Well, "a bit" is an understatement. Lupeni has a lot of street dogs -- some of them adorable, clumsy puppies who waddle around the sidewalks to the amusement of people passing by; others the nasty, mangy type with snarling teeth and matted fur who bark aggressively at anyone who enters their territory. The other day, walking home from church in the evening, we counted 32 -- on just the main road on our usual Sunday evening walk. There are hundreds of them, and every year lots of people get bitten. When I was a student in Lupeni in the fall of 2010, my host mom was attacked and bit on her thigh quite seriously. The ensuing rabies shots and other treatment added to the trauma so much that she now carries a tazer with her, just in case.
But! Some of the IMPACT kids in town have decided that this is their next project: to try and contain the problem. They spent time this spring doing hundreds of surveys (which you can read about here), spent the summer slowly processing results, and now are organizing and petitioning local officials to create a shelter and fund a mass sterilization campaign.
And it's working! Slowly but surely, even the notoriously inefficient and corrupt town hall of Lupeni is paying attention. In the last week, some of the IMPACT members and our fellow staff member Gratiela have been interviewed on local television, held a round-table meeting with local officials and wealthy benefactors, and have secured a space to use as an animal shelter. Next comes the cleanup and finding vets (and funding) to do the capture and sterilization campaign, so there's a lot of work left. (Any vets reading this and want to volunteer your services?)
But still. I'm pumped... and so, so proud of them.
Larisa, Gratiela, and Rebeca talk about the IMPACT
street dogs project on local TV.
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