What it looks like to be a stray animal? Personal experience and local specifics

Imagine yourself being abandoned, hungry, thirsty and abused.

That’s exactly how most of the stray animals on the street feel.

My recent experience with abandoned animal forced me to think over and over again about their cruel reality and vital problems they’re facing with. How their everyday life looks like? What’re their chances? How can we help them?
There is a local association for the protection of animals in the city I live in. Its activists make daily calls for helping stray animals on Facebook. Working as their volunteer from time to time, a few days ago I read some of those numerous appeals. It was about an abandoned dog and question if maybe someone has lost it. Thanks to FB shares, the potential owner answered. Since the dog has been recently spotted near the place I live, I started the action with the help of my friends. What followed is our desperate search for the abandoned dog. How to find a wandering animal? It can be anywhere! After nearly 2 hours later and a lot of difficulties, we managed to find a dog.

What happened later seems to be the best reflection of the fate of all stray animals. LUCK is the magical word for all of them. Lucky to be found, adopted, fed and not abused. Unfortunately, the dog I’m talking about wasn’t the one the owner searched for.

Since there is no institutional support for stray animals in my city (except local asylum with terrible conditions for animals – most of them are condemned to be euthanized sooner or later), they all depend on a civil initiative and their good will to help. Financial problems make the situation even worse.

Here are some of the photos of stray animals from my city ready for adoption:

Have you ever wondered where all those stray animals come from?

Most of the stray animals end up in the streets not because they choose to live that way, but because their owners decided so. Conscienceless owners find a lot of excuses to justify their inhumane treatment of creatures they had been “loved” until recently.

Take a look at 2 of those fascist and absurd excuses:

• I’ve got bored with it

Many people rashly decide to get a pet. They don’t think about their own future obligations and responsibilities regarding the animal.

The folkloric figure of sweet little Easter bunny is an inspiration to many people to present a bunny to their kids as Easter gift. But once the holiday ends, a lot of people realize the rabbit is not a toy but the creature with its special needs, and let it go. Some of them are “lucky” enough to end up in a shelter, but the majority are being simply released into nature. The later option is especially cruel because domestic rabbits are hard to survive in a hostile environment link

• I don’t need useless sick and aged animal. Get rid of it!

For some people, one of the main factor when buying a pet is its sweetness. Most of them imagine pet will remain young, sweet and healthy forever.

Think carefully before you get a pet – it’s not a toy, but the creature that demands care, commitment and love. Next time you come up on a stray animal, show some compassion and take care of them. If you can’t make an adoption, at least you can call your local shelter to help them, make a donation to some organization for animal welfare and feed stray animals.