The story of Rita's dog, who fully felt the cruelty of man, took place in March 2023 in Samarkand.
— The dog was severely beaten, its jaw was broken, front and hind legs were tied, the dog was tied to the rails by neck and tail all covered in blood and left to wait for the train, — said Elena Lysenko, director of the Mehr Homeless Animal Assistance Center in Uzbekistan. — The volunteers turned out to be faster than the approaching death, and we couldn't stop the dog without help, even though the shelter is already overflowing.
The dog was found by a passerby named Rita and sounded the alarm. Employees of the shelter "Mehr" saw a post on social networks on the page of the organization that oversees the capture of animals and offered help.
— They dragged the dog out for four hours, it was very aggressive, they were looking for sleeping pills, they found it in one of the clinics, — Elena Lysenko continues her story. — When they gave the poor dog sleeping pills, they threw a blanket over it and started cutting the ropes with scissors. Then they loaded it into the car. The dog was overexposed for a day and we took it to the shelter. There are no cameras in that place on the tracks. The inhuman who did it was never found.
The staff of the shelter say that the unfortunate dog came to the "Mehr" with absolute distrust of man.
In addition to the injuries and stress, distemper began to progress. The fight for it life was serious, the dog was beaten and everyone around was enemies with syringes and IVs.
Now Rita (the dog was named after the savior) is alive and well!
"And even though it still doesn't trust people, the dog still has friends from the Mehr team who were able to prove that not everyone is bad in this world, — Elena Lysenko is sure.
"Mehr" is translated from Uzbek as kindness, mercy. The shelter was built in the Pskov district of the Tashkent region two years ago by Akfa Group, which acted as the main sponsor for a year and a half. Now the company has seriously reduced funding and its already small staff has been cut.
— Visits to the shelter have decreased, we used to go 6-7 times a week, now 4 times. The sponsor pays for our electricity and gasoline for the car. Animal nutrition, treatment, vaccination and sterilization are covered by donations and gifts from caring people and companies. The territory of 1 Hectare is also maintained by our forces," says Elena. — The shelter has been in existence for two years, the enclosures require repair, but of course it is difficult here, because there are barely enough funds for food and medicines. Nevertheless, during these two years we have independently built a hospital, installed two solid canopies where dogs can hide from the rain.
We conduct "Lessons of kindness" to educate the younger generation and festivals to attract people to the responsible treatment of animals and of course we are looking for families for our wards.