We walk a thin line: balancing sharing the behind the scenes without loosing followers due to gruesome or depressing content. The things you as viewers see are less than a fraction of what our front line volunteers witness.
Many things never get posted. But some moments are so shocking the cameras don't even make it out of our pockets. There are things that are simply burned into our minds, and no amount of story telling can convey them.
Recently, an expose blew up Facebook: a Hungarian government pound and shelter was (is) keeping dogs in horrid conditions. People were shocked to see starving dogs without medical care, unmicrochipped, unaccounted for.
Did you know the government pays a nice sum of money for each dog that the dogcatcher gets off the streets? In certain towns and regions, the rules are followed -- 14 days the dog must be quarantined and cared for, after that advertised for adoption. Legally, the dog can be humanely euthanised after the 14 days holding.
However, in most places, this rule is merely a concept lingering in the air. The reality is, the government doesn't care about what happens to the dogs, from the moment they are taken off the street. The fee is the same whether they are shot in the head, dumped in a gas chamber with other dogs, starved in a kennel or... you know... cared for and adopted out.
Of course, the first options are more logical for a monster who only cares about money. And sadly, the people who get appointed for this job are rarely known for their compassion. There are many stories we can tell that no one ever believes. If we have proof, the dogs suddenly disappear, all traces are cleaned.
The region we work in, has one of these "lovely" dogcatchers. Anyone who is familiar with Hungarian animal welfare gets their stomach in a knot when they hear Heves dogcatcher. When he throws a dog in his truck, we already know they received a death sentence... We work tirelessly around the clock to be faster than him. To have space, resources... to pay a ridiculous amount of money to save the animals he otherwise gets paid money to kill... this is our reality.
We have a long waiting list of animals we hope to rescue. Sadly, more often than not, the dogs disappear. No one cares, no one but us. As long as they are off the street, why would they? They don't pose a problem anymore..
We are glad the expose showed light on some of these atrocities. It is still hard to fully be immersed, to really understand the scale of the problem until you have been there day after day. But this is the first step for people to understand why we do what we do. Why time isn't a joke - why days count. Why every single foster home is a way to save a life.
Sadly, the government is not interested in animal welfare and in this country, politics don't work quite the same as in western Europe. Having a law doesn't mean it's followed, calling the police doesn't guarantee help and sharing evidence can be more harm than good in some cases. And then one is stuck trying to find a solution to make change and save lives.
We work small scale. We save individual lives, but we can't achieve systematic change yet. Each day, a new soul is in need and we are racing against time.
For these animals, our work isn't small - in fact, their entire life changes when we meet. However, on the large scale, the inhumane treatment and mass murder of animals continues in our country and there is no trend or indication of improvement...
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