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| ABOUT THE BOSNIA ANIMAL FOUNDATION |
| Bosnia Animal Foundation, a partnership between Dutch and Bosnian animal welfare advocates, has worked in Bosnia since 2002. BAF is focused on improving the lives of (stray) animals by changing the mindset through education, organizing sterilization campaigns, and helping local initiatives like the two shelters BAF supports, one in Orasje and one in Sarajevo. The Orasje shelter holds up to 170 dogs, and the shelter in Sarajevo usually has between 220 and 250 dogs and around 30 cats.
The shelter in Orasje is the base of the foundation. This shelter is BAF’s vision of the ultimate form of a rescue center, where dogs are safe and lead happy lives.
The shelter in Sarajevo is not yet up to this standard. There is too little space for the dogs, and there is no regular staff to care for the animals. The dogs don’t get to play together and they don’t get to lead normal lives. They have no chance of being re-homed locally, and unfortunately, BAF is not in a position to take dogs from the shelter in Sarajevo to other countries where there are more potential adopters or to help them find homes locally. However, another foundation is helping them with re-homing some of the animals. Although far from ideal, the Sarajevo shelter does provide sanctuary from the streets, where dogs and cats have to scrounge for food and water and often starve, where they are injured purposefully, and where they are unprotected from the elements. |
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Photo (courtesy of BAF): Typical condition of Bosnia’s street cats. To read cat stories with happy endings—thanks to BAF, click here. |
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| On October 24, 2002, the "Stichting Dierenopvang Bosnie" (Bosnia Animal Foundation) was founded to address animal cruelty in Bosnia. The organization was started by a Dutch woman in partnership with a Bosnian woman, both of whom wanted to improve the situation for the animals and take a stand against the widespread cruelty. BAF continues today as a partnership between Dutch volunteers and their Bosnian counterparts who want Bosnia’s animals to have better lives.
Headquarters of the Bosnia Animal Foundation is 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.
Bosnia Animal Foundation has created their own humane education program in cooperation with Dog’s Trust England, where they visit schools, talk to the children about kind treatment to animals, and hand out booklets on caring for animals. The humane education work 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. BAF 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. If you have supplies to donate, please contact us: Karen@animal-kind.org
BAF’s future plans for both the Orasje and Sarajevo shelters are mainly construction work to improve the conditions for the dogs and cats. BAF would especially like to see conditions improved at the Sarajevo shelter. |
| A tribute to the success of BAF can be seen by viewing their photo gallery: here |
| The Situation for Dogs and Cats in Bosnia |
| By radio people were informed of the time the hunters would make their appearance the next morning, so they would know why they hear gunshots. Daily, the amount of dogs and cats shot were registered. The figures are shocking, the number of victims among the animals ran in hundreds of animals each month. Happily, this scene is a little less common than it once was in Bosnia. This is because since April 2009 there is a new law on animal welfare. Unfortunately the law is not yet implemented throughout the entire country. And cruel forms of animal control are still used. |
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Photo: Stray dogs in danger of being shot by the hunters (photo courtesy of BAF) |
Municipalities violate the law by funding the outright killing of animals as a means of control. Animals are still killed by hunters, and most of these animals die a slow death in a most horrific way. If a mother dog is found with her pups, they just kill the mother. This saves bullets and energy, the pups will die anyway without their mother. The animals are left as if they are garbage where people and children can see them 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 unwanted pups are born. Most of them are dumped somewhere or killed!! Especially during the war when many people lost their lives or homes, animals were left in the streets—and this mentality has changed little even though there is now peace in the country.
BAF sterilizes all the dogs they possibly can in the weeks they are doing the campaigns. Besides these campaigns, BAF is providing support to the Orasje and Sarajevo shelters and taking an active role in humane education in classrooms. BAF intends to expand their assistance in the future. Sarajevo, Bihac, Odzak, Travnik, Zenica—these are all cities where help is needed and requested, and where BAF has responded and hopes to increase their involvement.
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.” Click here to read about how Suze from the Netherlands became interested in improving the lives of Bosnia’s animals—she epitomizes AKI’s view that kindness to animals has no boundaries. |
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:
• organize castration / sterilization programs for dogs and cats
• maintain efficient and good cooperation with local authorities so we can cooperate on animal population control and intervene when necessary to promote humane methods
• educate children in schools and adults in communities in which we work
• find suitable owners for our dogs in the shelter
• Acquire funds, goods and facilities for animals in Bosnia |
| Plans for 2011! |
| A huge sterilization campaign in the area of Orasje to reduce the risk of puppies being dumped at the gate of the shelter.
Major construction work at both shelters
Try to enlarge our influence to enhance the quality of life for the animals on the streets. |
| Animal-Kind International Support |
| AKI has sent suture material to defray costs of the spay/neuter campaigns, flea collars, and heartworm medicine. But the most important support that is given to BAF is the financial aid. Therefore, AKI has donated to help with BAF’s spay/neuter campaigns, has sent funds to improve the quality of life of the shelter animals, and has supported their humane education program. We hope to continue to support BAF until all Bosnia’s street dogs have loving homes! |
| AKI connects animal people in wealthy countries to animal people in Bosnia! |
| Srdjan, a Bosnian vet who now lives in Canada, contacted AKI to see how he could help animals in Bosnia. We put him in touch with BAF, and when Srdjan visited Bosnia this fall, he carried the AKI US $ allocation with him to hand over to BAF. He also visited the Sarajevo shelter and sent us some pictures. (click to view below) |
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| Srdjan tells us that, “being able to see how life in Bosnia is - I have nothing but greatest respect for Jelena and all the other rescue people I met." Srdjan hopes to donate vet supplies to AKI for onward shipment to BAF, as the supplies become available. He notes they especially need Pyrantel for de-worming and canine spay kits. If anyone is able to send these items to AKI, we will send on to BAF. |
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Below are photos from a trip to Bosnia September 2009 Click here to read the entire journey. |
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