Dogs in distress

Humanity in general cares deeply for dogs and we know that they care about us in return, offering us companionship, love and unshakeable loyalty. But statistics reveal that far too many dogs are in distress. According to National Geographic, there are more than 300 million street dogs worldwide.

As the first domesticated species, dogs have been man’s best friend for a very long time. While the timing and location of dog domestication remain a controversy, several researchers believe that the event took place somewhere in northern Eurasia between 18,800 and 32,000 years ago. What we know for sure is that our ancestors chose to live with dogs and were even buried with them. In exchange for picking the bones of hunters, dogs defended humans against potential threats. Today, in a similar fashion, dogs beg for our scraps and remain as protective as ever. Dogs have always had our well-being in mind… so why do so many people fail to show them kindness?

Suffering from extreme hunger, deadly disease and human cruelty, street dogs have an average lifespan of just three years. Network for Animals works to provide these creatures with food, safe shelter and timely medical attention, including vital vaccinations and sterilizations.

One of our main focuses is the dog meat trade, seeing thousands of dogs brutally slaughtered and sold for human consumption every year. Working with animal protection units and local governments, we aim to bring this barbaric practice to an end once and for all. We understand the value of long-term solutions, which is why our organization also runs public awareness and supports educational outreach programs to change people’s mindsets about caring for their animals.

While our initial focus was ending the dog meat trade in Asia, we have made significant strides on this continent and have shifted our focus to other areas of concern, specifically in central Africa. We have been made aware of a horrific dog meat trade primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fuelled by dogs smuggled across the border from neighboring countries. We are currently working to find the best strategy to tackle this stomach-churning trade in Africa.

We support projects in Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Montenegro, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Croatia 🇭🇷

For most dogs who live in the Roma villages of northern Croatia, life is a living hell. Chained, starved and thirsty, Roma animals endure unimaginable suffering. To make a bad situation worse, Roma criminals run dog-fighting rings in which huge sums are gambled on which dog will be savaged to death by another. The criminals also run puppy mills, where dogs are selectively bred for viciousness.

Our partner, the Cakovec shelter, regularly visits the Roma villages to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome suffering dogs and currently looks after 600 rescued animals in their inundated shelter. To support their life-saving work, we helped them feed and care for the hundreds of dogs in their care, who have been saved from lives of trauma in Roma villages.

Herzegovina 🇧🇦

In Trebinje, a small city in south Bosnia and Herzegovina, abandoned dogs lived in a decrepit, dangerous and unhygienic shelter, perched on a rubbish dump where garbage was burned daily. We knew we had to help. Working tirelessly with the local municipality for two years, we constructed a state-of-the-art shelter, leading the way for a new approach to dealing with abandoned dogs in the region.

The new shelter (Azil Danica), almost entirely funded by NFA, was opened in May 2023, and we immediately relocated all 78 dogs to their new home. Each dog received a full health assessment, tests for common diseases, vaccine boosters as needed and a passport. The dogs love running in the large central playground and playing in the doggie paddling pool at the new shelter.

This is only the beginning, and we are committed to ensuring that the shelter lives up to its stated aim of "turning street dogs into pets" by providing funds for ongoing management and staff support, training, advice, and small contingency funds for dogs with exceptional health needs. Our biggest challenge going forward is to ensure that high standards of care are maintained and that the City of Trebinje maintains its commitment to meeting these standards so that the dogs can find their forever homes as quickly as possible.

Greece 🇬🇷

Ghost Dogs of Aspropyrgos

There are more than a million street dogs in Greece, many of them abandoned pets. Aspropyrgos, a huge, semi-rural area near the city of Athens, is a dumping ground for unwanted animals. After being dumped there, the dogs face deprivation, starvation and the chilling prospect of being captured and used for illegal dog fighting, which is prevalent in the area’s numerous Roma (gypsy) camps.

The dogs are so afraid that they become “ghost dogs,” so called because when our team arrives to feed them, they appear, eat and then disappear into their hiding places like ghosts.

Together with our partner organization, Ghost Dogs of Aspropyrgos, we feed, sterilize and provide veterinary care for these street dogs while trying to find them loving forever homes. For over a decade, we have also been helping the “ghost dogs” survive the cruel, cold winters that threaten their lives every year.

