Help Street & Shelter Dogs in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe has thousands of street and shelter dogs living on thin margins. Many small shelters run on local wages, volunteers and donated food.
In a lot of areas, there’s little outside help, so a broken van, an unpaid vet bill, or one harsh cold snap can tip everything into crisis.
The good news is that small pooled donations can fund food, hay, fuel and vet fees, to quickly turn things around.
Why do Eastern European shelters struggle?
Many don’t get government help or funding from local people, often in areas with poor welfare laws and no emergency help like our RSPCA.
So food, shelter, hay, vet fees, spay/neuter costs and fuel are all needed to help thousands of animals in makeshift shelters.
Direct donations & monthly giving
This is the fastest way to help, as donations reach the shelters almost immediately, to help them plan and fund food, shelter and vet care. Just a few pounds can top up kibble, bedding, vet or fuel, and in numbers, this can be life-changing:
If just 1000 people donated £5 a month (the price of a coffee), each shelter could receive £60,000 which would cover most expenses.
For UK-registered charities, UK taxpayers can add more at no extra cost by registering with Gift Aid. If you like to be kept off donor lists, donate anonymously through a charity giving account.
Animal web action (help in seconds, for free)
Animal Web Action runs online campaigns (funded by sponsors) to raise funds to deliver thousands of kilos of food or hay at one time to shelters that are struggling (plus smaller campaigns for individual animals needing help). Most run for seven days, and each click provides 1g of food (or sometimes blankets or medicines).
These campaigns work, but only if hundreds of thousands of people click up to four times a day (click more using roaming VPN or turning airplane mode on/off on phones). This is doable (there are 67 million people in England). It just needs more people knowing about it.
You can help reach goals by pooling donations (a typical ‘reach’ costs £7000 so that’s a lot of free clicks needed). If campaigns fail, donors receive money back. Promote the site on your website or social media, it’s a no-brainer to help struggling shelters.
easyfundraising (raise money while you shop)
Sign up at easyfundraising then choose a cause (small shelters abroad can nominate someone with a UK bank account as a good cause if not a UK-registered charity. Then each time you shop, an app reminds you to use this site to buy from of over 4000 participating companies (including Amazon, Argos, Booking.com and even train tickets).
A percentage of each sale is then given to your cause (loyalty points are not affected). It takes three months to receive funds, but many small causes raise thousands of pounds.
Long-term care to help shelters
Kennels offer wind protection and dry sleep through bitter winters, so donate goods or skills or money to pay for materials and local builders, along with repairs to fences and roofs.
Emergency help now helps to fund spay-neuter programs, which prevent more street dogs, and helps to fund adoption programs, to find shelter dogs, loving forever homes.
Volunteers can use techy skills to help small shelters in Eastern Europe, where shelters often don’t have skills beyond a Facebook page. Help to build free websites and social media pages, to share stores and add direct giving info for instant funds, and link to emergency campaigns.
Others can translate information into English, and take good photos (calm happy looking dogs tend to have more adoption offers).
Some Eastern European shelters to help
Paws in Our Hearts Bosnia (donate via Paypal or easyfundraising). Or bank account: Jacqueline Compson (account no: 03307086, sort code: 11-03-94).
Also help Saving Strays Bosnia & more Bosnia shelters
Beta Zaječar Serbia (donate via Paypal at jasmina.haigh@yahoo.com). Or bank account: Devizni račun (Foreign Currency Account – IBAN): RS35200246487010100389 (Swift Code: S8PORSBG). Local account no: 200-2464870101025-3 (Udruzenje Beta)
Other dog rescues in Serbia:
Saving Souls Cyprus can be helped by recycling cartridges or lottery or easyfundraising.
Other shelters in Cyprus:
- Tala Cats cares for over 500 rescued cats
- St Nicholas of the Cats is run by a monastery
- Animal Rescue Cyprus cares for many species
ROLDA Romania offers help in a country with 2 million street dogs. Also help:
- Sava’s Safe Haven
- Romania Animal Rescue
- MISI’s Animal Rescue
- A Better Life Dog Rescue
- Paws 2 Rescue (spay/neuter programs in 14 countries)
Other shelters in Eastern Europe
- Takis Shelter Greece & Greek Animal Rescue both help (report abuse, also report to the local police and tour operators)
- Every Dog Matters Bulgaria has a wish list (kennels, fencing, buckets and umbrellas with concrete bases). Sponsor a yard or donate via Paypal.
- Dalyan Dog Rescue Turkey helps local pets (Dalyan Animals helps street dogs and cats – donate via easyfundraising).
- Save a Spanish Spot (Spain) rescues local Dalmations on the street.
