For decades in the Balkan countries, street dogs have been treated as a problem to be removed, not lives to be valued. Many shelters in the region are trapped in a devastating cycle of overcrowding, underfunding and poor conditions — becoming lifelong prisons or worse, death sentences.
In the small city of Trebinje, Bosnia, something extraordinary is happening – but we need your help to keep succeeding.
The new, modern dog shelter Network for Animals built in Trebinje is not just housing dogs — it is changing attitudes, systems and lives. Trebinje is trying to write a different story. And you helped make it possible.
A shelter with a different vision.
Stray and abandoned dogs arrive here, go through structured care, training, and socialization — and leave for permanent homes in record numbers. Source: NFA/Dejan Radic
The shelter’s motto is simple: “Turning street dogs into pets.” It is a place of rehabilitation, dignity and second chances. The dogs have good living conditions, a grooming room and a playground. We have introduced play, socialization and training programmes, and trained staff to improve welfare standards.
It’s working. Over 50 dogs, previously locked in cages and neglected in the old shelter, have been rehomed in recent months. More stray and abandoned dogs than ever before are finding sanctuary, care and forever homes.
You are the hero in the transformation of these dogs’ lives.
Meet Kika – found on the streets, she learned that humans could not be trusted as she suffered silently in a cage at the old shelter. In February, she travelled to her new forever family and is loving a new life of comfort and love. Source: Azil Danica
Another crisis is looming – we must act now to stop it.
It’s a rule of thumb that for every dog adopted, at least two more are found in need on the streets or abandoned outside the shelter. Uncontrolled breeding fuels a relentless cycle and is pushing shelters across the whole region into overcrowding and collapse. Without intervention, shelters face reduced welfare standards, stress to the vulnerable animals and fewer successful adoptions.
We cannot allow that to happen.
These puppies were dumped near the shelter alone, cold and afraid. They are now being cared for and thriving, but we need to stop the cycle of uncontrolled breeding. Source: Azil Danica
That’s why we are working with the City of Trebinje to focus on a long-term strategy, to sterilize at least 80% of female stray and roaming dogs in and around the city. Sterilization will prevent hundreds of unwanted litters, reduce conflict between dogs and communities, improve public health and significantly ease pressure on the shelter.
We intend now to sterilize 60 female dogs, which means 60 dogs made safer, hundreds of puppies never born into suffering and real, measurable progress toward lasting change — and you can help to make this happen.
€100 changes a life — and prevents many more animals from suffering.
This is what dogs not lucky enough to be in our shelter experience when ‘rescued’. Source: Shutterstock/Evgenii Bakhchev
Please help us sterilize 60 female street dogs now.
The progress you made possible in Trebinje is real — but it could unravel fast if we do not stop the flow of unwanted puppies.
Right now, we urgently need to sterilize 60 female street dogs. At €100 per dog, your gift will do far more than help one animal: it will prevent litter after litter from being born into hunger, fear and neglect.
You already helped us make an enormous difference by building a modern shelter in Trebinje, but it will all be for nothing if the area’s street dogs are not sterilized. The population will spiral out of control, the shelter will become overwhelmed and dogs will die. Street dogs do not deserve that fate.
Please help us create a better future for the dogs still living on the streets of Trebinje.
