May | 2017 | IN MEMORY OF VUČKO

WARNING! GRAPHIC IMAGES

This morning Sarajevo rescuer Edina Pasic (Andjeo Sarajevo) received a call reporting a tortured dog in Ilijas, Sarajevo, who also had 4 puppies. Someone had knotted a wire around the dog’s neck, so deeply the dog could barely breathe or eat and its face was horrifically swollen.

Thousands of people on a busy street must have seen her and done nothing. The woman who sent Edina the photos cried like baby… of course Edina could not say no, she went to save the dog, to bring her to a vet.

She searched for the dogs puppies, but they could not be found.

This is the third dog we’ve seen with wire deliberately tied around the neck, an act of unimaginable cruelty. There was Fidel, and Faith, both rescued by Edina Pasic. Both are doing well now, but after a very long journey of physical and emotional healing.

Edina called the dog Felicity, which means Happiness. We hope she can be happy one day. Will she ever trust people again?

She underwent surgery immediately.

Edina wrote: “The wire wasn’t just tied around her neck, but it penetrated through the skin and was tied at the end. How someone did this and how heartless could have they been, I don’t know. Her entire head was swollen and there was a massive haemorrhage bellow her neck. The vet says it must have been like this for at least 15 days. They said that in this condition she would have survived for 2 days maximum. She is only 17kg and she should have been at least 30kg. She is just skin and bones, my soul is hurting over her. Sadly I couldn’t find her babies, but I will go back for them. I hope they didn’t die on the high traffic street because the lady that is there hasn’t seen them for 2 says. This is a horror and such abuse on a helpless little thing and it never ends… Every day something new and it just makes you crazy.”

Sweet Felicity is shy but she let Edina touch her, she didn’t try to bite, she didn’t growl. She knew she was being taken to safety, she knew she was going to be helped.

Edina waited at the veterinary practice while Felicity had her operation, and it was successful. This poor girl has just woken up as I write this. She will need time and a lot of care before we know if she is entirely recovered. What a brave, special girl she is.

Edina wrote: “She is so gentle and good that I can’t express how sorry I am for the betrayal she experienced by humans, how sorry I am that she believed wrong people … The operation was long and very complicated because her skin thickened (because of the wire around her neck) … I was with her ll the time I can tell you she is already big part of my heart and soul…She will stay at clinic some days..”Edina needs your help. There are veterinary costs, and pension costs, and for her puppies too if they can be found. And most importantly, Felicity needs a home. Please contact Edina via her Facebook page if you can offer her a home. And if you can donate that would be great.

You can donate directly to Edina via Paypal at andjeosarajevo@gmail.com but be sure to mark for ‘Felicity’. Or you can donate via AWABosnia at donations@awabosnia.org – again mark for ‘Felicity’.

Please share this blog, we must tell the world what terrible things are happening to the strays of Bosnia. Reports of animal cruelty are amongst the highest of all countries. This abuse must stop, and we must help these poor animals and show them that not all people are tortures.

And again, please show your support for Edina, please go to her Facebook Page

UPDATE May 29: Felicity is doing well! What a sweetheart.

UPDATE November 2017: Felicity is happy in her home in Germany!

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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.

Dalida Kozlic L.L.B, lawyer and activist writes:

At this moment, I am writing and collecting evidence for ten criminal reports against animal abusers and killers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Half of these criminal reports are against hunters and hunting organisations that have killed stray animals in different areas of Bosnia in the past few months.

Hunters have always been involved in illegal massacres of stray animals, particularly because the hunting lobby is extremely powerful in Bosnia and hunting organisations have always received money for for killing dogs. The reason for this is hidden by the fact that many politicians are members of different hunting organisations.

Before the legislation of the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals in 2009, organised groups of hunters had killed stray dogs in all cities in the country, even in the middle of the day. It was illegal, but no one wanted to investigate and punish hunters because they received money from the Bosnian municipalities for those atrocities.

The Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals of Bosnia and Herzegovina was legislated and entered into force by Parliamentary Assembly in 2009. Also, torturing and killing animals is a criminal offence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This Act strictly prohibits killing of stray animals except for five very specific veterinary reasons and according to this Act, it is allowed to kill a stray animal in hunting areas only if all other legal possibilities of catching that animal have failed and that particular animal or pack of stray animals presents a real danger for wild animals.

The Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a lex specialis (the main legislation) in the field of treating animals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Act, as well as related by-laws, are the main legal framework for all other laws and by-laws that are legislated by the legislative authorities at any level of organization of authority in Bosnia and Herzegovina. What this means is that the laws regarding hunting must be in accordance with the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A legal basis is one thing; however illegal practice is a completely different thing in this country.

Prior to 2009, members of hunting organisations killed stray animals in urban and rural areas in broad daylight and they cut the tail of every corpse to prove what they had done to get money for their crimes. Municipalities paid a great deal of money for this illegal and monstrous “work“. After 2009 when the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals was entered into force. hunters started killing stray animal secretly. In the most cases employees of utility companies that are owned by different municipalities catch stray animals and take them to hunting areas in forests, while the hunters wait for these animals to kill them. Since all hunting organisations are partly financed by municipalities, they just get more money for breaking the laws.

In rural areas killing stray animals is not so secret and hidden, mostly because people in villages generally support the killing of stray animals and they themselves even possess illegal hunting weapons.

Police and prosecutors as well as veterinary and hunting inspectors are obliged to investigate and stop these crimes, as with cases of illegal dog catchers, corruption and political involvement stop implementation of the law.

In my practice I have had many of cases of illegal killing of stray animals by hunters. I was even a victim of a shooting in the centre of Breza in 2004.

One of the most horrendous cases happened in 2008 when my dad and I stopped a car that was driven by hunters and found in the car six alive dogs and one dead dog. They were driving dogs to be killed somewhere in a rural area. (Warning graphic pictures).

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Such atrocities still occur but not so publicly. It is impossible to comprehend what groups of psychopaths with guns will do to innocent animals. What I have seen in ditches and secret mass graves is impossible to describe.

We must not only stop the ‘work’ of the dog catchers, we must stop the hunters from their notorious work. This aspect of protection of animals is equally important for animals in Bosnia.

Being chased and shot at by a psychopath who thinks he is a powerful because he has a licence to possess a gun is one of the worst and most painful things I have ever seen and a campaign against this cruel practice must begin.

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IN MEMORY OF VUČKO

raising awareness and funds to stop animal suffering in Sarajevo and Bosnia-Herzegovina

Monthly Archives: May 2017

Saving Felicity – dog tortured with wire in Sarajevo

Hunters – the most notorious killers of stray animals in Bosnia Herzegovina