Little Friends Lefkas

In parts of Greece, many pet owners do not sterilize their dogs, either because they don’t care or because it simply never occurs to them. The result is a puppy explosion, particularly in rural areas and on the Greek islands. The heartless "solution" of the owners is to place the puppies on a road where cars are most likely to hit and kill them.

Our partner on one of the Ionian islands, Little Friends Lefkas, regularly saves the lives of puppies sent to this cruel fate. We support them in this crucial mission by helping fund food, veterinary care, transport and sterilizations, giving these innocent creatures the second chance they deserve.

Kenya 🇰🇪

In Nairobi, Kenya, we support the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (KSPCA), a shelter home to over 250 dogs. They are also on the frontlines of emergency rescue, cruelty investigations and community-based animal welfare programs. We help cover the cost of pet food and vital veterinary care. Recently, we also provided critical funding for the mass sterilization, vaccination and general treatment of street dogs in impoverished slums in Nairobi. We are also raising funds to help them cope with the rise in abandoned dogs in the wake of intense flooding across the country.

Jordan 🇯🇴

Al Rabee Society for Nature and Animal Protection (RSNAP) in Aqaba, Jordan

Al Rabee Society for Nature and Animal Protection is a Jordan-based non-profit organization that was set up in 2013. The Al Rabee shelter is the only shelter of its kind in Aqaba and is home to more than 500 dogs. For the past three years, we have supported the shelter with the care of dogs and daily administration in a very remote area of Jordan, where resources and assistance are extremely limited. Our regular support also helps cover sterilization campaigns and food and vet bills. In 2022, we helped them move their shelter to much larger, better-suited premises. We also assisted with the installation of solar panels to help mitigate the area’s unreliable electricity supply.

Network for Animals once more stepped in by raising emergency funds for shelter repair when tragedy struck in 2023 and devastating flash floods destroyed much of the new shelter.

We also frequently assist with emergency cases. In May 2024, when heatwaves ravaged the area and put countless street dogs at risk of dehydration and death, we helped fund emergency missions to provide life-saving food and medical care for dogs suffering in the heat.

The following month, Al Rabee reached out to us with a desperate plea for help to cover medical bills for Zara, a pregnant street dog who had been shot, hit by a car and left for dead. Thanks to our supporters, we are covering Zara’s vet bills, and we are happy to say that Zara soon gave birth to a healthy litter of puppies.

Al Rahmeh in Amman, Jordan

A group of animal-lovers founded Al Rahmeh in 2017 to combat the mistreatment and demonization of the ancient Canaan dog breed in Jordan and animals in general. Their pro-life shelter is home to around 60 dogs, and they have cats in foster homes. They also run a trap-neuter-release program to keep the local cat population controlled and healthy. A number of the animals they care for have special needs, including blind, three-legged and paralyzed dogs. Network for Animals has supported the Al Rahmeh shelter and the ongoing care of their dogs and cats for the past five years, and in 2023, we helped launch a crucial sterilization program for the region’s street dogs.

Mexico 🇲🇽

Fiona Animal Refuge (FAR)

In Hidalgo, Network for Animals supports the Fiona Animal Refuge (FAR), an animal shelter focusing on reducing animal overpopulation and abuse. We assist with food and essential veterinary care for street dogs. Recently, we provided funding for doggy wheelchairs for the paralyzed dogs in their care.

Montenegro 🇲🇪

We support several projects in Montenegro, a small Balkan country which is still in a period of socio-economic transition and ongoing alignment with European and international norms. The projects that we support fall under the following broad categories:

Animal welfare legal reforms and awareness raising

Animal welfare and associated reforms remain a relatively low priority in Montenegro. NFA funds the Association for the Promotion of Coexistence Korina to run an animal welfare legal advocacy project to lobby for change, and the improvement of police investigations of animal abuse cases and institutional accountability. Their team includes a lawyer, a criminologist, and volunteers who support reporting and investigation of animal abuse cases. The project has contributed to the revision of the Criminal Code, strengthening clauses and punishments regarding animal welfare abuses, including severe penalties for promoting, supporting and organizing dog fights.

