07/27/22 Paw Burning Heat for ®arkovica dogs at 40+C - Please Take Them in!
The deadline for re-sheltering the ®arkovica dogs expires in several days, all involved hope for an extension
- At www.adopt-zarkovica.eu you can find photos and information on dogs that urgently need to be rehomed
For the past two months, ongoing efforts have been placed in rehoming dogs from the unregistered shelter at ®arkovica which has been established to be unsuitable to care for them. After having passed an ordinance to urgently remove more than 260 dogs from public space in ®arkovica, the State Inspectorate already extended the deadline once, with the current one expiring in a few days. Animal protection groups and volunteers hope for the deadline to be extended yet again, given it is impossible to relocate such a large number of dogs to approved shelters so fast, especially in summer when animal abandonment is more common, and considering that approved shelters have limited capacity while animal groups are already overburdened.
Pobjeda group, Friends shelter from Èakovec and Animal Friends Croatia launched the Adopt ®arkovica Dogs project in order to secure medical treatment and rehoming for all dogs. Volunteers from the Osijek based Pobjeda group composed a list of all dogs found at ®arkovica. Their photos and information are available at www.adopt-zarkovica.eu in Croatian, English and German. So far, one hundred and thirty dogs have been relocated through a county contracted pound, with priority given to the sick and injured dogs. After they are started on treatment, dogs are moved into the care of animal groups and temporary accommodation. Thirty-eight dogs have been adopted so far, this being the single most valuable way of helping them.
After animal groups launched an action to save the dogs, joined by many other associations and individuals who helped by offering temporary accommodation or by adopting the dogs, the project was taken over in July by Ana Ivelja and Ivana Neusidil on behalf of the City of Dubrovnik, who are to continue working on it until all dogs are sheltered or adopted. Among others, the international organisation Network for Animals has offered support. We appeal to the public to share photos and stories of dogs in need of a home to make them more visible. Many more dogs still need a home – over one hundred and thirty of them in ®arkovica and ninety-two in temporary accommodation.
The City of Dubrovnik has declared they would assume responsibility for all dogs and resolve the untenable situation at ®arkovica. At the same time, the City has invited to the public to contact the community warden on call at 099 3882 729 if they notice any owner-free dogs roaming in public spaces. If the dog is not micro-chipped, the community warden will arrange for it to be sheltered in an approved animal shelter.
The City of Dubrovnik should conduct the statutory microchip checks for dogs and organise household visits, with the subsequent follow-ups. In addition, it should finance the neutering of owned cats and dogs and educate citizens who do not neuter their pets or abandon animals on their legal obligations. The oftentimes announced construction of an animal shelter is expected to finally materialise. It is also expected that all local communities of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County should comply with their legal obligations.
Animal groups emphasise the importance of maintaining maximum visibility of dogs in desperate need of salvation and rehoming. The groups advocate animal adoption instead of purchase, to literally save animal lives. They appeal to the public to help ®arkovica animals by volunteering, temporarily homing or adopting the dogs, as well as by distributing their photos and stories from www.adopt-zarkovica.eu or Adopt Zarkovica Dogs on Facebook or AdoptZarkovica on Instagram.
![Dog Bezz from Zarkovica [ 534.21 Kb ]](/data/image_3_15870.jpg "Dog Bezz from Zarkovica [ 534.21 Kb ]")
