals but for that
one animal you save, you are its world”.
Interview re-posted with the permission of YouthLeader Magazine. YouthLeader magazine reserves all rights to this article.Read the original article on YouthLeader magazine http://www.global1.youth-leader.org/2012/05/rsdr-street-dog-rescue-helping-our-furry-friends/
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