Abandoned puppies on beaches, in the vicinity of churches and monasteries, kittens left around garbage cans, newborns tightly tied in bags so that they would die as soon as possible - these are the images that marked last winter in the metropolis of Montenegrin tourism and which, if not take measures that will prevent this, "decorate" Budva this winter as well, at the time of year most critical for abandoned animals.
Their origins are different. Some have simply been on the street forever. Some are lost, and some, unfortunately, abandoned pets.
In Budva, according to architect Svetlana Novaković, president of the "4 Paws" Society for the Protection of Animals, the streets are mostly full-breed dogs that have a hard time managing. She says people often get an animal "for the kids to play with," and when they realize it's a commitment, especially if they're puppies, who have to be walked every three hours until they're six months old, they bring them to members of "4 Paws" and pantry.
- We also have a large number of abandoned hunting dogs, old and sick, and young dogs that the hunting society says no one wants because they are bad trackers. Budva is a tourist place with a large number of people who rent out apartments and do not want to keep a dog during the main season, because they think that the dog will bother their guests. We have been convinced countless times that the guests of our municipality love dogs and cats, and feed them throughout their stay with us. Those people most often contact us and ask if they can help keep animals off the streets - said Novaković.
Society "4 Paws" was founded a little more than a year ago, but its volunteers were active in rescuing and caring for abandoned dogs and cats even before. They adopted 46 dogs and 20 cats here, and 79 dogs and 12 cats abroad, mostly in Germany.
- Adopters most often choose puppies and male horses, up to six months of age. Although we as an organization are contractually obliged to sterilize or castrate the animal as soon as it turns seven to eight months old, the owners preferred a male - said Novaković, adding that adopters are usually people who have the conditions to keep the animal in the yard.
Society "4 Paws" temporarily places the animals it cares for with volunteers, people of good will, who take care of the animal until it is adopted. Those to whom the animals are given for adoption must meet certain conditions, which are evaluated by the Society's volunteers.
- "4 Paws" volunteers assess whether the future adopter is the right person for the selected animal. The adopter is warned that he must comply with the provisions in the contract, to provide veterinary assistance to the animal in case of illness, to vaccinate it, if it is a dog, to take it out at least twice a day... The prerequisites for the area where the animals will be kept are not specified. Adopters can be both individuals who live alone and families - says Novaković, and adds that families with children or pensioners most often choose dogs, while women more often choose cats as pets.
Some animals cannot find adopters.
- Up until now, we have sterilized, that is, castrated, chipped (or tagged with an ear tag) stray dogs and cats and, since we do not yet have an asylum, we returned them to the street, that is, to the end of the municipality where we picked them up. We managed to send some of the dogs abroad. For many, we no longer know if they are alive - says Novaković.
She explains that the Society, in order to control the cat population, offered free sterilization of females to those who leave kittens in garbage cans, but the requests did not bear fruit.
- They say that "nature will take care of it" or that we are "destroying their sex lives" in this way. That's absurd! The hunting qualities of animals are not lost by sterilization or castration. On the contrary, after this process, the animal has more time to hunt, walk, is healthier and lives longer. Most importantly, there is no more gathering of males around your house, nor aggressive fighting in the pack for supremacy because of the mating female - explains Novaković.
Other municipalities, she said, usually hide from the public the methods of removing stray dogs and cats.
- Every summer there was a hunt for strays in Budva and the hotels called the Podgorica animal care service en masse to take them away. This year, we were amazed by the decision of some people from the hotel "Slovenska plaža" to take care of the dog problem themselves, without a sinter. I don't know how they did it and I don't have any evidence for this claim, but there are no more dogs around the hotel! And not only around that hotel, there are very few dogs anywhere in the municipality of Budva - says Novaković.
- The asylum in Budva is in the final stage and the first tenants should be there before winter - said the president of "4 paws". The shelter will also have a section for housing abandoned cats, which no one in Montenegro has had before. It is located in the hinterland of Petrovac on the Petrovac-Podgorica road, via Paštrovska Gora. The project envisages a shelter with an area of 1800m² with 34 boxes, a facility for a veterinary clinic and an operating area of 60 meters, a quarantine area of 30m² and a facility for housing puppies of 25m².
The area is divided into three units, i.e. yards, so that the dogs are allowed outside the boxes most of the time. The cats will be housed in a special area, on about 120 m² with a wooden house, a gift from Renata Hajman from Germany, with whom "4 Paws" cooperates in the process of adopting animals.
The "4 Paws" society is in contact with the adopters of animals in the country, but the care of the given dogs in Germany, as she said, is handled by their associates who live there. Due to the small number of volunteers, checks on the condition of adopted animals, or the attitude of their owners towards them, are not very frequent.
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