06/11/11 Sponsor a Shelter Dog!
"Adopting is Cool" campaign continues: proteges of the Shelter for Abandoned Animals need their sponsors
- Invitation to citizens to help abandoned animals through individual involvement and finding new guardians
Animal shelters in Croatia are full of unwanted, rejected animals, left at the mercy of uncertain fate and without a permanent home. Their number will increase because of citizens' irresponsibility, which burdens already overcrowded shelters and reduces the quality of life of animals waiting to be adopted.
Although not everyone has conditions to adopt a dog, they can help individual animals find a home through sponsorship. Sponsorship is an excellent opportunity for individuals interested in rescuing dogs to care for them by visiting them in the shelter, providing temporary accomodation and looking for a permanent home.
A sponsor can choose one dog from the shelter to care for actively by taking him for walks, socializing with him and trying to find him a guardian. This way every dog gets a better chance to live in a home, where he will be a new family member, instead of living in the shelter, which should be only a temporary and short-term solution. Sponsors can also provide the dog with a temporary home until a permanent guardian is found, to give the dog a chance to be socialized, adjust to life outside the shelter and more easily endure the time until he is adopted by a new family.
Sponsors will receive a certificate with the name of their protege from the shelter, and with their commitment for the life of one dog they also give a chance to live to other abandoned dogs which need to be taken from the streets. Citizens from all parts of Croatia can apply for sponsorship and Animal Friends will direct citizens to shelters closest to their place of residence.
Citizens will be invited to adopt, but also sponsor, at the "Adopting is Cool" event, which is organized by Zagreb City Office for Agriculture and Forestry and Shelter for Abandoned Animals in Dumovec, together with Animal Friends. "Adopting is Cool" will be held on Saturday, June 11, 2011, from 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. at Trg bana Jelacica. Citizens will get information about adopting and sponsorship at info stalls.
Citizens will also be reminded that June 13, 2011 is the deadline by which all dogs in Croatia have to be microchipped. After that date, regulated by the Rule book of dogs' tagging, individuals who do not obey this legal regulation can be fined from 2,000 to 6,000 kuna.
An excessive number of abandoned animals, which did not choose to be rejected and unwanted, demands that we all make an effort to give those animals a chance for a new home. It is cool to adopt a dog or help him find a home through sponsorship, because saving the life of an innocent creature is a noble act, for which the adopted animal is grateful for the rest of his life.
Since Croatia has a chronic lack of adoption programs, we hope that such actions will encoureage other local communities to start similar projects and act actively, in accordance with legal regulations.