The 300 dogs in the Zarkovica Animal Shelter in Dubrovnik have a wonderful view overlooking the famous tourist city, but that’s all they have. They need food, medical care and proper shelter. And the city of Dubrovnik, the richest place in Croatia, won’t help.
The situation is critical because winter is coming and the dogs live on a wind-and-rain- swept mountain top. They need our help to get through the bad weather months.
Sandra Sambrailo, who has run the shelter for 14 years, has been gifted land where a new shelter can be built and Croatian law says the city of Dubrovnik must build a proper shelter for the dogs. Incredibly, Andro Vlahušić, the mayor of Dubrovnik, will not cooperate with Sandra and in spite of repeated promises has created no alternative shelter. Instead, in the middle of the night, when there was just one defenseless woman protecting the animals, he ordered local officials, supported by armed police, to grab 65 dogs and send them to kill shelters. His actions were illegal and the dogs were eventually returned, but the situation is critical and getting worse.
Sandra lives in fear that the mayor will try again to take the dogs to places they will be killed. So at night the brave women stand sentry to guard the dogs – literally putting themselves between the killers and the dogs.
Sandra needs help. Money for food and vets and volunteers to care for the dogs, who know nothing of politics and just want to be loved.
Network for Animals is committed to fighting for the dogs of Dubrovnik. We need your help to buy food, medicine and to build more substantial shelters for the dogs. We also ask you to sign our petition to the mayor of Dubrovnik and the Minister of Agriculture to end the campaign against the dogs and to allow the creation of a new shelter.
- €25 will buy a worker for a full day (cleaning, walking the dogs, giving water, food, building new housing, driving them to vets, etc...)
- €35 will buy a big bag of food, enough to feed 40 dogs for a day.
- €50 will buy a visit to the vet for one dog for vaccinations and treatment.
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UPDATE 3rd OCT: We first told you about this yesterday and because the situation is so urgent, we cannot stand idly by when dogs are in such danger. Today we sent Zarkovica 5000.00 euros to help the dogs in their hour of need. We have contacted the city of Dubrovnik and are sad to report that the situation is even worse than we feared, and have no doubt that without our help dogs might be sent to their deaths.
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