1-31 July
First of all, a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us this month via PayPal, Patreon and our GoFundMe fundraiser. Thanks to your donations, we were able to carry out numerous sterilisations and urgent stray surgeries, such as treating infected bullet wounds. This month you can read about Meri’s life changing journey in Belgium, LouLou’s fight with cancer and babeosis, sterilisations en masse, how the government manages sterilisations in the country, as well as about victims of car crashes and shootings. We are 100% reliant on your support to keep going. Every single penny counts so please don’t hestiate to make a donation, however big or small!
If you’d like to know more, please email us on zerostraysgeorgia@gmail.com
Updates from Meri's forever home in Belgium
Meri flew off to Brussles to settle in with her new family, a couple who were visiting Georgia as tourists and found Meri in the streets of Kutaisi. Mariam spent two weeks locating Meri on the streets before she was vaccinated, ID’d, had a vet check and could move to Jurgen Augusteyenes and Ilde Cogen.
Below you can read how Meri’s life was changed and how she changed the life of her new family.
Sterilisations
Two female dogs were found on the village road to Ingiri, outside Zugdidi, and were both sterilised. The setter was taken into foster as she is considered to have good chances to be adopted once vaccinated, ID’d and health checked. She was also recently abandoned which was obvious to us when we rescued her. She wouldn’t have survived for long out on the streets. The other dog was sadly returned to the streets but is regularly fed by Mariam’s father as a part of his feeding rounds. He feeds approximately 100 strays along the village roads in Ingiri, Darcheli and Kakhati, which is where most people abandon their dogs.
Back in Zugdidi, vet Emzar Chachua sterilised a pregnant cat.
At Zero Strays, we also support families who take on rescues or have pets but not the funding to sterilise them. This Zugdidi family had adopted two stray cats to be sterilised by vet George Tchurgulia. He also sterilised a pregnant stray. 99% of puppies born on the streets don’t live for very long and often suffer a painful life and death. Worm intoxication, car accidents and people poisoning or torturing them to death are all very common occurrences in Georgia. That is why we have taken the decision to sterilise even pregnant strays, as it saves innocent lives from a hell of a misery.
Vet Emzar Chachua also took on sterilising six pregnant strays (five dogs and one cat) – saving them and their unborn puppies from a lot of suffering. The dogs were found in the village of Kombinati close to Zugdidi, a place full of abandoned dogs and cats. Local volunteers Manana Kardava and Nino Adamia from the same village helped bring in the strays for sterilisation. The cat was brought in by local volunteer Luiza Pipia, who frequently feeds stray dogs and cats at the Zugdidi Bazaar.
Bullets and car crashes
Anyone who has been to Georgia knows that the traffic is very intense. Strays are often victims of road accidents, and most drivers continue their travel without checking on the stray or strays they just hit. For a lot of the strays, this means a slow painful death or life long injuries. The strays that aren’t hit by cars may well be shot instead. Shooting a stray is a common method of getting rid of unwanted strays in a local area – the stray might come across as intimidating or annoying. Vet George Tchurgulia tended to a lovely little stray pup who was sterilised in winter but had since then been shot and suffered from an infected bullet wound. She is now in temporary foster/recovery care by a local Zugdidi volunteer.
National sterilisation schemes in Georgia
In Georgia there are various private shelters who win government grants to conduct sterilisations in the different regions. They usually do it at a very low cost, which greatly affects the quality of treatment. For example, dogs are transported long distances without proper ventilations and die from heat strokes, are returned quickly to the streets after the procedure – in many cases with infections or having caught distemper from other dogs. This lovely beauty was in one of these sterilisation programmes but was rescued by us and is now in foster care with strong hopes of finding his very own forever home once he has been vaccinated, ID’d and health checked.
Cancer care and babeosis
Lovely LouLou is one of our most recent cancer patients. She was taken into foster care with Mariam and moved to Tbilisi for surgery at the Lucky Paw Clinic. The tumours were removed but LouLou struggled to recover. The vet ran a few tests and concluded that LouLou suffered from babeosis – a potentially lethal infection when the patient suffers from a low immune system. LouLou is still doing her very best to fight the infection and we are doing everything we can to help her recover.