A leading Romanian animal shelter is appealing to UK dog lovers to help it continue its welfare work.
Speranta Shelter in Bucharest is expanding its mission of rescue, rehab and re-homing of stray animals, as well as a programme of sterilisation and education of children and adults to tackle the stray dog issue at source. Romania is the largest source of imported rescue dogs to the UK, but new Defra regulations have tightened import testing, making a prevention-led model more relevant than ever, argues the shelter.
Founded in 1996 by Florina Tomescu, Speranta Shelter is one of the largest private and fully legally registered and regulated dog shelters in Romania, providing a permanent home for around 500 dogs with facilities including veterinary clinics, recovery rooms, and enriched enclosures. Growth in recent years has been assisted by global animal welfare organisation Four Paws, but that support has now ended.
Speranta’s remote adoption programme allows UK dog-lovers to ethically adopt from a distance, ensuring a life-long sanctuary for a dog in Romania without adding to the strain on British rescue centres.
Veterinary surgeon Anca Tomescu, who leads Speranța Shelter, said: “The UK has shown immense compassion for Romanian dogs, but the systemic solution lies in addressing the root of the problem here and to do that, we need your support.
“While UK shelters are full, simply moving dogs from one overburdened system to another isn’t the long-term answer. Our mission is to reduce the problem at its source.”
She continued: “Through our ongoing sterilisation programme, which has involved more than 100,000 dogs, we directly reduce the number of dogs born on the streets, while our education programme also helps to reduce the number of abandoned dogs – this is the future of responsible animal welfare.
“We are very grateful to the support from Four Paws over the past 20 years. However, now that has concluded, we are appealing to UK dog lovers to help us expand our holistic solution to manage the stray dog population by attacking the root causes of the problem.”
