When love for animals and intent to help goes beyond the individual……

When love for animals and intent to help goes beyond the individual……
2012.03.20.

This story has two threads – the first began when we received a call from a civilian from Pécel about lots of dogs living locked up in a house. No one could give us the exact number of dogs, the only thing that was obvious that they were many and barking. When their owner got home in the evening she let them out to the garden and sometimes they even wandered through the fence, to the streets and often frightened pedestrians.
We visited the address but found no one while loud barking could be heard. We repeated the visit but we were again unsuccessful in finding anyone home, while the barking was endless. We could learn from the neighbors that the house is owned by an old lady working as a social worker. Following this trace and investigating among our friends we managed to figure out where she was working and reached her via phone. We offered our help with taking some of her dogs as on the one hand it was illegal to keep so many dogs within the city borders, and on the other hand taking care of these many dogs was obviously difficult both financially and physically, moreover, it was also evident that the neighbors would not tolerate further the enormous noise and chaos. She was avoiding giving clear answer and kept on blurring the issue saying she would call us soon. She did not.

The other thread of the story was running with the neighbors: as it turned out, the outraged neighbors had already turned to the municipal authorities and the local government ordered official inspection. Even the official inspection was hard to carry out as the old lady literally sneaked home in the middle of the night to avoid inspection. This, of course, was only enough for marking time, as the authorities were soon ready to do the inspection at night, if needed. Thus, one night the official vet, the representative of the authorities and the team of Szomorú Szív Pet Rescue Service appeared in her door.
During the proceedings a number of photos were taken about the interior of the house, which was literally covered with dog poop, even the beds and the couch. The smell was unbearable. 18 adult dogs and 7 puppies from two litters were found, all of them were unvaccinated, underfed and unsocialized. As none of them were neutered, the two litters were not at all a surprise, these would have grown without the effective intervention of the authorities.
Some pictures from the spot: source: Sad Heart Pet Rescue Service

More pictures from the scene can be found HERE!

As the lady was basically cooperative she received a short delay to properly place the dogs and to solve the problem. When we received news about the proceedings we contacted her to offer her our help but she rejected again. The deadline passed and the authorities visited again, but this time it was no question: they have to act. The dogs, with the cooperation of the Sad Heart Pet Rescue Service reached Noé.
This should not have happened this way. The confiscation could have been avoided, the only thing the old lady should have had to do was to accept our help in vaccinating, neutering, and placing some of the dogs. She could have still kept some dogs and could look after them in a loving way, some dogs who she would have been able to nurture, vaccinate and neuter, and who would not have meant any trouble for the neighbors either. But she did not choose this way.
Now she has 14 days to get the dogs from confiscation (only in case she finds proper placing for them as she cannot bring them back to Pécel). For doing so she has to pay the vaccination, the full cost of the proceedings and the costs of transporting and keeping. It is highly probable that she will not be able to get the dogs back as this was a significant amount.
After 14 days, if the dogs are not taken out, they will become adoptable to get a new chance for a loving family.
Meanwhile these lovely dogs got the name Íjász (Archer) Family in our center. And the most important question: what are the dogs like? All of them are sized below knee and mix types: some of them are dachshunds, puli mixes and the mixtures of these. They are timid, they approach hesitantly to strangers. They are not housebroken, because they were pooping and peeing in the house. They are not used to the leash and everything is new and somewhat frightening. They have to learn everything and they get to know almost everything around themselves.

More pictures HERE!

This case, unfortunately, is not the only one. There are a lot of people with good intentions who adopt the dogs and try to provide homes for them but in an unneutered group litter twice a year is going to be obvious. The problems generated this way makes the situation more difficult for the anyway overloaded pet rescue services.
The costs of taking care for such a large dog group is enormous even with our special discount rate with the vets.
For one dog these costs are the following:

Antirabies vaccination 3500 HUF
Combined vaccination 3000 HUF (for puppies this means three times vaccination)
Neutering 10000 HUF for male dogs and 15000 HUF for bitches.
The total cost for the whole group exceeded 400.000 HUF which is a considerable amount compared to our moderate budget.

Please, if you can, support these poor dogs:
Transfer from abroad:
IBAN: HU62 1171 0002 2008 3777 0000 0000
SWIFT(BIC):OTPV-HU-HB
Bank: OTP Bank (Budapest, 1102 Kőrösi Csoma sétány 6.)
For Paypal and online credit card donations please visit our website.

Please put ‘Íjász Család’ in the notes section.

And do not forget that you can adopt the dogs virtually as well.