Finding a home for a dog, taking care of someone, because they are hurt, someone is lost... Every morning Marta Darmanović from Podgorica receives a similar message.
"My day starts with checking messages in groups with volunteers. There is always something new - either a request for a home for a dog, or someone has become homeless, or a dog has been injured or lost, or we are called for some intervention. The first coffee goes with the invitation Trotters, who first visits the shelter early in the morning, to check if all the dogs are alive and well. It rarely happens that there isn't at least one bad news, so the brainstorming about what to do next starts early in the morning," she tells "Vijesti".
Darmanović is an activist for animal protection and one of those who contribute on a daily basis completely voluntarily. When she checks the messages in the morning and hears about the news from the shelter for abandoned animals in Podgorica in the morning, she throws herself into the administration - sends letters to the authorities, prepares the next performance, fills out applications... and then goes to the shelter herself:
"I visit all 170 boxes, check the health and mood of the dogs - any change can indicate a problem. Something always comes up, so I quickly connect with the other volunteers to organize a plan and notify the vets. Then I measure and weigh the dogs we send to potential adopters, I make photos and content for the shelter's social networks," she says.
Caring for abandoned animals on the streets of the capital does not stop there either. With other volunteers, she then figures out how to house the dogs, because the boxes at the shelter, she says, are always full.
"We are considering joining dogs, boarding, more intensive campaigns on adoption networks, would they not go faster, that new ones come, that we remove them from the streets, where life is very cruel for them. In the afternoon, I return home, edit and upload the material to the networks. I spend time with my animals, both mine and those who are with me until adoption, rescued from the street (four dogs and four cats). Then I go to the asylum again during the visit, in order to meet with potential adopters".
If he is not at home or in a shelter, he will surely run into a dog on the street that needs intervention:
"I stop the car immediately and if I can, I take the dog. If a dog is in a really bad condition, we look for an urgent alternative solution, because such dogs are immediately put to sleep in the shelter. Then we quickly improvise - we find temporary boarding houses and means for treatment and tests. Sometimes it works, much more often it doesn't, and then there is great panic and sadness".
It is no different if it is a puppy, because young dogs, due to the risk of possible infection, cannot be placed in a shelter:
"I take him, then the fuss, the race, the hysteria starts, we look for options where and how to place him, this is always the hardest thing to find".
In addition to taking care of those in the shelter and on the streets of Podgorica, volunteers, including Marta, always take care of several dogs in boarding houses, which are on different sides of the city. Some visit occasionally when they arrive, and these days Marta visits one every day to feed him and give him therapy.
The end of the day is no calmer than the beginning:
"We are available 24 hours a day, because everyone calls us about animals. They often contact me even after midnight, they find a beaten dog, they have neither funds nor accommodation for it. I get out of bed, take the dog and take it to the vet or home, wherever I can put it...".
The days he describes are more or less everyday for other volunteers, including Milica Đikanović i Kristina Ćetković, from NGO Ruka-šapi and NGO Spas, from Podgorica.
What they have been living and seeing every day for years, they, in cooperation with activists from other cities, transferred to the streets, where from October 4 they organized several performances, and to the competent institutions - the Ministry of Agriculture and the Minister Vladimir Joković, the Municipal Police of the Capital City, the Directorate for Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Affairs (UBHV), pointing out key problems, sent several initiatives.
So far, they say to "Vijesti", they have only received specific answers from the Podgorica Communal Police:
"The day after the performance. Director of UBHV (Vladimir Djakovic, prim. nov.) addressed us during the performance and invited us to a meeting after it, but we agreed to schedule the meeting formally and we hope to sit down and talk about this topic soon. As for the relevant ministry, we have not yet received any answers from them, nor an invitation to a meeting".
In their response to "Vijesta" on November 11, the Ministry said that it was agreed "to organize a meeting this week".
"And we talk very openly about all the problems, as well as the steps we have already taken on the subject of the questions they asked, before the actual adoption of the initiative", they state in the answer.
They also added that the procedure for hiring new veterinary inspectors is underway, and that in the coming period they will strengthen the supervision of that area.
