News

On a regular basis newsletters will be send, you can give your address by emailing us through info@hondenopvang.com. Old versions you can find below:

Newsletter 2009-12	Newsletter 2010-01	Newsletter 2010-03	Newsletter 2010-04
Newsletter 2010-05

Stil working on translation!

26-07-2010 Kinofil

Last Sunday the new Bosnian documentary Kinofil '(dog lover) had its premiere at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

The film, produced by Damir Nemir Janecek, shows how dogs in Sarajevo and throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina were killed in a gruesome way over the past 15 years. Damir explains in an interview with Radio Sarajevo 90.2 that the main motivation for making this film comes from his childhood experiences. How he, as a child, was forced to put street dog to sleep because his father did not want a dog, witnessed with his own eyes young people throwing a pregnant dog in the river and his friends pulled the legs of frogs and put them on fire.

The film does not only want to show these crimes. It is primarily a film about people who have no respect for other living beings. For this young film producer and writer from Sarajevo the dog is just the symbol of goodness, sincerity and friendship.

"A dog has no religion and no nation. If we are too scared to come face to face with our problems, we forget joining each other in Bosnia. We do not expect from the Serbs to apologize to the Muslims, or the Muslims to the Croats, or anyone else to whoever. By law, we think that the problems are resolved, but the story on dogs does not attract voters, because there is no interest involved. But just when it comes to measures that Bosnia has taken for the welfare of dogs, it fails the test of humanity. "The conduct of officials of mass murder finance, and the citizens that participate is therefore confronting projected on the screen. There is a fragment where hunters kill stray dogs with heavy pipes right in front of small children.

Simultaneously it is also a film about a few brave citizens who raise these misdeeds and show their willingness to fight for a better dog policy. "In difficult times, one recognizes the hero '(Na muci se poznaju junaci) was for a reason the opening sentence of this impressive documentary.

We hope that this film make even more people aware of the misdeeds!

19-07-2010

How time flies, of course we will update the site regularly, but not always the newspage.

We are already busy preparing for the September trip. We plan to do sterilizations in Orašje and Zenica, and we will have the educational project in Zenica, next to that we will visit some locations who have asked our help.

We will continue helping in the shelter of Orašje the entire week. At present there are 163 dogs, and there are two females which are pregnant. So by the time we are there it will soon add up to 175 dogs. The shelter is becoming packed, and what do you do against it? We support them in any case, we pay for all possible care, we can use all help we can get, because with the increase of the number of dogs, the costs are increasing also. If you would like to help Orašje, let us know by info@hondenopvang.com.

In Zenica, they meanwhile continued to organize small sterilization campaigns. Last weekend, Harris has been there for two days, it was terribly hot, and that makes it hard to work for him and the volunteers. But despite the heat they sterilized 20 dogs and 5 cats. Superperformance!

We will keep you informed on all developments!

13/05/2010 Bihac

22.20 Update: Today 13 dogs were sterilized. Photos will follow tomorrow!

Today Spas started a sterilization campaign in Bihac.
Spas, the organization of Elvira, has organized this on their own in cooperation with the municipality. A giant step in the right direction. We are so proud of Elvira!

We just got a message, at 10.25, that already four dogs are sterilized. That's insane.
We cannot help Elvira much at the moment, so we just gave her the benches that collected at the beginning of this year. The benches will remain in Bosnia for use in sterilization projects. And also Spas can use the educational booklets to educate children who come to the information stands.

We hope that the four-day project will be successful for people, but even more for the animals! We will keep you informed on the progress!

09/05/2010

There is a lot going on at the moment in Bosnia, and when there is so much happening, you really would like to hop in your car and leave for Bosnia... ..

In Zenica, a small war is going on between animal protectors and a small group of animal haters, and of course the animals in this conflict, are the main victim. There have been reports of severe abuse, and there will be measures taken to make people stop this madness. We'll spare you the details, because it's too horrible.

In addition to that there is a virus, some dogs already deceased, many receive medication and care. But with street dogs, it makes it difficult to treat them well. There are insufficient local foster families who have space for a dog that is in need of care. We support Jelena in the fight against this virus by providing tips and information about medications.

Zenica was our first major sterilization project, an example, because it seems in many other cities there is really a turning point on how to deal with stray animals. Obviously there are more cities that continue to practice illegal methods, but then, every city that is changing their method into the NO KILL principle is a step towards a bright future.

