Visiting ADA Sighisoara
ADA Sighişoara is a local organization that aims at protecting animals at local level by creating conditions, shelter and treatments for maltreated, sick, hit or abandoned dogs. It was founded in 2001 and has 20 members. The president of the association is Monica Fernengel, who has managed, with great effort, to develop a shelter for stray dogs.
Our volunteers had a chance to spend an afternoon in the shelter and take dogs for walks and see how the shelter works. They met people who work there and people that work as volunteers. To work in a place like that it’s not enough to love animals, you also need to have a sense of responsibility. It’s not a job that you can take free time off whenever you want to because there are animal lives and well-being at sake.
ADA Sighisoara is also part of a project that gets dogs adopted to Germany which also means that they don’t use euthanasia when there are dogs that nobody wants to adopt. At the moment shelter contains approximately 60 dogs and some cats. But shelter has capacity for 100 dogs. Shelter also has an operation room and quarantine places.
Future plans include building more space outside for dogs and building place for horses which is work in progress.
Romania has had problems with stray animals since 80’s and it’s not something that can be fixed in one day but thanks to people and organizations like this, the problem starts to decrease. So donations of money, food and blankets are very important. Volunteering in animal shelters can be heart breaking but the feeling is rewarding when you see happy wagging tails.
We all felt like adopting every dog that we were walking because they all are so filled with love and so grateful for any human connection. I would advise everyone that wants to get a dog or cat to adopt instead of buying, you would save someone’s life instead of investing in the exploitation of animals.
Article by Daina Laizāne
Photos by Rūta Tīmane
