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With a population of some thousands of dogs, from which many were unsterilized, decreasing the number of strays is a challenge.
Challenges
Huge area to cover
Uncontrolled number of stray dogs
Dogs migration to new territory
How did ROLDA do it?
Catch
Sterilize
Rehabilitate
Shelter
International Adoptions
Where the strays were coming from?
Untamed dogs born on the streets or living in the industrial areas, hiding under dump building and ruins, which offers limited possibilities to access these areas and catch them;
Puppies born unwanted into a family who decide to dispose of them, abandoning them to die or be saved by animal lovers, charities etc
The abandonment of dogs owned by people who dispose them on the edge of town, or in the nearby villages;
A new generation of puppies born homeless, every season;
Existent adult dogs roaming in town, some unsterilised;
Galati has one of the largest strays population from Romania
Galati is the 5th largest town in Romania and also a major industrial city because it hosts the largest steel plant from Europe, which itself is the size of a small town itself, spread over 1600 hectares!
This huge surface, partially used for storage and partially for operational buildings and offices, was the home of approximately 10000 strays who migrated from the city of Galati, in search of a new territory or strays who were born there, on the industrial plant. The packs of dogs were concentrated in the areas where workers offered them food or where they could find scraps. From this huge number of strays, some became territorial and started attacking and even biting clients and workers.
In 2006, the situation was out of control. The dogs were at risk of being captured and killed using very inhumane methods. This was when ROLDA stepped in and bravely offered to humanely solve (no kill) this massive problem.
To solve this giant problem, ROLDA built a large shelter from scratch with a capacity to welcome 700 dogs. But building a shelter is not enough if it is not properly maintained.
Until 2017, when our shelters were full to capacity, ROLDA also sterilised and returned dogs to their territory. However the law changed and it is now illegal to catch, sterilise and return stray dogs.
The ROLDA team enforced:
A humane catching policy (most of the dogs have been captured with bare hands, limiting stress as much as possible and when this wasn’t possible, our team used catching poles and a tranquillising gun, approved in EU for this type of activity)
Responsible management of the
shelters (including strict rules for
diseases control management)
A rehoming policy in collaboration
with reliable international partners
which helped maximize our efforts
to find every dog a perfect home.
Case study for 10.000 strays duration: 6 years
70% of the dogs entering our shelter needed rehabilitation because they were wild, traumatized and afraid of humans. 30% of them were re-homed successfully.
At the end of the collaboration, 1000 dogs remained alone or in packs, on the 1600 hectares that belongs to the steel tycoon.
From these 1000, approx 200 were un-sterilized.
The initial estimations, as well as estimative numbers at the end of the collaboration were provided management of the steel plant.
During 6 years of collaboration, the number of dogs captured, sterilized & returned to territory was recorded daily while the number of dogs adopted was reported monthly on official papers signed by ROLDA and the steel plant representatives.
Our promise is that we never put down a healthy dog. And we always keep our promises! Using humane methods, a minimal budget and well thought through logistics, alongside passion, hard work and the unwavering dedication of our small team, ROLDA helped prove that nothing is impossible.
