Tierschutz Mission - Burgas

[TheTravelBug]

I today had a phone call from Margarita Peeva who runs the office for the TierSchutz rescue centre just on the edge of Burgas. I am happy to report that they have rehomed the two puppies I took to them last November to a Bulgarian family in the country and both dogs are happy.

However, it is the time of year when many unwanted puppies and dogs are coming in and they are desperately in need of food for the dogs or funds to buy the food. They have asked if I can help raise around 300 levs (150 Euros) as soon as possible.

Maybe we could start a collection around the Burgas area so people can donate cans of dog food and biscuits.

To raise cash, I will offer the following:

I usually charge 50 Euros per private sales listing on my website at www.thetravelbug.org. This includes details being sent out to mailing list of around 350 people, details being placed on the forum here and also on the Blog at www.thetravelbug.org/blog as well as posting details on several other sites where I have accounts and can advertise properties. For the next 2 weeks I will donate the 50 Euros I receive to the Tierschutz mission. Just 3 private sales would get them the funds they currently need and more would be great.

If anyone else has any ideas let me know. I hope to get some photos of the dogs to place on my forum and others to help in rehoming efforts. Maybe someone near Burgas could visit and take photos and get details to give to me?

The office is quite close to the centre - 35 Slavinscka Street. Telephone is 0898 42 53 50 or 056 82 30 10.

Rachel

[TheTravelBug]

I thought I had updated this but obviously not!

The Tierschutz Mission is mainly a dog rescue centre on the outskirts of Burgas. It currently houses over 300 dogs and is in desperate need of funding and help to re-home the dogs.

Directions: It is just off the main dual carriage way from Burgas toward Chernomorets & Sozopol, down a dirt track, almost opposite the first Lukoil station. You need to turn right after the petrol station and then go back over the dual carriage way, rejoin the main road and then a few yards down on the right, there is a pull in and a track leading off to the right. The shelter is just up here, around 100m. There is now a new sign on the edge of the road.

HISTORY

Up until around 2005 the centre was little more than a place to house unwanted street dogs before they were gassed and the conditions were appalling. It was a municipality run operation. This all changed when a German Journalist, called Christa Schechtl saw the plight of street dogs in Bulgaria and visited the shelter. She was already heavily involved in animal rescue, having more or less single handedly set up a dog rescue centre in Moldovo after finding a dog that had been skinned alive, when visiting the country on an investigation into an unrelated story. She has since helped set up and continued to fund rescue centres in Turkey and Odessa.

Christa made it her mission to not only raise funds to enable the dogs to have much needed medical care and pay for food, blankets etc but she made it her aim to build a much better sanctuary for the dogs. She set up and funded an office in Central Burgas to deal with the administration and found a dedicated, animal lover in Margarita, a Bulgarian lady who runs the office. She held a press conference in Burgas with Bulgarian journalists and the vice Mayor and faced much hostility and aggressive questioning about why she wanted to help these dogs and the money involved. Then she involved the EU Commissioner, the President of the German Animal Rescue Society and many others. Christa then purchased 10,000sqm of land close to Chernomorets, between Burgas and Sozopool, with the dream of building a large new rescue centre here, complete with medical facilities and also housing cats as well as dogs. She involved the local Mayor and school children to let them know of her future plans and received support from these areas. A pro-animal welfare German architect offered his help to design the project and all seemed to be progressing. But then the money ran out. Christa had used all her own private money to fund the centre in Moldovo and the other rescue centres in Turkey and Odessa and open the office in Burgas and keep the current centre going. She had campaigned tirelessly in Germany to get help and donations but building such a large, new dog rescue would take many thousands.

Christa organised and paid for 30 dogs to be taken back to Germany and re-homed there in a trip taking 3 full days of driving and an awful lot of money. In September 2008 she flew two more dogs back to Germany. She has published 3 magazines (in German only) available at www.der-schrei.de.

When I visited the centre in 2008 the only outside funding came from Germany and donation's made to Christa. There had been no help from any organisations or companies. All money has come from Germany and people's kind donations made to Christa for the sanctuary. When Margarita has gone to the public to ask for money and help she has been turned away. She once visited the London Pub in Burgas with photos of a dog desperately in need of an operation and in a very poorly state and received not a single lev from any of the Expats in there.

I recently met with Margarita (July 2011) and she informed me that unfortuantely Christa did not have as much to do with the shelter anymore but that the Burgas municipality were no longer trying to move the dog rescue. There are currently over 300 dogs in the Burgas shelter, and funds for veterinary treatment, food and toys are desperately needed. As well as volunteers to help walk and socialise the dogs and most importantly, new homes are needed for the dogs.

The shelter at Burgas is municiaplity run and is basic and four or five dogs can be sharing the same bare kennel, whilst others run free in the yard or are chained up. The few volunteers do their best to cope but with more and more dogs constantly coming in, and very few being re-homed, and with limited funds, the shelter simply cannot treat all the dogs for parasites and other injuries. Dogs coming to the shelter are castrated but many have other health problems that are either not diagnosed or there are no funds for treatment.