After 10 years of intense activity, the sterilization center and the small shelter for about 130 dogs and thirty cats closes its doors by the end of February.
The decision came after careful analysis of the project costs, which in this long period has never been able to count on the support of the municipality. The intervention in this town 25 km far from Cernavoda started in 2006 and has come to cost EUR 155,000 per year of current expenses, divided between sheltering costs, sterilizations (about 1,000 a year), personnel and logistics.
The drop in donations in Italy, the progressive increase of the costs (particularly those for the staff imposed by the Government and those for the diagnostics) and the enormous difficulties in recruiting qualified staff led us to radically reconsider our intervention this area.
The closure of the project does not mean the abandoning of the city, but a new working method that will lead us to concentrate the efforts of the mobile clinic in this city, monitoring at best the strays and picking up the sick or injured dogs.
Once fully operational, the new veterinary clinic under construction in Cernavoda will also help the animals of this town, where there are no qualified veterinary services.
The dogs and cats from the facility of Medgidia have been gradually transferred to Footprints of Joy or have already reached their adoptive families abroad, mostly thanks to the extraordinary help of our Swedish partner Hundhjalpen.
The staff (apart from a veterinarian and a vet nurse that have been relocated in Cernavoda) was dismissed with all the guarantees and social security measures provided by the law. The equipment of the center will be transferred to Cernavoda, as well as the chalet of the cattery.
We explained the reasons for our decision to the new City Council and indicated the guidelines for a management plan for stray dogs that we hope may be taken seriously into consideration by the newly elected mayor, without going back to the brutality of the past.
What we ask you is to help us complete the construction work of the clinic in Cernavoda as soon as possible because by doing so you allow us to resume the sterilization and first aid activities also for the animals in this city.