StrayCoco New Year Letter 2020

Dear animal lovers

Am 1.1.2020 we are celebrating our 5th anniversary and our commitment to street dogs in Kosovo for just as long, still the only foreign animal protection organization for dogs. In the meantime, we have started other small projects in the border triangle of Kosovo-Albania-Montenegro, but the main focus in 2020 is once again in Kosovo, where we would like to build a second small animal clinic with a sanctuary in the north-east corner between Mitrovica and Vushtrria. Our partner vet DVM Zenel Zhabari is investing heavily himself, but he won't be able to do it without our help. Small animal clinics attract attention and make people understand that their dogs and cats also occasionally need a vet. Mass castrations cannot be carried out in small spaces in the city center, where most veterinarians in all three partner countries have their “practice.” Larger investments and offers for small animals are still needed so that they are even noticed.

Can we help by rescuing dogs discarded on the street every day, castrating them continuously - without end - or organising adoptions? No! If we only did that, our work would actually always be the same and ultimately nothing would change. That is why networking with politicians, authorities and local activists is a permanent task for us. At the end of 2019, we also added Laura Shqipe Frei - a Kosovo-Swiss - to our Board of Trustees and are pleased to have created a further relationship with the Albanian-speaking region.

Working with dogs in the South Balkans involves a lot of suffering - but sometimes there is also a little luck when puppies can be raised again and find a place to live.

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‍The Board of Trustees and our partner veterinarians wish you all the best for the NEW YEAR and you will remain our friends and the friends of dogs in the South Balkans. We are looking forward to a successful NEW YEAR with you.

‍yoursDr. Helen WormserPresident of the Board of Trustees

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CNVR - capture, castrate, inoculate (against rabies) and release

The classic program of almost all animal welfare organizations - but we do much more. Influence on laws, such as our recent clear consultation with the government in Montenegro, which is planning a dog law as before with euthanasia in animal shelters, or the establishment of state NGOs such as the Small Veterinarians Association of Kosovo (ksava.net) last year and the Kosovo Animal Rights Foundation (Fondacioni për të Drejtat e Kafshëve - see Facebook), talks with Politicians, working together to develop strategies for keeping dogs to end the suspension, to accept “community dogs,” we take every opportunity to use dogs and to provide animal lovers with a livable existence in the South-Western Balkans as well. Our models show that it is possible.

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meeting with the Mayor of Vushtrria **Dr. Xhafer Tahiri,** concerning the cooperation agreement for the year 2020: Information for the population, financial support for castrations - in return, construction of a small animal clinic.

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KSAVA - Association of Small Veterinarians of Kosovo at its first Congress in Pristina in October 2019 on animal ethics with the main speaker **Professor Dr. Vlatko Ilieski** from Skopje, but also our vet DVM Blendi Bejdoni was able to comment on the humane and medically correct treatment of street dogs. The co-organizer is the Kosovo Animal Rights Foundation.

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October 28, 2019: Fundraising for the small animal clinic in Vushtrria atRotary Club Prishtina-Dardania.On invitation, we were able to explain our project in the presence of the responsible veterinarian DVM Zenel Zhabari and were assured that the Rotary Club and its partner organizations abroad will work to contribute to the small animal clinic. Let's hope that's successful!

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DVM Zenel Zhabari has already built the main house, eight indoor boxes are to be added, and there are 20 separate fenced outdoor spaces.

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In the sanctuary, the dogs are free, such as PIKI, the blind dog that wandered around the side of the road in Nevolan looking for food.

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The cruel practice of abandoning old, sick dogs or puppies has not yet come to an end. Our first priority at the beginning of 2020 is our FUNDRAISING for this small animal clinic — this supply will generate demand and pets will be brought over for treatment instead of being thrown away like waste. In the sanctuary, there is room for street dogs that can no longer survive on the streets. As in Gjakova, the sanctuary is financed with sponsorships.

Without ongoing clarification, we can't change anything. School visits take place every six months, and our partner veterinarians from the Gjakova and Vushtrria region also promote the Free castration and treatment of your dogs instead of suspension! Since the beginning of December, DVM Blendi Bejdoni has visited farms almost daily. His colleague, a large animal doctor, is commissioned by the Veterinary Office to vaccinate cows. Our vet accompanies him and tries to motivate all the farmers to give him their dogs for castration and treatment. In return, every farmer received a large food bag for free. It has been shown that this is a motivating factor. It is also noticeable that handing out information flyers is of no use; there are too many illiterate people in the villages who cannot read. Everyone had to be addressed individually and everything explained several times. This brought some success, we were allowed to castrate 37 privately kept dogs in December - but this work is far from being resounding! Information is now also being provided at the markets in the Gjakova region, where puppies are often abandoned in boxes. Our vet talks to people, provides information material and explains what we offer.

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MONTENEGRO

Here, after a long insistence from animal rights activists, we have opted for the Project in Niksic decided as our latest model. Why in Niksic? Because there are hardly any tourists there in contrast to the coast, because a good vet practices there, and because dog misery is omnipresent there. In Montenegro, we were confronted for the first time with state “animal shelters,” which are remote enclosures with boxes and individual dog houses, chained dogs, defecated soil and virtually no care and care. 50 dogs live in the shelter in Niksic, no one has ever received veterinary treatment - no one has ever been neutered. We have set conditions under which we would help, according to reports, the animals there will not be killed in contrast to other state animal shelters in the country - should it work out, we will report.

For the rest, we have with DVM Nebojsa Gorasević started the same program as in Kosovo and with partners in Albania. Our vet is already involved in the American stray cat program “Kotor Kitties” and has experience. But his one-room practice is not enough for street dogs; here too, we have to install a container in a private space (costs 1500 euros) and procure dog houses (costs still unknown) and fences (420 euros) to temporarily accommodate the dogs.

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ALBANIA

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Albania is still a cruel country for dogs - and there is a lack of contacts from the state. Tirana has thousands of dogs killed - all protests are of no use.

‍CONTRARY TO ITS LONG-TERM ADVERTISING, ALBANIA IS NOT A TOURIST COUNTRY - BOYCOTT IT UNTIL THE GOVERNMENT TAKES ANIMAL WELFARE SERIOUSLY!‍

‍JETA animal and human, A small Swiss association helps both in Fieri, as well as after the earthquake in Durrës. We support dog treatments there... but then these traumatized animals have to hit the streets again. JETA Tier und Mensch has no animal shelter, not even a treatment place - except in Vranisht, a simple farm owned by the vet's uncle. This severely abused male dog was also brought there. Another 12 dogs live there. This association dreams of a small clinic with a sanctuary, but it is too expensive. Remember, you can donate directly to the association or let us forward the donations. https://www.jetatierundmensch.ch/ - They too are tax-exempt in Switzerland.