Korina also recently undertook the first-ever pet dog census in Montenegro, identifying over 5,000 dogs in the municipality of Niksic. This provided a wealth of valuable information to inform our future priorities for campaigning and improving the well-being of individual dogs. As part of this project, the team microchipped 1,436 dogs, vaccinated 1146 against rabies, instigated several cases and investigations against owners suspected of animal cruelty, and provided education to many owners to improve the living conditions for dogs and cats.

Korina’s work further extends to lobbying municipal authorities to develop sustainable solutions to the problem of dog overpopulation and the abandonment of street dogs, and to make lasting improvements to municipal dog shelters, where conditions are often very poor. Much of this work involves direct action on the ground.

Support to improve the care of abandoned dogs

A handful of individuals, despite living in conditions of economic hardship themselves, continue to show their humanity by rescuing and caring for Montenegro’s many abandoned, neglected and sick street dogs. We endeavor to help as many of these small private shelters and rescuers as we can, providing funds for essentials such as food, medical care, kennels and fencing.

In Nikšić, a large mountainous municipality, we provide a monthly grant to the NGO NUZZ to provide regular food for hungry street dogs. One-off grants have also funded dog sterilizations and shelter improvements at the Mali i Veliki Raj shelter; microchipping and vaccinations for 75 dogs cared for by Vanja Jecmenica in Pljelvlja; food, shelter and parasite treatments for dogs and cats cared for by Zelijana Delibasic in Niksic; and emergency care for several individual dogs suffering severe trauma or illness.

Another danger facing Montenegro’s street dogs is leishmaniasis, a deadly disease which affects around 70% of the region’s stray dog population. This horrific insect-borne disease can cause skin lesions, weight loss, vomiting, diarrhea and a prolonged, painful death. Due to weakened immune systems from their harsh lives on the streets, Balkan street dogs are at a high risk of succumbing to this disease. In June 2024, we funded crucial leishmaniasis treatments to scores of dogs in need, saving them from terrible suffering and death.

Rikki’s Shelter, Kolasin

In the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains cloaked in snow and buffeted by freezing winds in winter, Network for Animals provides a monthly grant for food deliveries to 150 rescued street dogs living in a hugely underfunded shelter run single-handedly by Danijela Vuksanovic. We have also provided heavily insulated kennels to protect the animals from the bitter winter snow and cold. We hope to raise further funds for new fencing to allow the most traumatized dogs their own safe areas to run in, and are lobbying the local municipality to meet their own responsibilities to develop a sustainable solution for these dogs.

South Africa 🇿🇦

Network for Animals is a registered charity in South Africa, which is home to some of our most important campaigns. In a country suffering from massive government corruption that has devastated essential services, the need has never been greater for the nation’s street dogs. We work with multiple local organizations and shelters on the ground to help ease animal suffering.

Calvinia, South Africa

In the impoverished farming town of Calvinia in South Africa, a broken economy has left animals starving. We work with partners on the ground to sterilize the animals of Calvinia’s Blikkiesdorp township and to provide critically needed veterinary care, treatment and food to the hundreds of dogs and cats who call the area home. Since our work began there in 2021, we have helped bring hundreds of animals back from the brink of death, conducted several mass sterilization drives, and delivered literal tons of pet food. We continue to work closely with the community to help keep their animals healthy and fed.

Most recently, in May 2024, we rushed emergency funds to continue feeding the area’s 200 dogs, and to provide crucial veterinary care for those facing life-threatening injuries.

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels Pet Rescue works in South Africa's Western Cape, mostly in deeply impoverished urban areas. The organization focuses on the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of domestic animals that are FALLEN: Forgotten, Abandoned / Abused, Lost, Lonely, Emaciated, and Neglected. Network for Animals has supported Fallen Angels for the past seven years by providing food, funding sterilization drives and assisting with emergency dog and cat rescues and rehabilitation. We also recently raised funds for a crucial vaccination campaign amidst a horrific distemper outbreak, helping to save the lives of 1,000 dogs.

Fur-Get-Me-Knot

Dogs are often condemned to lives of misery in the Westlake township, located in the South African city of Cape Town. Animals there are often subjected to neglect, starvation, abuse, dogfighting and over-breeding. We support Fur-Get-Me-Knot, a small group of volunteers who help animals in the area. Together, we help provide food, medical care, vital vaccinations and sterilization programs. We also educate owners on how to properly care for their animals.

