How to Find a Home for an Abandoned Animal
Animal Friends is not engaged in looking for homes for abandoned animals nor do we have a shelter where we could house them. However, besides exerting pressure on local and state authorities, and maintaining our own Adoption Ads, we are trying to help good people who save an abandoned animal with various types of information and advice.
If you have found a dog, a cat, or some other abandoned animal, and you cannot keep it, you face the problem of finding a home for the animal whose life you have saved. Shelters and organizations involved in animal protection will most probably be overcrowded and thus finding a home for the animal will remain your concern.
Regardless of whether the animal has been lost or abandoned, you can report it to the Info Center Dumovec in Zagreb , but before doing so you should take the animal to a veterinary practice to see whether a microchip might reveal the owner's ID/data. If he or she has abandoned the animal intentionally, that is, claims that the animal had run away or went missing, but in fact the guardian has not been reported her disappearance or tried to find her, according to the Animal Protection Act he or she could be fined with 5,000 to 15,000 Croatian Kuna.
If you have never owned a pet, ask the vet to check the animal’s health and to give you some basic information about how to take care of the animal until you find a home for her. It is important to start looking for the guardian or a new home right away, but first it is crucial to find temporary accommodation (if you cannot keep her at home). Call your friends and explain the problem, ask them to look for a solution together. Then place an ad wherever you can.
The website of Animal Friends maintains Adoption Ads with an automatic service, and there is also a list of mass media that publish ads for free. You can also place an ad on the Facebook page called Trazi se novi dom! (Looking for a new home). Browse the Internet for more places where you can place an ad, such as various forums. It is also important to ensure that your ad is seen by people in the neighborhood where the animal has been found, so take some effort and make leaflets that you can attach to places where many people pass by, such as tram or bus stops, marketplaces, and so on. An ad that includes a photo is always more successful, so make sure that you take a picture of the abandoned animal.
Unfortunately, while you are looking for a home for the animal, there are people who pay thousands of Kuna to purchase a pet that has been bred in mills, thus supporting the cruel trade with living beings. It is important to persist. Do not just sit and wait for the results of your ads. Continue looking for the guardian or a new home for the animal.
You probably think that the state and the local authorities should take care of abandoned animals, rather than you. You are perfectly right on that point, and we hope that programs of adequate animal care and adoption will soon be launched in Croatia, including the prevention of animal abandoning, and punishment of such acts according to the Animal Protection Act. However, you should be aware that the abandoned animals still primarily depend on good-hearted individuals who save them and find them a new home.
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