The nomination "Responsible for those...": A pedigreed couple, along with five puppies, were locked on a balcony in winter without food and water.
The story, which was told by the journalists of Omsk's Channel 12, took place in a Siberian city in February and shocked many. In harsh climatic conditions, seven dogs were left on the balcony in winter. At the same time, a couple of Dalmatian puppies were born in January and at the time of the incident the babies were only a month old. Those who were not indifferent turned to the Omsk Tails shelter and told about the situation.
"The owner of the dogs, he was engaged in breeding Dalmatians, went to prison and the animals stayed with his relatives. But people couldn't handle the dogs and decided to transfer them to another person who wanted to sell them later, because the dogs are thoroughbred and expensive. But he also failed. And that's how the poor guys ended up with us. When we took them away, the dogs were hungry and very thin," says Svetlana Koledina, the administrator of the Omsk Tails animal shelter.
The Dalmatian babies were fed by shelter volunteers every two hours. The puppies attacked the food as if they had never seen it before. The puppies and their parents were so emaciated that their bodies literally looked like skin and bones. The volunteers of the Omsk Tails shelter have found new families for all puppies and adult Dalmatians. Moreover, the outbuildings here are carried out officially – strictly under contracts with mandatory control of the animals' residence with the new owners.
"Now a Yorkshire terrier named Teddy has been taken away from us, which the owner refused due to health problems. The three-year-old dog suffers from incontinence and needs to undergo bladder surgery. Our veterinarians examined the dog, prescribed medications, and the dog got better. And now he had a guardian. The man even took him home for a few days. And today I came and said that the family had decided that they would not give Teddy to anyone else and would perform the operation themselves," Svetlana Koledina continues.
And there are more and more such stories in the Omsk Ponytails shelter every year. Stray animals are usually brought here, or volunteers themselves pick up sick dogs on the streets, especially in winter, when the tailed ones have nothing to eat or they simply freeze their paws in the ice. But in recent years, pedigreed dogs have been brought to the shelter. That's why the volunteers started working with the breeders.
"There was a case when they gave us a Czechoslovak spinning top. They took the dog, but they didn't think that this breed was very strong and unusual, and in the end they couldn't cope. We found a breeder; he came from another region and took the brooch for himself. This year they brought us two Chihuahuas, 13 and 10 years old, can you imagine what an age for dogs! It is very difficult for them to live in the shelter, these are not mongrels who are used to the harsh conditions of the street. These are domestic dogs. We were helped to get them through the breeders," the Omsk Tails shelter says.
Today, the Omsk Tails shelter is considered the largest in Omsk, with almost 500 dogs and cats staying here at the same time. The maintenance of animals, the purchase of new enclosures, the rental of premises, all these are exclusively charitable contributions. Sometimes owners invest their own funds, especially when it is necessary to urgently perform operations or examinations for one of the guests.
And all cats here are tested for viral diseases without fail. Cats are simply not given to new families without tests. In addition, the Omsk Tails shelter implements several projects at once for the accommodation of disabled animals, there is a unique space for cats after treatment and vaccination, where they can safely live not in cages, but in a single space.
They also work here with schoolchildren, conduct kindness lessons. And the most important achievement of the shelter, according to its creators, is the "Find Me, I'm Really Looking Forward to It" project. It is thanks to the active work of volunteers that most of the animals from the shelter find new owners.
Photos of the Omsk Tails shelter.