Elvira and her SPAS in Bihac made a huge step. They rise to the challenge and organize their own sterilization program, without us! This is really a fantastic start.
We are very proud of her, because it is quite a risk and she really takes responsibility for the animals in Bihac. Something that many other location that request for our help can see as an example!

For us a foundation it still is difficult because you help one city and many more will be disappointed by us not coming! We get quite a lot of requests, but we can not really take on more jobs, we have enough on our plate at the moment.

21-03-2010 Nice!!

The car that was donated by us to Svjetlana a few years ago has been transformed into an actual promotional vehicle!

15-03-2010

56 dogs and cats in less than 4 days! Harris and the team in Zenica worked terribly hard for the animals! You are amazing!

14-03-2010

Sometimes ..... you think the world has gone mad.
This weekend again as many animals as possible will be sterilized in Zenica, Harris was hired by the municipality. The first two days he already neutered 31 dogs, he is the best!

After these messages we had sent a text message to Jelena, asking if there would still be some animals left for us in April. Well, we can go there unconcerned, because there are hundreds of cats and dogs that are eager to get our help!

Why we think the world has gone mad?

Because meanwhile a special club was founded that supports the killing of animals! This is illegal, and Jelena and her organization will do everything in order to address this. Last week, 4 dogs were slain, illegal and through a horrible way.
Hereunder you will find some evidence that emphasizes the need for our help

puppies everywhere

This dog was found neglected

Severe scabies, but she is getting the care of a volunteer

We will not forget the cats in April

10-03-2010

It is going very well with the collection of the benches, we get many responses to our call. That's great, because we need them desperately.

Later this month we will transport all the collected benches and blankets to Zenica. Then we will have enough for the sterilization project. A quick calculation shows that we really need 100. Because we will easily do 50 animals per day, which all have to stay in recovery at least 2 days, so after 2 days all benches will be occupied. We hope that many owners, especially from the surrounding villages, will bring their animals, which saves space, when they take them home after the procedure.

We already sent the newsletter, and you can find him now above. The link to the latest newsletter is added to the list, so you can check again later.

We also want to say once again that we are so very pleased with all those owners and volunteers who assist us. Without all the help we do not stand a chance. So thanks for your help, it is highly appreciated.

26-02-2010

For our sterilization project we are looking for benches. We need at least 100 in total and we now only have 35!

24-02-2010

I think everyone has this problem, but we are facing it twice as much.
Cause it will soon be April, in about one and a half months we will leave.
The stress grows. Are we thinking about everything, don’t we forget anything ....

The past month was not exactly a month full of relaxation, cause after the disappointment about the canceled exhibition, we had to work really hard at the big event in Amsterdam.
Dutchy Puppy had a great stand at this event and asked us to help with the personell.
We had found volunteers for allmost every day, and we are very grateful for this.
Tanja, Winanda, Inge, Carin, Linda, Nicole, Lianne S, Lianne, Lisa and Daniel, it is just great you were able to help, thanks so much!
Dutchy Puppy has shown us this year to support a number of things, and that help is very welcome.

Trying to arrange the transport causes a lot of stress. We will not be able to get the food passed the borders. That is a fact.
We will make sure that we get all the benches and blankets for the April trip to Bosnia, because we need this so much during the sterilization project.
But the cost of transport are relatively high, Bosnia is not an EU, which is a major drawback.

There are all fun and exciting things coming up, such as the event called the Briljantloop on March 27 and an event on April 10.
We also try to support DutchyPuppy at the Animal Event.

So the year started well, but we want even more and better!
With your help we can give the animals a helping hand. How? Read all about what you can do on our "Support" page.

16-02-2010

We are very busy with preparations for the trip in April. Requests for sterilizing pets are already coming in.
In Orasje we probably have 60 animals that need to be sterilized. In Zenica, we soon count a number of 200.
It is therefore a very tough challenge, and we will do our best to help all animals and their owners.

We also receive the request from other locations to sterilize. We have made a document specifically for these people that describes all the steps that they will have to take. Here you can read what we ask the people before we come over!

There is a lot of snow in Orasje at the moment. Svjetlana can not get to the shelter by car, so she walks all the way from the road with a sledge that bares to food.
She gets up at 5 oçlock in the morning every day, then she prepares a special meal with meat and bread for the dogs. Especially for the pups and the somewhat weaker dogs. The rest gets dry food and pieces of bread.
The food supply is running out rapidly, and we will probably have to order food again.

