On the 9th of September, Ismir Musić, a young man in Sarajevo was told about two stray puppies who looked very ill. He went to check the situation and found not two, but fifteen dogs: 8 small puppies and their mother; another family, 4 older puppies and their mother; and two adult male dogs.

They were in an abandoned yard:

Ismir brought them food but that was all he could do. One of the older puppies was very weak. He called it Kiky.

Kiky

A day later, Kiky was dead. She had been bleeding from the mouth and anus – probably canine parvovirus, highly contagious and dangerous. He buried Kiky.

Ismir contacted our group on Facebook and put out general a call for help.

Then one of the small puppies died.

The area needed to be disinfected, and it was not safe for other reasons but Ismir had no money to take them elsewhere, and catching the dogs would be difficult. Many of us began to fundraise – if one puppy had canine parvovirus, then it would spread to all the others. Treatment for one dog costs 20 Euros. Ismir’s father earns 200 euros a month.

The next day the mother dog with the 3 older puppies had disappeared. Ismir found out  found out that the state shelter had taken them, and that another of the puppies had died. This shelter is already overfilled and cannot ensure care of the dogs.

The concern was to save the remaining dogs: the mother and her seven little puppies, and one male dog Ismir called Loppy who keeps returning to the yard. Ismir fears Loppy has the parvovirus as he is very weak. But he is very friendly and sweet.

Loppy, the mother, and one of the puppies.

We continued to spread the word and to fundraise. Ismir brought food for the mother dog and Loppy. He tried to catch the mother several times, to bring her and her puppies to a safer place in the woods where it was less likely the state shelter would try to take them.  It rained heavily in Sarajevo during this time. Ismir put some planking up to keep the mother in an enclosed space to help him catch her, but people stole the planking. He was told a man had been seen in the area, a man known to remove dogs for money, probably to kill them.

Ismir spent as much time as he could watching over the dogs, 9 or 10 hours a day. It kept on raining. Other animal welfare activists in Sarajevo came to help catch the mother, but it was impossible. They helped him pay for some food for the dogs.

And then on the 14th of September the mother dog and her seven puppies disappeared. Ismir looked everywhere for them. No one knew a thing.

We all feared the worst. Loppy was still there. We focussed our attentions on Loppy and a lovely woman offered him a home in the UK if we could raise the funds to bring him there.

Loppy

But we were all devastated about what had happened.

And today: the 16th of September, Ismir found the dogs. The mother had removed them to another place because of the rain. They would have drowned where they were. But now they are in a broken down building, a very dangerous place, where Ismir cannot get to them. He can hear the puppies and just see them, but without endangering his life he cannot get to them.

The situation is critical and all we can do is try to raise funds so that should the mother dog and her puppies be rescued, they can be taken for medical treatment for parvovirus and put into ‘pension’ (kennels) in the hopes we can find homes for the puppies when they are old enough, if they survive, and for the mother. Ismir cannot take the dogs to his house, his father will not allow it. Fostering dogs is not easy in Bosnia, the only people who do it are animal welfare activists and they already take care of hundreds of dogs. Pension costs about 65 Euros per month plus food for a single adult dog. Probable costs for the mother and her seven puppies per month are around 300 euros plus food.

Loppy also needs to be caught and to be given medical attention and put into pension until we have enough funds to send him to the UK.

Right now we have raised about 350 euros. This is not enough.

We desperately need more funds to take care of Ismir’s dogs. Please donate, even just one dollar or euro will help save these dogs lives. And if you think you can offer one of them a home, please contact me.

UPDATE: November – Loppy is in King Pension and will be going to the UK just as soon as we have raised enough funds. I estimate sometime in January. He has his own ChipIn here

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HOW TO HELP:
Please go to your PayPal account (or set one up, it’s very easy) and send the money to: donations@awabosnia.org as a ‘gift’. Click on the image below to be taken to PayPal’s home page.

Or if you want to use the customised PayPal form, click the link below. However, a transaction fee and a percentage (2- 5.4%) will be deducted by PayPal for any contribution made.

If you want your contribution to go to a specific dog, please make a note in the PayPal comment box. If you wish to contribute via bank transfer or have other difficulties or questions, please go here.

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NOTE: This story is just one of many. Every day animal welfare activists in Bosnia find abandoned, abused, starving stray dogs. In Sarajevo alone there are 10,000 stray dogs.  The government is doing nothing. The animal welfare activists rely totally on donations to pay for food, medical fees, spaying and neutering (which costs 40 euros for a male dog, up to 150 for a female dog).

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This site is dedicated to Vučko. Read his story and don’t let him have suffered and died in vain. Please help the stray dogs and cats in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The situation there is utterly dire, Vučko is but one amongst many horrifically abused animals. Go here to find out how to help them.  Money is needed for food, medicine and foster housing. Even just one dollar or one euro will help.