Bosnia Animal Foundation supports two shelters, one in Orasje and one in Sarajevo. The Orasje shelter holds up to 150 dogs. At the shelter they support in Sarajevo, Bosnia Animal Foundation will be building extra space for the dogs, where they can play and run a little.
Headquarters of the Bosnia Animal Foundation (BAF) are located in Holland, where the group organizes volunteers to go to BiH at least twice a year for spay/neuter clinics. Volunteers from the Netherlands and Bosnia work together to spay and neuter—at no cost—as many pets as possible and also sterilize street dogs and cats. They hold these spay/neuter clinics all over the country, in small towns and cities. The next spay/neuter campaign is planned for April 2010 in Zenica. |
Bosnia Animal Foundation also has a humane education program, where they visit schools, talk to the children about kind treatment of animals, and hand out booklets.
This group has made amazing strides, and Animal-Kind International is helping them continue their good work. Although they are located in the Netherlands, some of the BAF volunteers travel to Bosnia as often as five times a year, and BAF has a strong presence in Bosnia, including the shelter staff and Bosnian volunteers.
BAF is always looking for volunteers to help out during spay/neuter clinics and at the shelters. Bosnia Animal Foundation is hoping to receive donations of surgical supplies and veterinary drugs. All types of shelter supplies are needed at their shelters in Sarajevo and Orasje. |
By radio people are informed at what time the hunters will make their appearance the next morning, so that people know why they hear gunshots. Daily, the amount of dogs and cats shot is registered. The figures are shocking, the number of victims among the animals run in hundreds of animals each month.
Most of the animals die a slow death in a most horrific way, because they were not killed, but just wounded. If a mother dog is found with her pups, they just kill the mother. This saves bullets, the pups will die anyway without their mother.
The animals are left as if they are garbage where people and children can see them lying along the side of the road. People step over a dead or dying animal, it's not important enough to do anything about it.
Because most people in Bosnia do not have their dogs sterilized, many pups are born. Most of them are dumped somewhere or killed!!
In the shelters, Bosnia Animal Foundation sterilizes all the dogs. Unfortunately, most of them are already pregnant, which means the pups are aborted. But this is the only way to minimize the number of stray dogs.
Profoundly distressed by the amount of atrocious animal cruelty, Wilma de Joode could no longer stay passive and do nothing. She came in contact with a Bosnian lady that had the papers and even a piece of land to start a shelter in Tuzla, but money to start the project remained absent, so Wilma promised to help her. On October 24th, 2002, the "Stichting Dierenopvang Bosnie" (Bosnia Animal Foundation) was founded with the idea to raise money and supplies to help projects in Bosnia.
The first few years there was cooperation between BAF and the shelter in Tuzla, but in February 2007, unfortunately BAF had to terminate the cooperation. After four years working with this shelter, supporting it financially, BAF made the difficult decision to end the relationship with the Tuzla shelter because of all the corruption and the trafficking of dogs.
Now, in Orasje there is a shelter, with approximately 150 dogs, which BAF decided to support. The manager of this shelter, Svjetlana (whose husband, Yusuf, who used to be co-manager, very sadly died in 2009), is very motivated and her dedication towards the animals is huge.
BAF also helps in other places, and will expand this assistance in the future. Sarajevo, Bihac, Odzak, Travnik, Zenica, are all cities where help is needed and requested, and where BAF has responded.
Suze with BAF says, “We do our job anywhere we can and hope that we will gradually help throughout entire Bosnia. We fight for the animals in Bosnia, we give them a voice, because this cannot continue in silence. Bosnia, a forgotten country, where refugee camps are still full and poverty remains. We care for the animals in this country. If we do not, who will? Foremost, let’s fight together for a better life for these forgotten animals. If we unite, we are much stronger and we can let the sun shine just a little for these innocent war victims. We cannot do it without your help.” |
Goals and Plans
The mission of Bosnia Animal Foundation is to improve animal welfare in Bosnia and reduce the population of stray animals in humane ways.
What we do:
• organizing castration / sterilization programs for dogs and cats
• an efficient and good cooperation with local authorities
• education of children in schools and adults
• find suitable owners for our dogs in the shelter
• Acquire funds, goods and facilities for animals in Bosnia
Plans for 2009-2010!
Sarajevo, Bihac, Odzak, Travnik, Zenica, all cities where our help is needed and requested. But we cannot solve everything at once, we just have to start somewhere.
Animal-Kind International Support
AKI recently sent a donation of financial support to BAF, along with suture material, flea collars, and heartworm medicine. We are hoping to send more supplies and monetary donations to help with BAF’s 2010 spay/neuter campaigns and to improve the quality of life of the shelter animals. |
