a dog rescuer from Romania, has gone above and beyond to pull hundreds of dogs out of kill shelters and to safety – but, with 400 dogs now in her care, she is unable to take in more. She is now seeking help from rescue organisations to take at least some of her dogs to the UK, for fostering and adoption, so that she is able to save more dogs in her native country.
Laura’s work to save as many dogs as possible from Romanian kill shelters started seven years ago, when she first stepped into a public shelter.
“I saw a lot of dogs in there, they were skinny, they had no food,” she says. “I began bringing food for them – but two weeks later I arrived and there were no dogs. None of the dogs I had supported was there, because they were put to sleep. This is the law in Romania – if no one adopts her in two weeks, they’re put to sleep.”
Distraught, Laura returned home in tears. “I was very, very sad. I was crying all day, I didn’t have a life anymore because my mind was always on dogs in public shelters,” she recalls. “But I’ll never forget these words my husband said – ‘if you stay here and cry, you can’t help them, you have to do something’. Yes, I had to do something.”
And Laura did a lot: with the help of some donors, including some in the UK, she has been able to buy a piece of land and build a shelter there, where dogs are cared for. She was able to adopt dogs out in the UK through rescue organisations, freeing up space in her shelter for yet more dogs.
But now, with international adoptions having almost halted after the double blow of Covid and on dog imports from Romania (now lapsed), Laura is seeking help from organisations which may be able to help her have more of her dogs adopted in the UK – so that she can resume pulling dogs out of Romanian kill shelters.