Transfer of jurisdiction, minimum penalties
Anyone who has ever communicated with authorities in connection with animal protection has at least once come across a situation in which institutions transfer authority to one another. According to the interlocutors of "Vijesti", this is one of the key problems in the field of animal protection. They explain that much, in terms of jurisdiction, is not explicitly defined in the regulations. For this reason, as they said, the umbrella Act on the Protection of Animal Welfare should be changed.
As another problem, they state that there are still no shelters in all municipalities, nor have local action plans been defined. They say that even where they exist, there is no supervision of the work of shelters, both those founded by the local self-government and private ones as well.
"And what is the biggest problem of all: the lack of adequate and timely supervision of the conditions in which the owner's dogs live and the insufficient punishment of the perpetrators of cases of torture and abuse of animals".
They also have objections to the work of the courts, which, they add, award minimum sentences:
"Which ultimately resulted in abusers not being afraid of punishment and being punished, but in some way stimulated and empowered to continue doing the same."
NGOs are not an address for everyone
The interlocutors of "Vijesti" do not give high marks for the attitude of citizens and local communities towards animal protection, nor for their engagement in order to solve the identified problems.
"Unfortunately, the majority of citizens expect non-governmental organizations, in which the majority of people save animals exclusively on a volunteer basis, to take all actions - from care, punishment, education... When citizens understand that the attitude towards animals is an indicator of the attitude towards the vulnerable , and in relation to that they take the actions that are in their power, then we will be able to hope that we will progress as a society".
They agree, they add, with the director of the UBHV, that the situation on the ground is an indicator of the current awareness and attitude towards animals.
"And that situation is devastating and catastrophic. Finally, honor to the exceptions, who make superhuman efforts almost every day to help at least one animal".
And the forms of violence that activists encounter in the field also speak of the attitude of individuals towards animals in Montenegro:
“Abandonment and neglect, being left without food, water and shelter, being kept in poor conditions such as small cages or a short chain and never being released from it. Physical abuse including beatings, torture, cutting a chain around the neck, hanging, tying to motor vehicles, wounding and killing with firearms, poisoning. Then the fights of dogs and other animals”.
The list does not end there:
"Exploitation of animals in work - horses are still used as drafts loaded to pull loads beyond the limits of endurance. Lack of veterinary care and vaccination and neglect of the animal's health until it dies of carelessness and neglected disease. In essence, this issue is not for us, but for the institutions that deal with this, starting from local institutions, through departmental administrations and ministries, all the way to the courts and the prosecutor's office."
They also have a bad experience with the competent inspections and claim that, after contacting the veterinary and communal inspectors, they receive an answer rarely or only after a long time. And even when they get an answer, it is not concrete:
"When a response is received, it is usually that the monitoring could not be carried out for some reason or that the owner was warned. That means, without concrete punishment or confiscation of animals".
Some conversation and silence
When asked about the relations between authorities in terms of animal protection, "Vijesti" interlocutors cite the Protection and Rescue Service, i.e. firefighters, as an example of good management and behavior:
"Who, without exception, respond to the calls of volunteers and citizens to go to the field to remove a cat from a tree or pull out a stuck dog".
They said that, compared to the total number of letters and initiatives sent by activists to the authorities, only a few were accepted.
"The veterinary inspection came out following a report to monitor the shelter in Podgorica due to the death of hundreds of puppies from parvovirus and ordered the shelter to accept puppies to be closed until a quarantine solution is found. It's a huge success, because it's been happening for decades, and no one has done anything about it."
They also add that the capital city of Podgorica and "Čistoća", whose jurisdiction is the Podgorica shelter for abandoned animals, accepted the volunteer's proposal to build yards in front of the dog pits, so that they could go out into as free a fenced area as possible and stay there until adoption.
"While we were denied an explanation from them as to why they are all still responsible for the deaths of puppies in the shelter in the same positions, with complete impunity".
As the interlocutors of "Vijesti" said, they never received any response to the letters they sent to the municipalities of Tuzi, Berane and Ulcinj regarding the animals.
