PLEASE HELP US KEEP THE LIGHTS ON FOR THE DOGS

Hi

It is with a very heavy heart we have to post this today. We feel like we are approaching the end of the road, and this fills us all with fear and dread. We have tried to be strong and do what we could for the past 2 years. We have borrowed, tried to rehome more dogs, begged, worked with other rescues but it simply has not been enough.

All of you will know our mission has always been to rescue and rehome dogs from Romania while working on changing things there for the better: talking to authorities and public shelters, carrying out neuter campaigns, deliver educational programmes and try resolve the issue with the stray dog population in Romania by acting on its roots, rather than caring for the symptoms alone. Over the past 2 years, our focus has been to barely keep afloat. For several reasons, we have ended up with way too many dogs and we simply don’t raise enough money to care for them. We have been rehoming far fewer than before, hence incurring bigger costs for everything over in Romania where prices keep increasing every month.

The world is a far scarier place than it was 2 years ago. The covid-19 pandemic has stopped us from visiting our shelter regularly, which in turns has led to fewer updates and poorer quality interaction with the staff over there, which means dog matching and sponsors have suffered from this. And we can only apologise – we wish it wasn’t so. The recent recessions and climb in inflation rates (currently at 8.5% in Romania) have contributed to the price of materials sky-rocketing which has stopped us from building more kennels and moving dogs away from other people’s shelters and into our own, where we could care for and monitor them better. Food and medicines have gone up too. And now, with the prices of fossil fuels increasing by the day, even keeping the lights on is proving difficult.

All of the above issues are worldwide, which means we are seeing less and less in donations from our wonderful supporters. Not their fault obviously and we are incredibly thankful to those who continue to support our dogs even in these hard times. No words can express how grateful the whole team are for every single pound that is donated on one of our appeals: you have paid for our dogs to be treated by vets, to travel to their new homes, to have heating in recovery rooms. So many dogs would have not been here if it wasn’t for your beautiful hearts and generosity. Thank you.

We are at breaking point now though. The following is a list of bills we have to pay very soon before someone takes the charity to debt recovery:

• Electricity bills at RRC for February and March– £2,185

• Food in Tecuci - £2,655

• Vets in Bucharest – £3,300

• Vets in Tecuci – £7,431

• Kennels in the UK – £4,710

• Land Tax in Romania - £2,000

• Transport in the UK - £960

• Accountant in the UK for 2021 – £510

• Accountant in Romania for 2021 - £850

The total is a huge amount. We owe £24,601 for our dogs. Some of these bills are late already. We tried what we could. We have asked everyone we could think of. Our board have been donating thousands of pounds each month to make sure the dogs were fed and staff paid, to guarantee the basics but even they cannot do any more. They simply have no money left to give, which is why we are now desperate and having to consider the worst possible outcomes and solutions.

If we are unable to raise these funds, we will have to look into selling the only shelter the charity owns, possibly below its value in order to achieve a quick sale. That would mean having to find a place for the 280 dogs currently there and pay monthly foster fees to the owners of those shelters. It would mean an incredible set back in our objective to redefine the standards of care for dog rescue in Romania, with everything that follows from that.

We may have to change our criteria to screen adopters for our dogs and stop offering rescue back up – meaning that if something goes wrong we cannot take the dogs back. This would be a terrible outcome for the dogs as we would be unable to help adopters and rehome those dogs if something went wrong. Many people who have adopted from us know this is something that we have always been really good at and proud of, as we have been able to follow our dogs through thick and thin and offer help whenever needed.

We will have to look for other rescues willing to take over our dogs, which would be heart-breaking for everyone in the team and a lot of our followers. We know many of you have been sponsoring and following some dogs for a long time and have developed a connection with them. We would love to be able to be the ones to find them a home and see them flourish in the company of their humans, but if we cannot continue to feed them we will have to prioritise their welfare and hope someone is able to help them where we can’t.

Lastly, and we would never ever want to do this, we may have to seek the help of authorities in Romania so that they can find somewhere for our dogs. This would be the greatest defeat of all: we took these dogs away from the public shelters, the kill shelters, the dog catchers, the streets of Romania to protect them and nurture them – never ever we thought we would have to look at those places as an option. But what can we do? If we cannot feed them and care for them, what other options do we have?

There is a lot above to consider and none of these scenarios look or feel good for our dogs. We have come so far and rehomed so many dogs over the past 7 years and our team would love nothing more than being able to continue this. All the tears, the stress, the sleepless nights, the money, none of that matters when we see one of our adopters sending us a picture of one of these beautiful dogs fetching a ball, munching on some treats, pulling a rope or sleeping on their laps. Everyone in our team has been gifted with the joy of a Romanian rescue dog, some of us more than once, and we all know how much happiness and companionship these dogs can bring. Please, help us to carry on, for our dogs’ sake.

We know it may sound like a huge amount, but please bear in mind that if everyone does just a little we can get there. 25,000 people like this page, so £1 from everyone would solve this mess we are in. We only get about 2,000 visitors actively engaging with our posts every month though – so if everyone who sees this post would donate £12 we could get there. £12 isn’t much:

• the average coffee in the UK is £2.4 – so if you had 5 coffees at home just this month that would save our dogs,

• the average pint of lager or ale in the UK is £3.9 – so if you had 3 pints at home just this month that would save our dogs,

• the average bottle of wine in the UK is £6 – so if you had 2 bottles at home just this month that would save our dogs,

• the average pack of cigarettes in the UK is £9 – so if you smoked 25 cigarettes less just this month that would save our dogs.

We know for some this may sound easy and for some this may sound like a lot, so we’ll do a deal with you all: help us get out of this mess and care for the dogs and we will:

• Simplify our adoption process and get more dogs adopted – we will publish the numbers monthly and show you a net improvement every month,

• Get better updates and information on our dogs – we will post more and more pictures and descriptions to help you follow their progress and possibly chose one to adopt,

• Continue to offer the same support we have always done to all of our adopters,

• Work to get more dogs into UK shelters and work with more rescues to help us rehome our dogs in a safe way.

We will carry on and improve what we do and we will keep you posted on everything we do, so that you can see what it takes to help these dogs and where your money is going. This post will include as many of the invoices we have pending as we can publish and we will update it with confirmation of payments as we go if you can help us pay for the bills.

We will keep the dogs safe if you contribute with anything you can. Please, we are begging you, help us keep the lights on.

Even £1 helps and we are grateful for anything you can spare please. If you cannot donate, please share, like, comment, help us spread the word.

Donations can also be made by PayPal or bank transfer, details below:

PayPal is [email redacted] – please select the Friends or Family option to avoid charges. Mark for "SAFE"

Bank transfer:

Account name: Romanian Rescue Appeal

Bank: HSBC

Sort Code : 40-47-31

Account No. 24613333

IBAN: GB83HBUK40473124613333

SWIFT/BIC CODE:- HBUKGB4B

Mark for "SAFE"