KZN Valley Dogs

In the Valley of a Thousand Hills in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, more than 1,000 dogs are victims of extreme poverty, ignorance, uncontrolled breeding and utter neglect. Many of these dogs are so emaciated that their ribs are visible through their scarred, parasite-riddled skin.

Our partner teams venture into the region every Sunday, rain or shine, to feed and care for as many dogs as possible.

In some places in the Thousand Hills, unemployment is more than 50%, and the animals live off what they can scavenge, which is very little. To add to their misery, many of the dogs experience terrible abuse or suffer from dangerous infections and diseases, intestinal parasites or horrific dog-fighting injuries, including broken bones and painful lacerations.

Here, illegal organizations known as "taxi hunts" exploit dogs. This barbaric sport sees groups of up to 30 men and packs of more than 100 starved and frightened street dogs set out to kill. Dogs in these hunts are deliberately starved and are then sent to hunt small animals. Dogs are rated and bets are placed, and those that don’t “make money” are killed, often in gruesome ways. Even more are abandoned with broken bones and festering wounds.

We support KZN Valley Dogs by financing rescue missions, critically needed food and emergency veterinary intervention for countless battered and bruised dogs.

TEARS

Network for Animals supports TEARS (The Emma Animal Rescue Society) in Cape Town, South Africa. TEARS is a well-organized animal welfare organization, working around the clock to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome hundreds of dogs every year. The TEARS dog shelter is well run and provides excellent veterinary care. Of particular importance are its outreach programs in impoverished communities, where teams rescue and rehome street dogs and provide care for pets whose owners cannot afford sterilizations and medical treatment. Our supporters have allowed us to help animals at TEARS for nearly a decade by providing funding for much-needed food, vital search and rescue missions, equipment and veterinary care. Most recently, we have helped them buy a new outreach vehicle tough enough to withstand the poor roads in township areas.

Seychelles 🇸🇨

While the Seychelles is a paradise for tourists, it’s a living nightmare for street dogs. Homeless, starved and riddled with blood-sucking parasites, these poor souls have no-one left to turn to but our partner, the Seychelles Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (SSPCA), one of the only organizations that cares for them.

Through our donors’ support, we helped fund crucial medical supplies to treat the animals and paid for a kennel hand for a year to ensure that the dogs are kept healthy, happy and comfortable at the shelter.

Spain 🇪🇸

In Spain, hunting dogs, known as galgos and podencos, are tortured and killed in their tens of thousands each year. These poor creatures are frequently subjected to the horrifying fate of being exploited for a single hunting season before being cruelly tortured and discarded like trash. The depth of suffering they endure is unimaginable; they are starved, hurled into dark wells, savagely beaten, targeted in shooting practices, poisoned or, possibly worst of all, hung from trees until they slowly suffocate to death. We cannot stand idly by with a clear conscience as this abuse persists.

We are working with three organizations, Foundation Jadoul, Galgos del Sur and PACMA, who work tirelessly to provide the best possible care to animals in need, like abused, traumatized and discarded galgos. With your support for this project, we have helped treat, rehabilitate and rehome these animals so they never again have to feel the brutal hand of abuse.

Compounding the plight of galgos is the fact that they have no legal protection. These dogs are classified as agricultural animals, exposing them to relentless abuse and death. With the support of our donors, we are fighting this ruling in Spanish courts, petitioning the government to amend the laws to give galgos the protection they deserve while shining a light on the dark underbelly of the Spanish hunting industry.

Tanzania 🇹🇿

In Tanzania, Network for Animals supports the Arusha Society for the Protection of Animals (ASPA), a small but dedicated organization that works tirelessly to improve the overall welfare of Tanzania’s suffering street dog population. In addition to the frequent funding we provide for food and veterinary supplies, NFA helps finance emergency rescues, regular mobile clinics and educational outreach programs.

In 2022, we met Kwikwi, a street dog living in a storm drain on the streets of Arusha. Heavily pregnant and suffering from a severe neurological condition that causes constant tremors, this sweet girl nonetheless greeted us with a wagging tail, as if she knew we were there to help. We provided emergency medical care for Kwikwi, ensuring her immediate survival, and she successfully gave birth to her puppies shortly after. With no animal shelters in Arusha, we rushed her to our partner’s offices – but while her puppies were all adopted within Tanzania, because of her special needs, Kwikwi was not adopted. Thanks to our generous donors, we were able to transport Kwikwi to a new forever home on a beautiful farm in the UK. Kwikwi will be looked after with love and care for the rest of her days by her new owners, Daren and Vicki, and a lively family of fur-siblings – 12 dogs, 10 cats, chickens and donkeys!

