Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat Rescue & Rehoming => The Rescue Room => Topic started by: tarabray on January 02, 2011, 12:41:21 PM
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Dear everyone - I've joined this forum as I'm trying any possible way to help the stray cats where I am currently living - Sarajevo, Bosnia. Very few people here care about cats or dogs and very few want to re-home them. I've been here one year now and have 4 of my own strays, and another 8 in the garden. Now it's winter I have made them all little styrofoam-lined boxes and filled them with straw whereupon they immediately moved in. They are so grateful for a little love and kindness and, of course, always line up for feeding time. I have already managed to capture and neuter two of them and have given rabies and regular anti-cat disease innoculations to 5 and am in the process of sending 2 to England to my mum, who fell in love with them when she visited here. It takes 6 months to process a Bosnian cat, under the PETS programme, so they can go to the UK, which seems to be the only country where people actually care enough to do something about these poor little creatures. So, I'm writing firstly, to see if anyone wants to adopt a Bosnian cat and, secondly, to see if anyone has advice or can help me here to help these cats.
There are NO sanctuaries here ... I'm trying to help one lady who personally looks after 15 cats and 200 dogs, but she cannot take any more and the conditions the animals live in are not good at all, but at least they are fed, have shelter and lots of love. The cases she has are horrible - one cat has no tail as it had to be amputated when someone stuck its paws and tail to a mouse glue trap; another cat had all its paws broken; yet another had been set fire to - it's really dreadful what people do to them - a friend of mine saw 3 boys nailing a kitten to a fence the other day, by the time she reached them to yell at them to stop, the kitten was dead - such cruelty.
Would anyone be interested in running a fund-raising campaign in the UK, specifically for these cats, or to help me from the UK to find homes for them. I have recently found a wonderful vet who spends all his spare time sterilising animals for free - but the situation is out of control - with packs of dogs running around and hundreds of starving kittens and puppies and adult cats desperately trying to survive.
Anyone interested in helping - please let me know.
Thanks and Happy New Year to you all.
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This is my personal opinion and am sorry if its a bit blunt but we have so many cats needing homes in the UK, to be frank we do not need a load of foreign cats coming here and taking potential homes away from our cats.
It sounds like you are and the other lady are doing a grand job and well done that vet because neutering is going to be the only way to help the situation.
Bosnia is a fair size country and although the situation is maybe bad in Sarejevo, I think this problem needs to involve the rest of the country too and also its neighbours!!
I know that probably the situation over their is still pretty dire but mainland Europe is huge, so maybe targetting that would be a better idea than targetting the UK.
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I'm sorry the situation is so bad in Bosnia-very sadly it seems bad in a lot of other European countries and further afield.
I hope you can find some help -I know someone in Bulgaria who manages to home cats in Austria and Germany so may be worth thinking of those countries as the pet passport wil also take less time there.
I learnt a lot recently about animal welfare in Russia and Bulgaria and it makes sickening reading -at least we do have a veterinary service in UK which will euthanase humanely when necessary free of charge instead of returning the animal to the streets to die --but there are some amazing individuals who do everything they can despite having so little themselves.
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Mayhew International , helps in many countries with dogs and cats. I am not sure if they can help in Bosnia but they may be able to advise or put you in touch with some one / organization which can.
Well done for helping these poor cats, and i hope it goes well with the 2 you are trying to send here to your mum. :hug:
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I do think it's a brave and very daunting task to contemplate and well done for caring a hoot. :hug: :hug: But also please be aware that Bosnia is only 1 generation away from the times they used to inflict such treatment on humans, so finding local support for the plight of animals is going to be tough as they whole country must still be suffering post traumatic shock underneath the surface. :( Education is going to be the key to solving that problem - google The Donkey Sanctuary for some excellent tips on how local education schemes can make the lives of animals so much better. ;)
My advice would be to NOT waste precious resources on saving and exporting a small handful from your garden. Find a good vet who believes in your dream and ready to do a deal and start a massive TNR campaign. You MUST neuter as many of them as you can catch. ;)
There are plenty of experienced ex-pat cat groups across Europe and google will find them. Some have 20/30 years experience of dealing with exactly the same kinds of attitudes you are finding. I am sure they'll be happy to have their brains picked. :naughty:
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Hi Tarabray,
:welcome: to the Purrs forum, and thank you for bringing the plight of cats in Bosnia to our attention.
