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Staff projects

FOOTPRINTS OF JOY – ROMANIA

Adriana Susmă

Adriana Susmă

General Director

Adriana’s professional career started 10 years ago with a Junior Project Manager role as volunteer in an NGO focused on human rights and youth educational programs. After this, she chose to be actively involved in several projects as a volunteer by coordinating and managing various teams from 5 to 100 people in different contexts and countries.

In parallel, Adriana gained more skills by working in the corporate environment for around 5 years, where she specialised in high levels of customer service and project management. At the moment she is following the Intercultural Management Master Program at the University of Bucharest working on a thesis about women in leadership.

One of the happiest moments of her life was 12 years ago when she finally adopted her first cat, as this was one of her childhood dreams. Currently Adriana declares herself the proud mom of 3 cats and 1 dog (and probably more to come), all saved from the streets.

Gea Gamboni

Gea Gamboni

Dog training Coordinator

Gea lives in a valley in the Ticino Canton (Switzerland) with four dogs, three horses and a cat.

Dog educator and instructor SIUA, she co-manages a dog education school with a zoo-anthropological cognitive approach in Northern Italy. Since 2017 she has been collaborating with our organization by going regularly to Romania to support local staff in the behavioral assessment, education and rehabilitation of dogs, with the aim of increasing their adoptability index and the quality of life within the facility. In addition, Gea studies Environmental and Nature Sciences at the University of Insubria (Italy).

TOO MANY PUPPIES – ITALY

Alessandra Farina

Alessandra Farina

Project Manager Too Many Puppies – cat specialist

Alessandra has a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Pavia and graduated from the Master’s Degree Program in Pet Ethology at the University of Pisa.

Her great love for animals led her to further her studies of cat behavior and ethology. She is a specialist in ethology applied to felines, with a cognitive zooanthropological approach.

In England, Alessandra has also carried out research on subjects related to “Shelter Metrics” and the welfare of cats in rehoming centers, with particular emphasis on the study of management choices that respect the behavioral spectrum of different cats and the various elements that can improve feline quality of life, alleviating the stress experienced in shelters, catteries and sanctuaries.

She is an expert in implementing sterilization strategies (TNR) for the management of community and colony cat population, in accordance with the international principles of “Humane cat population management”.

After 7 years as coordinator of the activities of the international adoption department, while also managing the welfare of the animals (dogs and cats) housed in the shelter and clinic in Romania, Alessandra has been in charge of the department combating feline strays as part of the Too Many Puppies project since 2023.

THE ‘FRIENDS ON THE STREETS, COMPANIONS FOR LIFE’ PROJECT – ITALY

Ermanno Giudici

Ermanno Giudici

Project Coordinator in charge of liaising with all the institutions

Ermanno has been the manager of one of the most important head offices of an animal protection organization for many years and has also been the leader of a team of animal welfare supervisors.

He works as a consultant for the police department on issues related to the prevention of maltreatment, as well as conducting seminars and training courses for veterinarians concerning regulatory issues.
He is an accredited trainer for the “Regione Lombardia” Lombardy region on the website platform of PoliS-Lombardia (the Regional Institute for Policy Support in Lombardy).

The author of a number of books about animal rights, Ermanno created and manages the ilpattotradito.it blog, where he publishes articles about the environment and animal protection. He collaborates with various newspapers and magazines and has contributed to the drafting of legal texts for law enforcement agencies and television investigations.

He became a consultant for Save the Dogs at the beginning of 2022 in the position of Project Coordinator, and is in charge of liaising with all the institutions that are involved in the “Friends on the streets, companions for life” project.

Sofie

Sofie

Animal welfare officer and Street Unit Coordinator

Graduating in Social Sciences for Globalization, Sofie went on to earn an initial Master’s Degree in ethology and dog education at a spin-off of the University of Padua, followed by a secondary Masters in Project Management at 24ore Business School. Sofie was 13 when she first started volunteering at a rescue shelter, and her love for animals in various forms has remained a passion ever since. She lives in Milan, where she coordinates the street unit of the “Friends on the Streets, Companions for Life” project in a supervisory role, also working long-distance on the outreach Romanian program and tracking part of the data collated. She travels to Romania every month, where she spends part of her time acting as dog educator for residents at the Save the dogs center, while also helping with some of the activities carried out in Cernavoda.