June 1-30: Stray Animal Rescue Updates from Zero Strays Georgia
June has been an incredibly busy and successful month for Zero Strays Georgia! We’re thrilled to share some key highlights of our work rescuing and caring for stray animals across Georgia.
Adoption Success Stories
This month, we successfully helped seven stray dogs find their forever homes outside Georgia, a huge achievement that we couldn’t have done without your support. These animals now have a second chance at life in loving families abroad.
Successful Sterilization Campaign
Thanks to a successful fundraiser, we were able to bring in two vets and set up a mobile clinic in Svaneti, where we sterilized 22 stray dogs and one stray cat. Throughout June, we sterilized a total of 37 stray dogs and five stray cats across various locations in Georgia, helping to control the stray population and reduce the risk of disease.
New Foster Dogs Looking for Homes
In addition to our sterilization efforts, we welcomed six new foster dogs into our care, all of whom are now being prepared for adoption. While in foster care, each dog receives vaccines, ID, vet checks, and all the care they need to ensure they’re ready to join their forever families. Don’t forget to check out our “Up for Adoption” section to see the wonderful dogs currently looking for homes: Up for Adoption.
How You Can Help
If you’d like to learn more about adopting a stray dog, volunteering, or donating to help support our efforts, please feel free to email us at zerostraysgeorgia@gmail.com.
Five strays found their forever overseas homes
June was a success in terms of overseas adoption. Fly, Piri, Meri, Fargo and Marisha flew off to their new forever homes.
Fly and Piri got adopted in Germany via our friend organisation Setter Help Europe. Fargo is a blind and deaf German shepherd who also found his new home in Germany.
Marisha got adopted in Germany via our friend organisation Hunderettung e.v. Marisha was the last remaining stray to be adopted from the group of eight strays taken into care during last summer’s Polish vet sterilisation campaign.
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.
Sterilisation campaign in Svaneti
Svaneti is one of the more remote regions of Georgia and home to a lot of strays. There is no vet clinic operating in the region so we did an international fundraiser together with friends and family from across the globe to collect funds to sterilise as many strays as we could in Svaneti. Our Zugdidi vet friends George Tchurgulia and Emzar Chachua took on the task together with volunteer assistants, and managed to sterilise 22 stray dogs and one stray cat as a result. One of the stray patients also suffered from an eye injury and received both eye surgery and sterilisation.
Life in foster care
Our 52 foster dogs live with local village families in the area around Zugdidi. In an environment where poverty is adamant and animal welfare issues an every day occurrence, teaming up with local families to foster strays until they find their own forever home is a win-win for everyone involved. The foster dogs get to stay in a safe, rural environment and cared for by lovely locals who benefit from the foster fee the Zero Strays Team pay them every month. One month of foster care is 50 euro per dog and includes food, care, a wash every now and then and basic medical supplies (deworming etc.). That means we have to cover 2 150 euro per month in foster fees. Mariam spends most of her salary on this, and the rest of the team try to chip in with whatever they can every month. Any support towards covering this 2 150 euro expense is always much appreciated! Don’t forget to check out the lovely little strays who are looking for a new home to call their own!
Collecting medical supplies for strays
Our team member Jitka is currently running a medical supply campaign in Czech Republic to try to collect as many supplies as possible to donate to Zero Strays Georgia and the vets supporting the team. Do you want to run a similar campaign to support vets or sterilisations? Reach out to us on zerostraysgeorgia@gmail.com