"This question should also be answered by the competent institutions, because they have the proposal of all the submitted initiatives. Unfortunately, our experience is that after the conversation, nothing is done and resolved".
From the Government, to the Government...
A group of organizations sent an initiative with several requests to the Government Zdravka Krivokapića, then repeated to the Government Dritan Abazović. "No one answered. This time we will send the initiative to the current Government, as well as the Parliament and the President of Montenegro, so we will see how ready and really they want to deal with this problem. Some of these demands will be: a reduction in taxes on veterinary services, a larger budget for awareness-raising projects and the promotion of responsible ownership, campaigns to encourage adoption, campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of vaccination and sterilization of pets, changes to existing legal solutions and the like, supervision of shelters, transparency of the work of shelters, mandatory websites for advertising dogs from shelters...".
The Community of NGOs for Animal Protection organized the first performance on October 4, the International Day of Animal Protection. In the meantime, they organized five such events ending on November 17, and the final one is planned for December 10, the International Animal Rights Day.
After the initiatives sent to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, UBHV and the Municipal Police of the Capital City, among others, the initiatives will also be sent to the courts, the prosecutor's office...
"Thus, we will complete the story and have all the necessary documentation, addresses, all answers, as well as silence. Next year we will start either with meetings or real protests, not peaceful performances, which will depend on the response of the institutions and willingness to cooperate".
Shelters "necessary evil"
Shelters for abandoned and homeless animals are not a solution and they are a necessary evil, say "Vijesti" interlocutors.
"As they become a current topic, citizens start calling shelters to 'pick up' homeless animals. Shelters are only temporary solutions through which animals, in this case, dogs, only need to stay within the 'catch, sterilize, release' program. Local authorities should understand that it is up to them to educate the local population that homeless dogs are part of the 'image' of cities and to encourage empathy among fellow citizens to start taking care of animals together".
Currently, they add, street animals do not enjoy any protection, they do not have food provided, shelter from weather conditions...
"In a situation where dogs bother a certain number of citizens, and those citizens can poison or shoot them and get away with it, shelters are, unfortunately, a necessary evil," said the Community of NGOs for Animal Protection.
They also add that the shelters could function as boarding houses, where the dogs would stay until they are adopted or until they return to the streets. For this to be the case, they say that it is necessary to monitor their work, as well as for shelters to have websites, through which the dogs in them would be transparently advertised, in order to find a home for them.
The conditions in the shelters in Montenegro are not the same everywhere, they say:
"The Podgorica shelter has 170 boxes and good conditions, if we exclude the bad organization around the virus. Barsko let's say only 10, but big ones, and they accommodate several dogs together. Beransko about 40, and there are never employees in the workplace".
Although they cite the Podgorica shelter as a good example in Montenegro, they also add that 50 euros per year are allocated from the capital city's budget for its work, and that the shelter in Zagreb "has half a million euros per year"...
Foreigners outraged by the treatment of animals
Swiss Kurt Amsler launched an electronic petition this summer with a letter of protest, in which, among other things, he stated that foreigners visiting Montenegro are outraged by the treatment of animals.
"No country that wants and needs to promote tourism wants a negative 'public'," he said.
The interlocutors of "Vijesti" say that Amsler only confirmed what they have known for a long time - that the images of dogs and cats that were abandoned, beaten, drowned, run over, poisoned, tortured, separated from their mothers at birth, thrown in tied bags in containers, sick on the streets or chains, "absolute everyday life in absolutely all cities in Montenegro".
Amsler addressed the petition to the Montenegrin president and prime minister, as well as former and current ministers of European integration and tourism. The petition has over 10.000 signatures.
Abandonment and neglect, being deprived of food, water and shelter, being kept in poor conditions, such as small cages or a short chain and never being let off the chain. Physical abuse that includes beatings, torture, cutting a chain around the neck, hanging, tying to motor vehicles, wounding and killing with firearms, poisoning... these are just some of the forms of violence against animals that volunteers find in the field.
Bonus video:
