An infection was eating away at her skin… But not her soul.

Chick was found not far from our shelter. She was extremely dehydrated and full of parasites. Flies were feeding on her bloody, cracked skin caused by repeated biting and scratching. She had chewed through most of her fur, leaving her damaged skin exposed to horrible infections which, sadly, had already begun to consume her from the outside in. The truth is, she looked like a monster, a zombie. Passersby avoided looking at her, probably from disgust or pity. Some did acknowledge her by offering pieces of bread, which she refused to eat…surely from feeling sick.

Chick obviously needed immediate medical treatment to restore her appetite. And that’s when our ROLDA Rescue Team stepped in to help this poor soul. It was like she was heading toward our shelter to beg for help because she could no longer withstand the pain. Chick fought to reach us…she fought for aid…and her commendable strength paid off, because, the moment she found us her life began to change. That’s right…we didn’t find Chick. She found us!

After a couple of medicated baths, Chick began to show positive progress. Her appetite returned. She ate everything we gave her, from doggy biscuits to roasted chicken. In fact, she ate two fully roasted chickens in 10 minutes. It was a pleasure watching her enjoy her meals.

However, Chick’s road to full recovery is a long one. Her skin needs lots of treatment, including injections, antibiotics, and many more medical baths. ROLDA exists to help dogs like Chick to restore them back to health so that they may be eligible to become someone’s best friend.

ROLDA exists because of your amazing and constant support! Donate to ensure that Chick continues to receive her treatment, as well as to help more dogs like her that are still roaming the streets of Romania.

Help us help them!

As you read these lines, please be as generous as you can for thousands of homeless dogs who are suffering.

Please check our Before/After page to see more special cases of dogs who have been rescued from death and are now safe and happy because you care and believe in our work.

ROLDA saves Chick’s skin… Help more Chicks in need…

Choose a certificate that saves lives

The best gift you can give to your special friend is respect.
Surprise your friends with eco-friendly certificates that express your values and commitment to voiceless animals in need.

Hera’s hell: dog found in tar – fighting for her life.

Hera was found on the streets. Her entire body was covered in tar that had matted her fur and even oozed deep to her skin. We can’t imagine the pain she had suffered…well, to be honest, we don’t want to imagine.

From the texture of her fur and skin, we believe Hera had been in this condition for weeks. It’s a miracle that she managed to survive. We had to wash her with oil to remove the tar, dirt, and dead skin before we could begin to treat her with medicated baths and antibiotics. She is in poor health, but our hope is that she will pull through.

Thanks to our veterinarian, Andrei, and our amazing Rescue Team, Hera is making good progress. Her recovery will take some time, but we have faith that she will overcome her tragic past and will be a loving, faithful, and grateful companion to a lucky family one day!

Help us help them!

As you read these lines, please be as generous as you can for thousands of homeless dogs who are suffering.

Please check our Before/After page to see more special cases of dogs who have been rescued from death and are now safe and happy because you care and believe in our work.

Choose a certificate that saves lives

The best gift you can give to your special friend is respect.
Surprise your friends with eco-friendly certificates that express your values and commitment to voiceless animals in need.

Buck’s story

BUCK was rescued from the street after being hit by speeding a car. We were contacted by an individual who had witnessed the horrible collision. Moments later, our Rescue Team arrived at the scene to transport Buck to our clinic. Buck was lying on his side, urinating and shaking uncontrollably as he was being helped. Due to lack of equipment in Galati’s veterinarian clinics, Buck had to be driven to another town to have x-rays taken. We were thrilled to learn that Buck’s injuries were not life-threatening and that he would be able to walk again.

Buck was treated for heartworm from the proceeds of our international heartworm fundraiser; however, we were all terrified that we had diagnosed the fatal disease too late. It was a great relief to learn that Buck was no longer infected with heartworm disease, and was adopted immediately by Sabine from Germany on October 12, 2017.

Help us help them!

As you read these lines, please be as generous as you can for thousands of homeless dogs who are suffering.

Please check our Before/After page to see more special cases of dogs who have been rescued from death and are now safe and happy because you care and believe in our work.

Choose a certificate that saves lives

The best gift you can give to your special friend is respect.
Surprise your friends with eco-friendly certificates that express your values and commitment to voiceless animals in need.

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From waiting to die to willing to live: A stray’s story of revival.

BAR was discovered behind a bush whimpering softly and breathing erratically as if he no longer had the strength or the will to communicate his agony to the world…as if he literally chose this spot to spend his dying days…alone, as if not to disturb the world around him.

Perhaps it was a relief for Bar to be leaving this world. A world that welcomed him, like every stray, with cruelty, loneliness, and injustice. A world that forced him to starve… endure sickness…to suffer unjustified ignorance and torture…basically, a world that treated him unfairly without any reason whatsoever.

Yes, for Bar it was a great relief to be departing such a world. He could no longer walk to find garbage to eat on the streets. He could no longer crawl to look for a drinking water source. He could no longer even search for a reason to keep trying. So, lay behind a bush…waiting for the pain to end.

Help us help them!

As you read these lines, please be as generous as you can for thousands of homeless dogs who are suffering.

Please check our Before/After page to see more special cases of dogs who have been rescued from death and are now safe and happy because you care and believe in our work.

Choose a certificate that saves lives

The best gift you can give to your special friend is respect.
Surprise your friends with eco-friendly certificates that express your values and commitment to voiceless animals in need.

My name is Dana and I live in Caracal, Olt county. For many years, I save cats and I consider that the first step to stop the abandons is to spay/neuter cats. I contacted ROLDA who helped me already cover a large number of sterilizations for cats from Caracal town.

Presently (September 2022), we sterilize in Constantinesti village near Scornicesti (the town where dictator Ceausescu was born). We work with a local vet and all the costs are covered by ROLDA. I choose this village when one of my relatives pointed me that many families living in this village and also in surrounding villages own unsterilized cats that keep multiplying and their kittens were thrown like rubbish.

After we reduce the number of cats there, I would like to continue to sterilize back in Caracal town and after, in each village surrounding it. Why? Because it became like a bad habit that people living in villages to come to town to abandon cats, and kittens, or leave them in the forest or even throw them in the Olt river!

I have dozen of cats at home, all saved from the streets and I wish with all my heart to do many sterilizations which will eventually stop these cruel abandons.

Since then, ROLDA have kindly sponsored the vet bills of a few desperate cases of both cats and dogs each month, and with their help, we managed to do a lot more than we could before.
Just to name a few,

Even if we have laws and Animal Police in Romania, people continue to abandon animals.
Big thanks ROLDA for your generous support.

Starting in September 2021, ROLDA expanded its support to the nearby county, Tulcea. Danube river separates Galati and Tulcea counties (10 minutes by boat, which was the only connection between these two counties before the bridge was built). Tulcea is beautiful and has huge potential because of Delta of Danube, a popular tourist attraction. However, the locals who mostly live in the fishery are largely impoverished.

Poor communities have many problems, and animals are not a priority. Farm animals get more attention because of immediate benefits (eggs, meat, milk etc.). Nonetheless, pets are poorly cared for and get no medical treatment. They freely reproduce, expanding the suffering with innocent babies born to live in misery and neglect.

The volunteers from a local charity (The Great Catsby) primarily help cats but also dogs when possible. Their funds are tight, and the requests are overwhelming. Madalina contacted ROLDA asking for support, and from that moment on, we contributed to support their mission.

Among the things we have achieved together:
● Sterilize dogs and cats.
● Support the local public shelter with canned food.
● Aid for pets from poor communities.
● Treat puppies found abandoned in the local cemetery against parvo.
● Cover medical costs for cats with severe conditions who needed help from specialists, surgery and boarding in Bucharest clinics.

Currently, ROLDA covers care bills ranging from 2000-5000 RON per month for the Tulcea project. Over the following months, we hope to bring our coloring books to the area. We’ll work with local volunteers to distribute it for free in rural areas to help increase awareness of animal welfare among those who need it the most.

Just to name a few,

We are forever grateful to Dana and her team, she always says she wants to be able to do much more, but for us and the animals we are now able to help, this means a lot! We are also very appreciative of the fact they decided to support fellow rescuers in Romania, and thus, animals outside their immediate reach, as this kind of cooperation is unfortunately not so common although so necessary.

We couldn’t have done all of this alone!
Thank you, ROLDA and we hope you’ll be by our side next year too!”

Hugs from us and from our rescued babies,
The Great Catsby team

The law says: Pet Dogs in Romania must be sterilized and microchipped.

Dogs that belong to people must be sterilized, microchipped and registered in a National Registry (database) of dogs owners called RECS. This is a general rule that became effective in 2016.

Dog owners can be fined as much as € 1500 for not obeying the law. That is a lot of money, especially considering that the average monthly income in Romania is € 250. Most of the population barely subsists on this amount. One individual earning € 250 a month struggles to cover the necessary expenses such as rent, utilities, transportation, and food. A married couple with a combined income of € 500 can live comfortably, but if they have kids, that amount of money is not enough. And if they own a pet or two, then they are really in a hole.

So, why would people who are struggling to survive to choose to own pets?

It is essential to understand that low-income and impoverished citizens in Romania do not purchase dogs or cats; they adopt them or rescue them from the streets. These are people who love animals and hate to see them suffer, or they need a dog to protect their property. Either way, this keeps dogs and cats from being homeless, which is excellent!

These kindhearted people take good care of their pets, often making financial sacrifices to keep them fed and healthy, but many people cannot afford the € 26 it costs to sterilize, microchip, and register their dog.
And this is terrible news for the dogs. More dogs are abandoned for fear of Government fines.

ROLDA has always been in favor of sterilizing dogs and cats because it reduces the stray population, which means fewer dogs and cats suffer needlessly. We believe that sterilization is the only humane solution to the stray crisis in Romania and globally; therefore, we agree with the government’s enforcement of the sterilization law.

However, the law has caused an increase in stray dogs because owners are abandoning them to avoid paying for the € 26 for sterilization and do not want to risk being fined € 1500. Most people in Romania sadly cannot afford the € 26.

Our solution

To prevent abandonments provoked by financial reasons, ROLDA started a campaign to help low-income and impoverished pet owners sterilize, microchip, and register their dogs and cats.

Thanks to our amazing supporters, ROLDA helps hundreds of people in our community with these costs each year.

Bobi and Fetita are two dogs whose impoverished owners reached out to ROLDA for help with covering the costs of their procedures. Before Fetita was spayed, she had given birth to a litter of puppies who, sadly, all died from distemper. Her owners did not have the money to pay for their vaccinations.

Vlad and his parents contacted us when their dog, Heart, was getting sick. Heart was losing her appetite, which led to unhealthy weight loss, and she was also losing her fur and developed sores all over her body. Vlad and his parents were worried that Heart was going to die. They did not own a car to take Heart to the vet, and they did not want to risk taking her on public transportation because she was too sick. So, we gladly went to pick up Heart to take her to the vet.

ROLDA’s Community Pets Campaign continues to provide Heart’s food, as well as the food for hundreds of pets in our community. Our campaign gives pets with impoverished owners the opportunity to have access to quality food and emergency treatments.

We are proud to help the citizens in our community keep their pets healthy, and we are determined to continue providing them with food, medicine, sterilization, microchipping, and registration.

They need OUR help

Please donate to help impoverished pet owners in Romania keep their pets healthy and safe.

Every penny raised provides pets in impoverished communities with emergency food supplies and essential care like vaccinations, medications, and aid supplies.

Våra ROLDA hundgårdar finns i Galati, en industriregion i östra Rumänien. Beståndet av hundar har växt okontrollerat här både beroende på att folk övergav denna del av landet och på grund av att man förflyttade hundar hit!

Så småningom blev dessa hemlösa hundar ett problem för både invånarna och industrierna i Galati. Man ansåg att de var ett hot mot hälsa och säkerhet! Den rumänska regeringen bestämde slutligen att de skulle lösa detta problem genom…

ATT FÅNGA OCH SLAKTA ALLA HEMLÖSA HUNDAR!!!

Är detta ett bra sätt att lösa ett problem på? Deras förklaring är: HUNDAR UTAN HEM SKA INTE LEVA……. SÅ DÖDA DEM!!!! Håller du med om detta? Vill du hjälpa till?
JA! Jag tycker att hundar utan hem förtjänar att leva!