ASPA also works to deworm, vaccinate, sterilize and provide veterinary treatment for as many street dogs in rural areas as possible. But what the dogs really needed was a quiet, sterile place in which to receive treatment. Through our donors’ generosity, we were able to help fund a fully-equipped mobile veterinary unit to provide care to these vulnerable animals in a secure and stress-free environment.

In late 2023, a crisis broke out in Mwanza, where the sickness of a single rabid dog sparked a dog-killing rampage. At least 32 dogs were brutally murdered with sticks and stones, despite there being no evidence that they had rabies, and we knew we had to step in. We were able to help rush the ASPA team to the area, where they worked with a local team to vaccinate almost 1,000 dogs across six villages in just three days, helping to stop the killing in its tracks.

Thailand 🇹🇭

In Thailand, animal neglect is disturbingly common. Our partner, Rescue P.A.W.S., takes in severely paralyzed and disabled dogs – dogs that are destined to live out the rest of their lives at the shelter, as few locals are willing to take on the cost and effort of caring for them. With more and more dogs pouring into the shelter, our partner quickly reached capacity, and we helped them build new enclosures and kennels for the disabled and abandoned dogs in their care.

Turkey 🇹🇷

Despite the distressing conditions in southeastern Turkey around Tepecik, where thousands of abandoned or wild dogs suffer due to negligence and poor environmental management, our efforts are making a difference. In this 20-square-mile area plagued by improper waste disposal from local chicken farms and pollution from fertilizer factories, the dogs have been subjected to harsh conditions, surviving on the diseased carcasses of chickens and, tragically, resorting to the cannibalism of puppies. Feeding stations are actively refilled, and there is an awareness of the local authorities and an effort to help clean up water sources and streams contaminated with industrial effluents.

However, there have been notable improvements thanks to the pressure we've applied and the awareness we've created. Local authorities, previously inactive, have now built a shelter that houses 50 dogs, and our influence prompted the government to send a veterinarian who has performed 3,000 spays and neuters over two years. This marks a dramatic improvement in local attitudes towards animal welfare. The locals have begun taking better care of the animals, and there is openness to further collaboration in the future.

Yet challenges remain, including the ongoing issues with the chicken factories, whose practices lead to disease among the stray dog population. We are considering rebuilding and repairing dog houses that have been destroyed or neglected, with each house costing approximately 100 euros.

In addition to our local interventions, Network for Animals continues to expose the shocking conditions at the chicken farms, which not only breach Turkish law but also violate international hygiene standards. We are lobbying the government to test the toxin levels in the streams and to fulfill their promises of providing humane care to these animals as prescribed under Turkish law. Despite the government's previous promises, the situation requires ongoing attention and action. We remain committed to ensuring that these dogs receive the care they deserve and that the local officials uphold their legal obligations.

Uruguay, Montevideo 🇺🇾

We have supported Montevideo’s A.P.A. El Refugio animal shelter since 2018. With no support from local authorities, the shelter tirelessly cares for 360 street dogs and 40 cats. Network for Animals helps cover the monthly cost of expensive food and specialist medical care. In recent years, El Refugio has been overwhelmed by gangsters, fire and flooding, and we provide the shelter with emergency funding for essential supplies during times of crisis. We have also helped rush vital medications and fund specialist veterinary care for elderly and disabled dogs in their care.

Zimbabwe, Harare 🇿🇼

The Friend Animal Foundation (FAF)

In Zimbabwe, we support Harare’s Friend Animal Foundation (FAF). Following the death of its previous owner, FAF was on the brink of financial ruin and closure. Hundreds of animals were at risk of being euthanized by the authorities. With the help of our generous supporters, Network for Animals kept the doors of FAF open, initially delivering 4,134 pounds of food to the dogs and providing staff to help care for the animals. We continue to assist FAF with much-needed renovations and improvements for all the animals in its care. Alongside almost 500 canine residents, the no-kill shelter is a sanctuary for 145 cats, horses, goats and a donkey.