Animal welfare activists have informed us that Hreša is ‘open for business’. If you have read the other posts on Hreša and other ‘shelters’ in Bosnia Herzegovina you know what this ‘business’ means.
And more ‘shelters’ in the country have been visited and documented, Bratunac and Trebinje. Like other shelters conditions are entirely unsuitable and contravene the existing animal welfare law in Bosnia Herzegovina which states that dog shelters have to provide proper care of the animals in the shelters, including proper vet care. For a full translation of the existing law, please download this PDF.
As always, the shelters are situated in out-of-the-way places, hard to find and on or near landfills and garbage heaps; the dogs are thin and hungry and without proper shelter or warmth for the coming winter. Generally there is no food or water seen, nor anyone to actually take care of dogs or to guard the shelters (remember dog fights are popular in Bosnia and ‘shelter’ dogs make nice ‘bait’ to train fighting dogs…).
Municipality ‘shelter’ in Bratunac:
A stray cat found in Bratunac…
And Trebinje ‘shelter’:
More photographs in the slideshow at the end of this post.
Just one “interesting” detail from Trebinje: on weekends dogs are without food or water as there are no workers there during weekends. Activists were told by a worker at the nearby landfill told them that often when they clean cages puppies end up in drain holes. The activists found one right in it… a puppy under a month old. They rescued it from certain death.
We recently made a post about the dogs at Foča shelter. 5 dogs were found in relatively clean conditions, although they only had white bread to eat. Activists were surprised about the shelter as they had seen so much horror elsewhere. The worker seemed to be kind towards the dogs. Funds were raised to release all five dogs into homes or foster homes or pensions in Sarajevo, and activists returned (it’s a long trip, about 80 kilometres) to collect the dogs. BUT ONLY TWO DOGS WERE ALLOWED TO GO! 
The worker seemed a different person, certainly not the animal-lover he’d portrayed himself as on the first visit. A new young puppy was in the shelter, and he kicked the puppy, right in front of the activists.
Activists left food for the dogs and they will do everything they can to get the dogs out, including the new puppy. This means making an appointment to meet with the local authorities and this could take some time unfortunately.
In the meantime these lovely dogs face an uncertain future… the lovely black and white one has an eye condition and may be going blind.
Without radical change in the how the authorities are dealing with strays, the only way to help the dogs in these shelters is for activists to visit them more often. For most of these “shelters” no one never visits. The activists are usually the first people after 3, 4 or even 5 years who express any kind of interest in the dogs in these hell holes.
Funds are desperately needed just to pay for petrol to visit the shelters, and for food to be brought to the dogs.
We need also must to ensure Bosnia and Herzegovina does not follow Romania and draft a new law at the next Parliament session on the 5th of October, paving the way for thousands of strays to be put down (and you can be sure if this happens it will be using the most brutal methods, which are cheaper and easier than any ‘humane’ euthanasia methods). Also please read this excellent piece by lawyer Dalida Kozlić, her analysis of the implementation of Animal Protection and Welfare Act as well as other issues of protection of animals in Bosnia. As she says: “Euthanasia deals with only the symptoms and not the causes of population problems. It will not lead to population management and must not be relied upon as a sole response.”
A stray dog found in Bratunac.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITIONS:
Demand Investigation into Horror Shelter in Hresa, Bosnia
BOSNIA! IMPLEMENT HUMANE STRAY-DOG AND CAT POPULATION CONTROL AND TREATMENT
Relevant articles from this blog:
Bosnia Killing Dogs – No Different to Romania!
Saving Lucia and the dogs of Foča and Gorazde
BOSNIA! IMPLEMENT HUMANE STRAY-DOG AND CAT POPULATION CONTROL AND TREATMENT
Dog Shelters in Bosnia: A Complex Situation
Horror Camps for Animals in Bosnia
Concentration Camp for Man’s Best Friend
Concentration Camp for Man’s Best Friend PART TWO
Mass Graves Found Near Dog “Shelter”
HRESA “SHELTER”:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Other relevant information, links, websites:
Care2 Petition: Demand Investigation into Horror Shelter in Hresa, Bosnia
Thinktank Policy Brief on the issue of animal welfare in Bosnia Herzegovina November 2012 (PDF)
Making the Link – A study to identify psychological effects of children regularly exposed to uncontrolled community animal abuse and evaluation of efficacy of interventions.
Occupy For Animals
Occupy for Animals – Petitions to the European Union
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DONATIONS
Funds are needed not only to help individual rescues and to help us keep safe the rescued dogs we are sponsoring but also to continue our advocacy work in Bosnia, uncovering the truth about what is happening there.
On our sister site, Animal Welfare Advocates for Bosnia, you can set up a monthly donation via PayPal, or if you want to make a one-off donation, 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 or cause, 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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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.
IN MEMORY OF VUČKO 
Reblogged this on Wolf Is My Soul.
Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog.
Why is this happening, one day soon I would like to fly out there and help these innocent little dogs and cats. Hope there are a lot of animal lovers who can help. These shelters look horrendous.
What is wrong with these people and I use the word loosely calling them people more like monsters that they can treat dogs that way. They have no conscience I wonder that they can see p at night.
On ne peut pas considérer que ces gens soient des êtres humains , je dirais qu’ils sont des monstres. Comment peut on ainsi se comporter envers les animaux de la sorte , il ne faut pas être bien dans la tête .
Je demande que ces monstres soient punis à la hauteur de leur crime .
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or woman for man.
Auschwitz fängt da an, wo einer steht und denkt, es sind ja nur Tiere.
(Theodor W. Adorno)
Es geht nicht darum, ob Tiere denken oder sprechen können. Es geht einzig und allein darum, ob sie leiden können.
Jeremy Benthan
every time i see this it breaks my heart! I would never be able to even imagine hurting anybody or enjoying anything alive suffering. People that support this and hurt Animals have some underlying Psychological issues…people that do not love animals can stand together and help animal right activist win this issue (stand together and fight the government) …doing the right thing not animal lovers will not see them roaming around and Animal Lovers will do their work making sure all rescues and abandon animals find forever homes….Why cant these people learn something from other countries ….it makes me sick thinking of such Monsters that enjoy going around making animals suffer…for whatever we do in life there is ALWAYS A BETTER WAY….MOTHERFUCKERS JUST NEED TO BE OPEN TO CHANGE…BETTER CHANGE!