It must be so heart-breaking for you witnessing this cruelty and neglect.
I don't know if you are aware, but there is a Bosnia Animal Foundation (a Dutch/Bosnian Partnership):
http://www.animal-kind.org/bosniaanimalfoundation.html.
They mention a shelter in Sarajevo; is that the one you were referring to - run by the lady where the conditions aren't ideal?
There is also some useful information on their website for those contemplating changing animal welfare in the country whether you are planning to set up a shelter, educate or run a sterilization programme:
http://www.hondenopvang.com/html/Steun_ons/how_can_you_help/help_EN.html
I don't know what your long term plans are, and whether or not you are considering setting up your own British-based charity, but it might be worth contacting the lady who has done that to fund neutering campaigns on the Spanish island of Fuerteventura. She also brings cats to the UK. (I support this charity on a regular basis.)
http://www.twinkletrust.org/home.html
If you manage to do the same, I would certainly be interested in helping your cause.
I hope that information is of some help.
Please keep in touch,
Jas
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My opinion is cats (or any other animals), wherever they are, feel pain and suffering the same :( - despite us supposedly being an advanced nation a lot of cruelty and neglect goes on here but it is worse in places like Bosnia. I don't think anyone can say 'our' cats need help more, in fact the opposite. I agree that neutering needs to be at the core of any welfare plans. I made the mistake of googling and saw an image of a dead female dog with a pool of blood coming out of her head and the orphaned pups trying to suckle. :'( Bosnia isn't the only country that is almost medieval in the way animals are treated.
I would be willing to help in some small way but we can't just ignore the suffering.
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My opinion is cats (or any other animals), wherever they are, feel pain and suffering the same :( - despite us supposedly being an advanced nation a lot of cruelty and neglect goes on here but it is worse in places like Bosnia. I don't think anyone can say 'our' cats need help more, in fact the opposite. I agree that neutering needs to be at the core of any welfare plans. I made the mistake of googling and saw an image of a dead female dog with a pool of blood coming out of her head and the orphaned pups trying to suckle. :'( Bosnia isn't the only country that is almost medieval in the way animals are treated.
I would be willing to help in some small way but we can't just ignore the suffering.
I totally agree with you -and yes animals in Bulgaria ,Russia etc are all in similar plight.
recently i sent some inexpensive toys and cat treats and little gifts to a lady in Bulgaria who does as much as she can and she was so delighted it was a wonderful feeling to know so little made her so happy -unknown to me she was having a few issues with wages and felt she couldn't 'treat 'the cats and kittens she is looking after while paying vet bills and arranging transport etc-tbh we think we are hard done by this was a real eye opener .
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Thanks everyone for your thoughts and info. Jasmine, thanks for all the links, and in fact I'm already working together with the Hondenopvang Dutch NGO who have just donated some funds to build concrete floors for the 'shelter' here (all the animals were on wet/frozen mud). Several other international NGOs (France, Holland) send in vets once or twice a year for a week's sterilisation programme, but it's not enough. With Feb/March just around the corner, new kittens are going to start appearing again, so I'm trying to organise more international vet-visits here for both the cat/dog population. If I could find enough NGOs to come -and not just in Sarajevo- perhaps it would make a small difference. If I got enough interest I could the publicise it and involve the municipality mayors, etc, and that might take us a step closer to getting them to do something about the situation in the long term, ie proper shelters! Does anyone work with or know of vet organisations that might be interested - I wondered about the PDSA, or something like that. Any ideas?
And education is key, as several mentioned, so perhaps educational programmes could be combined with the visit. The mindset of the people has to be changed as, recently, I found out that numerous recovering sterilised strays in a nearby town had been released and then shot by locals as a message to show that TNR didn't work and they didn't support it!!
On another point, dogs/cats are rehomed in Germany/Austria, but very few - the problem here is that there are just too many animals. If anyone has connections, info on rehoming centres/NGOs in Europe I'd be glad to receive this info as I agree the nearer the rehoming the better.
Thanks again for the feedback and support.
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Hi again,
Twinkle Trust use veterinary staff from the WVS (Worldwide Veterinary Services):
http://www.wvs.org.uk/
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We also have a small group near us that helps with rescue missions and neutering abroad. http://www.animalsworldwide.org/
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Thanks, Julie and Jasmine, I will contact both these organisations. Being new to this I'm writing to every organisation I learn about to see if they can help, in the hope that one of them will say yes. I had originally contacted the 'big guns' and IFAW had said their Programme Director was interested, sadly, despite my follow-up, they fell silent.
I've now got 15 in my garden and 7 in the house, one old tom cat who is really sick (coughing and vomiting and hardly able to breathe) and another old mother who seems to have some nervous disease as her body twitches uncontrollably, her stomach is hanging on the ground and she doesn't walk properly. I'm trying to get them to trust me so I can get the vet in to see them.
BTW if anyone wants info on the best housing for feral cats, I found a link about styrofoam boxes. It really works. I got old cardboard boxes and then put styrofoam in the bottoms, cut doorways in each, taped styrofoam all around the outside and then wrapped that in plastic rubbish bags. I lined the inside with lots of straw and then put little fabric curtains on the doorways, so they could get in and the draft/cold would stay outside. They love them. The 'cat hotel' is full every night and even my house cats go inside the boxes as they are so warm. The styrofoam/straw combination is really good insulation and they make little nests inside. In the morning I open up the 'curtains' and they go back inside in the warm and just peep out at the world going by :)
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The houses sound great. I wonder how strays manage to survive bitter winter nights - especially older ones. We trapped a feral cat to go to a sanctuary 2 weeks ago. She had been born outside and managed for 12+ years in a front garden with no real shelter. She was hiding under a caravan when we tried to get close. She is now safely in a sanctuary :) after being threatened with dogs and/or poisoning where she was >:(
You could try asking Silvana at Romney House rescue http://www.romneyhousecatrescue.org.uk/ I know she is under a lot of pressure at the moment as her local council are trying to close her down. As well as running a rescue here and working, she also does rescue work in Sardinia. She was telling me recently that she managed to find some backing here for a TNR programme in Sardinia - she hit a brick wall with the authorities there. I can't remember who offered her the finance but I'm sure she will point you in the right direction (Might be better to email her as I know she is really busy - I felt awful phoning her yesterday to ask if she could look after an FIV boy for a few weeks who was due for PTS - desite all her problems, she said yes :) )
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I've now got 15 in my garden and 7 in the house, one old tom cat who is really sick (coughing and vomiting and hardly able to breathe) and another old mother who seems to have some nervous disease as her body twitches uncontrollably, her stomach is hanging on the ground and she doesn't walk properly. I'm trying to get them to trust me so I can get the vet in to see them.
Poor things, they are lucky to have you looking out for them though. Have they been neutered/spayed? if not then they will need trapping to get them sorted.
I would also get a trap to get them to a vet sooner than later if they are ill :hug:
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Thanks again everyone - FYI tomcat is happily inside, on antibiotics, and making a speedy recovery - thoroughly enjoying being a house cat!! Outside sick mum is getting tamer, and eating loads! Vet coming to check her out - they all seem very afraid of anyone except me.
Also - excellent news - have found a team of vets from the US who are willing to come and do a TNR week in the Spring, plus the Dutch NGO said they'll bring a team - though this is only a first step at least we'll be controlling the population slightly. Apparently, there are over 900 stray dogs in Sarajevo alone - who knows how many cats - so it's a huge task. The US vets also want to establish a permanent Sterilisation Clinic and run an education programme, plus give training to the local vets (who are few and far between). All this with no cost except housing and food for the team - amazing!
We still face the problem of rehoming and setting up a shelter. I don't know if anyone is familiar with Bosnia but there are two entities - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srbska. The town of Sarajevo is split - with one side in each entity. Neither work together, so finding the right location for the sanctuary is going to be problematic, as if it's in FBiH undoubtedly no RS animals will be allowed in and vice versa! It's a fascinating country but rather difficult to work in with so many layers of intricacies to understand and navigate.
On the rehoming question - I've discovered that only the UK and Ireland require the PETS blood tests, so has anyone worked with or aware of rehoming centres in the rest of Europe that I might contact to see if they can help take cats?
Thanks again for all the words of support.
Tara
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Wow, that's amazing Tara, you really seem to be getting things off the ground over there! :wow:
(Also glad to hear that tomcat is better; hope the mum cat can be treated too.)
Good luck in your search for a shelter site.
:luck:
Jas
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Tarabra, sounds like you're making some great progress... ROLDA regularly ship dogs out of Romania and across the EU. Some good brains to pick I reckon. They are run by British Ex pats. ;) http://www.rolda.org/