We are trying again to arrange the transport. It is a lot of work, and we really hope that we will succeed.
Because we have a lot of equipment needed during the sterilization campaign, such as benches and blankets. We can not transport this with our cars.
In addition to that, we have a load of food over here which we would like to take to Orasje. We will keep you informed of all the progress! Cross your fingers.

At this moment a lot of the volunteers attend a daily for Dutchypuppy. The stand has a lot of great t-shirts on sale for a very low price.

07-02-2010

Stichting Dierenopvang Bosnië focuses on solving the structural problem in the country. Through sterilization, education and collaboration with local organizations and government we focus on a constructive and future orientated way of working.

We are not in favor of taking a large number of dogs, because we believe that this is not the solution. It is better to focus on the cause of the situation.

But we will occasionally bring a very limited number of dogs to the Netherlands, with keeping to the prescribed procedures for transportation of pets, which are re-homed carefully. Our aftercare is for life!

All animals offered for adoption by us, will only be mediated by us. Our re-homing procedure is very strict, an extensive interview, meeting with the dog and the family and a house call is prior to every adoption.

If you have questions about the way we work, we find it very pleasant when you contact us directly: 06-46198579 (Susie) or 06-12919194 (Tanja)

You can also send an email: info@hondenopvang.com

24-01-2010 Zenica

Dear all, we just got news from Zenica.

The message Jelena send was read several times to see if we understood it, but we cannot interpretate it in any other way;
Last weekend there are 34 dogs sterilized and castrated by Harris and the team of volunteers under the direction of Jelena!
26 females and 8 males. A large number of females was pregnant!
Most of the dogs was of very large size, which is the best news ever.

We are so very proud of the team in Zenica? You have done a great job.

21-01-2010 Remarkable

So much different things are happening right now.

This weekend there is another small sterilization campaign in Zenica. Veterinarian Harris will neuter a large number of stray animals sponsored by the municipality.

In addition, Kelly arrived in Tuzla. Kelly is married to a Bosnian man but lives in America. She will probably visit the shelter in Tuzla. We are in contact with Kelly on a regular base and she was the one who took care of the possibility to buy food at wholesale which was recently delivered in Orasje.

Kelly also brought a donation all the way from America. Because the American Foundation AKI, under the direction of Karen Menczer, supports us. They have an article on their website about our work, and we have regular contact with Karen about what the plans are and what's going on. She is very involved.

Karen has asked Kelly to bring along a number of medical stuff, because sending a parcel to has proven to be not trustworthy and costs a lot of extra money. In addition to the supplies, Karen added a financial donation and Kelly chipped in, so we thankfully receives $ 400 from America, that's great.

This money and the stuff will certainly be used for the sterilization campaign in April.

17-01-2010 Preparations

Some volunteers have been very busy with collecting medical equipment.

Especially the upcoming sterilization campaign in Zenica in April will be a huge threat to our stock, so there are many things needed.

At this moment we are busy making plans for the trip in April. It is a large group of people, and we hope to have a great result at the end of the trip.

We specifically need blankets, benches and belts / collars.
The stray dogs that are sterilized will be earmarked, but we also try to provide dogs with collars as much as possible, it gives a signal of the dog having an owner and not being a street dog.

The weekend of January 23 there is another mini-sterilization project in Zenica. Harris will be there for a few days to neuter as much as possible. This way we keep it under control.

In the month of April we are planning to do a very large number of dogs in collaboration with local volunteers, the municipality and veterinarians from Bosnia and the Netherlands!

09-01-2010 Orasje

Looking back, we realize we have given the shelter in Orasje a lot of support over the past year.

We always say that Svjetlana is our ambassador because she is a great example for anyone who runs a shelter or is thinking about starting one. She is caring, professional and very dedicated. Something we can only admire and appreciate. Every day hard work for the now almost 150 dogs is not easy.

When we started in 2007 supporting Orasje, there were about 65 dogs. It has grown considerably, and still, because every day there are dogs, big and small, being brought or dumped at the shelter.

In 2010 we continue to support Orasje. Because the dogs and people Orasje are very dear to us.

Hereunder a few newcomers, all very sweet and affectionate!

31-12-09

food arrived in Orasje!

30-12-09 Zenica infostand