Peja Municipality


cooperation for one good year!

At the time the foundation was legally acknowledged the town of Peja had estimated 1500 stray dogs. The new mayor Gazmend Muhaxheri declared himself ready to help the citizens and the dogs out of this uncontrollable situation and agreed to work together with our foundation. The mayor's work was building up the infrastructure with our financial support and assistance with providing food and fresh water. We  helped with parasite and worming treatment, vaccinations and spay/neuter; the dogs were ear-tagged to ensure it is clear that they have been treated. We were present until May 2016 in Peja and 1440 dogs were treated, since that time we only go there when required by citizens. The Mayor stopped the program upon protest of local vets, which were not even able to do a good surgery on dogs - and this decision at that time proved completely wrong. In the meantime citizens tell us, that he talks about 5000 stray dogs in the region....this result should not have been. Peja is full of suffering dogs and up to now 2022 not one vet cares for them there - and we are not allowed to work there.

Reception of the Mayor Gazmend Muhaxheri in December 2015
Reception of the Mayor Gazmend Muhaxheri in December 2015

What we did up to now

 

After two months about 230 stray dogs were neutered/spayed and some private dog owners brought their dogs for treatment to the animal clinic in Nagavc. But the municipality suddenly stopped beginning of march 2015 the program and closed the "shelter", the cause: lack of money. So we continued with a small private dog shelter and the owner was catching dogs and bringing them to Nagavc until the Mayor started to support our work again with a 3 Euro campaign for every citizen that brought a stray dog to the shelter. From January until march 2016 1440 stray dogs were treated against sicknesses, spayed/neutered and released - except of the puppies, many of them motherless, sick and often dying. We continued our work since June 2015 with three additional veterinarians from this municipality - in the first two weeks under the control of our DVM B. Bejdoni, because all three veterinarians are specialized on farm animals. So they had no interest to work with pets and could not do a sterile surgery. 

 

Since May 2016 the Municipality does not support our work anymore and we insist on cooperation in some way - not financially, but in a prevention program that every Municipality should have, as well as teaching kids in schools. But due to the fact that our project leader is from Gjakova, we were stopped in our service to this town. The state program 2018 for straydog castration did not work out, there were corrupt veterinarians involved, nepotism ruled the program, all informations can be found on the website of the animal rights foundation Kosovo - also a NGO that was initiated by us.

 

This was unfortunately not the only dog that was found starving at Peja "shelter" in January 2015! This dog, along with all the others starving creatures in the municipality "shelter", needed treatment and spaying/neutering, before any more puppies were born - so do other dogs that are caught continually in this municipality. What the Municipality of Peja calls a shelter, is a fenced place on the garbage disposal hill South of the city. A shameful place!