The Women Behind the Organization Three Spotted Brothers - Three women who get together to make their dream come true: Klara Labancz (photo) – art director, Eva Pop – pensioner (photo), Brindusa Apostol – former journalist. - After two years, a school principal, Fodor Dora, has joined the team of “nuts” (– That’s what they call us because of what we do). How we got started? - Without a plan, thinking too much, or getting organized, we saw that the streets of our town were filled with dogs and cats, especially females. We took action to start a spay and neuter program. We transformed our colleague, Klara’s, house into a small shelter and veterinary clinic.
How We Continued Our Work - “We continued to set personal records, neutering 8, then 10, then 14 dogs each in one day at Klara’s house. ” After 3-4 days of supervision and treatment, we returned the dogs to the same place from which they were taken. Some were in danger on the street so we decided to keep them at Klara’s where we had created a small animal shelter. Challenges - once you start this kind of work, more and more difficult cases appear as if God is testing you: “are you sure you want to continue? Than take MORE” . This is it how it happened for us. The more dogs we were saving the more dogs in need appeared. People in town started to hear about us and called for our help every time they saw an injured dog, an abused one or abandoned puppies. Some of them simply throw their dogs at Klara’s house. When the number of dogs being cared for at the shelter (Klara’s house) reached 24 we felt a change was needed.
What changes we made? We looked for another place to keep the dogs. Not far from our colleague’s home was an old dismantled building, a former brewery. I have contacted the owners and they have accepted to let us build few kennels for the first dogs, in the yard. We did this by ourselves as no men were willing to donate their labor.
Barking Dogs Cause Problems Agents from city hall fined us for the noise and we had to move the newly built kennels, away from people’s houses. We were in compliance with all the local laws and agreed to everything requested of us, but still the neighbors complaints did not stop. Meanwhile, new abandoned dogs were found in the streets, mainly puppies. Some of them were simply thrown in our yard. We had so many puppies, that we have decided to take them out, in public, and look for adoption. Every weekend, from morning until evening, we sat in front of a big exhibition hall in the neighboring city, Cluj. We managed to adopt many puppies to homes on a contract basis, but donations in kind were very poor. That’s how we understood that Romanians do not donate for animals.
Snapshots from our exhibitions
Paws Action Work Volunteering Rescue o Week after week the number of stray dogs rescued increased and today we have more that 20 kennels and 160 dogs. o An old woman from a Senior Citizens home is cooking for the dogs on a regular basis. Some times we get expired food from a supermarket in Turda and Bobi, the old woman is cooking a “mash” very appreciated by the dogs. o It is very expensive to feed the dogs only with dry food. We regularly use 5-6 10kg bags of dry food when there are no donations for soup. But nor having a regular budget, feeding the dogs is the most stressful necessity we have to deal with.
Who Are Our Helpers? This is a question many people ask us. In the beginning we were the only volunteers and sponsors. Last year a lady in the city far from Turda started to send us 500 lei a month (125 EU). Facebook has been a blessing for us. Before Christmas, we posted a public appeal for food. Young people are coming to our shelter with food and are volunteering. Unfortunately, that was only one time and not enough to fulfill the shelter needs.
Our dogs have been threaten to be abandoned in a forest . Due to the Mayor’s pressure, the owners of the place where our shelter is built, notified us that we have to leave it as soon as possible. Because we had nowhere to move in such a short time, the administrator of the building hired a truck and was almost at the point to load all the dogs and release them in a forest, outside the town. We were really desperate, but a Romanian gentleman from Canada, saved us and manage to postpone our removal. He had also organized a barbeque fund raising event and sent us the biggest amount ever, $ 2,100. With this money and another 500 (Euros) sent by a Dutch organization we managed to buy land for a new shelter.
People from abroad have started to visit & volunteer for our shelter We are aware that we won't be able to build the new shelter very soon, because we need to raise a lot of funds first. Meanwhile, people from abroad have started to visit our shelter as visitor or volunteer. Jolanda Cieraad has come as volunteer for the dogs in our shelter. Lisa van Damme, photographer from a Belgian newspaper has come to make a documentary about the Romanian stray dogs and people’s effort Dutch vet students in practice to in rescuing them. our shelter
Building a new shelter We have managed to fence a part of our new land with donations from abroad (Dinas Ark and Romanian Animal Rescue), but we still need more funds for the baseboard of the kennels and for a roof. The shelter is in open field and it’s being very exposed to sun, rain or snow. We also need an old car to help us get to the shelter. At this moment, we have no transport.
Our Future Plans To raise money in order to build a veterinary clinic near the shelter. To get a veterinarian on staff To carry on educational programs in schools for respecting animals To open a rehabilitation center for children & adults with disabilities were therapy animals (dogs & horses) will be used in treatment. Sincerely yours, Brindusa Apostol
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