Helping neglected and abused animals in Bulgaria

Hi I’m Pip.

I used to work for an animal rescue charity in the UK. Rescuing is what I do…it’s what I’m good at…it’s what I hope to continue to do for many more years.

When you give yourself to animal rescue it gets under your skin and takes over your life. It affects how you see the world and your opinions on the human race. It takes a certain kind of person to rescue and then keep doing it. We see the best and the worst in society. We see horrific abuse, heartbreaking neglect and staggering levels of love and trust when these “kids” make it through. This is was drives us. This is what, after all of the anger, tears and tantrums, makes us get up every morning and do it all over again.

Earlier this year I went to live in Bulgaria. This is somewhere we don’t tend to hear about. It’s not somewhere that is in the news or in peoples consciousness. But my god does it need to be! Bulgaria is a stunningly beautiful country but it has its ugly side just like everywhere else. The way in which some animals are treated here is atrocious. From the neglect and abuse to the general lack of knowledge and education regarding caring for living, breathing, feeling things. It’s everywhere from domestic “pets” to livestock. After seeing the things I’ve seen here in such a short time, I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. I had to help. So that’s what my fiancé and I are doing!

4 months ago we took in a 6 month old pup who had been dumped at a local builders yard. The owner is well known for helping street animals and had done everything he could for her but, as he said, a builders yard was no place for a pup. So we took her home. We worked with her every day, giving her love, time and patience until she was comfortable with us. Then we started introducing her to our other dogs and slowly she went from being terrified of them, to running around playing and doing zoomies with them. She is now a very happy member of her own pack.

3 weeks ago a very young puppy started hanging around our property. My fiancé managed to tempt her in to one of our kennel runs with food and she never left. She is emaciated, very timid and kissing half of her coat. Steve has been slowly feeding her up and her confidence is now growing around people that she knows. She too was very shy around other dogs when she arrived and has pretty extreme food guarding issues; but we’re working on all that and she is also now a more confident, playful member of her pack. She’s had all of her parasite treatments and her fur is starting to grow back.

Around 4 months ago we saw that an old man in our village had a puppy. We have had to watch her get thinner and more frightened every day for weeks. We have listened to her screams when he approached her. It was heart wrenching. We made the decision to do everything we could to get her out but without the owners permission it was impossible…until now!! After weeks of watching her deteriorating we finally persuaded him to hand her over to us!!! My fiancé wrapped her in a blanket and rushed her straight to the vet. She weighed in at a tiny 3.5kg….I really don’t know how much longer she’d have had if we hadn’t got her out. Her blood results are, as expected, in her boots and she has open wounds all over her. But she’s out! The next 72 hours will be critical. She’ll need tiny meals every 2 hours and then back for more blood tests. We can’t give her any other treatments yet as she is just too poorly. When she is strong enough she’ll get all the hell she needs and any treatment necessary to get her back on her paws.

We need help to enable us to continue helping these kids. We have been using our own savings but they are not endless. We have managed to start building kennel runs for the dogs and are getting all of the vet care they need. For us to continue helping we need funds….it’s that simple. We have more building work to do to ensure these kids are warm over the bitterly cold Bulgarian winter. We have vet bills to pay and food to buy. Donations will NOT be used to pay for anything that is not for the animals.

Please help us to help them….no matter how small, every donation counts. We can all make a difference in this life, it’s how we do that that matters. These kids need our help….please.

Thank you