När du adopterar, sponsrar, donerar, skickar en gåva eller arbetar som volontär så visar du att hemlösa hundar förtjänar att leva. Så klart de förtjänar det! De har inte valt att bli hemlösa eller att vara ett problem. Varje dag måste de leta efter mat och en varm plats att sova på. Ändå väljer folk att se dem som störande och som hot.
Detta är inte RÄTT!

ArcelorMittal är världens största stålproducent och i Galati har de en yta på 1600 hektar. De är en av våra största sponsorer. De stöttar oss med sina egna pengar för att hjälpa och rädda hundarna! De tror på vårt arbete! Gör du det?

Jag stöttar ROLDA och ArcelorMittal i deras kamp för att rädda hemlösa hundar!

ArcelorMittal kunde ha valt att följa den rumänska lagen och dödat de hundar som kommer in på deras område, MEN ISTÄLLET VÄLJER DE ATT RÄDDA DEM!! Tack vare ArcelorMittal så byggdes ROLDAS moderna hundgård och klinik som skyddar många hundar från svält, sjukdomar, försummelse, våld, tortyr och död.

PÅ vår klinik och hundgård kan vi ge våra hundar skötsel och vård av hög kvalitet så att de är friska och i trygghet tills de blir adopterade av kärleksfulla hem. ArcelorMittal har gjort vad de kan göra och vi behöver nu DITT stöd och hjälp för att fortsätta vårt arbete med att driva våra hundgårdar och vår klinik. Utan din hjälp kan vi inte driva detta och de hundar vi räddar kan inte få den omsorg de behöver och förtjänar!

Om du bor i Sverige var snäll och använd bankgiro nr. 573-0502 och hjälp oss att hjälpa hundarna! Alla bidrag är välkomna! Stora som små!!!!

Om en så stor stålproducent som ArcelorMittal tycker att hundarna förtjänar att leva, borde inte du också göra det?
JAG TYCKER ATT HEMLÖSA HUNDAR FÖRTJÄNAR ATT LEVA!
Vad tycker dina vänner och din familj?

People who exploit animals for profit, or any other reason, believe that humans have the right to use animals as they please. Animal exploitation is animal cruelty.

Circuses, zoos, marine parks, and similar venues exploit animals to entertain audiences who pay to see animals perform. Seeing a bear dance or a seal clap looks like a “neat” experience, but it comes at a cost to the animal’s health and freedom. Most people are unaware of the brutal conditions animals endure behind the scenes, such as being forced into submission, being kept in tiny cages, and being denied socialization with other members of their species.

Roughly 96 percent of circus animals spend their lives in a cage, and are trained with barbaric instruments like electric prods, whips, bullhooks and chains. Some trainers even starve their animals to get better results. The sad fact is that people continue to ignore the inhumane aspects of these animal attractions because they believe that people who work with animals are responsible individuals who respect and love animals.

Of course, many of them do, but the fact remains that animals do not belong in circuses, zoos, or marine parks.

Even zoos, which are often praised for their conservation efforts, have been rife with animal cruelty. Animal abuse in zoos can take many forms, from starving animals to sending them to livestock options. And when a crisis occurs, like the COVID-19 pandemic, zoo animals are left to die from a lack of resources because they are not considered a priority.

In Romania, animals such as wolves, snakes, bears, monkeys, and lions are illegally owned by individuals for hobby and profit. The most common attraction is a guesthouse where people, mostly tourists, can stay in an accommodation where an exotic animal is tied up in their backyard. There are also many places, often illegal, that offer pictures with captive animals such as deer and bears.

These attractions involving captive animals are part of wildlife tourism. Wildlife tourism exploits animals from birth until they are either euthanized or abandoned once they are no longer considered “valuable” by their owners. These animals endure years of suffering at their owners’ hands who use cruel training methods to teach them to perform for tourists.

Like wildlife trafficking, wildlife tourism can only be eradicated if there is no demand to see animals perform. ROLDA advocates for the closure of these tourist attractions and the relocation of captive animals. We have created petitions urging the ANSVSA and the Garda de Mediu (National Environmental Guard) inspectors to shut down all illegal wildlife tourism operations across Romania immediately.