Local dog walker Tina Duncan has been busy preparing to volunteer at a dog shelter in Romania near the Ukrainian border.
Tina is fundraising to travel to the shelter to help out and take aid for the rescued dogs.
DGWGO went along to meet up with Tina, and her own rescue dogs Jess & Chay, to find out more.
Tina told DGWGO “Well, I run a dog walking business in Dumfries and I’ve been doing this for seven years. I rescue dogs myself and I’m quite active in foreign rescues which I try to support and help”
“Obviously, I think everybody is probably quite affected with what just happened in Ukraine and, with three other women, we have decided to go to Romania dog shelter which is just 20 minutes from the Ukrainian border. We will be crossing over the border with the lady who runs the shelter. She has been going over the border nearly every other day on her own in the middle of the night to just get the most urgent cases out.”
“She’s supported by a British rescue, Lucky’s Legacy Rescue. They take animals off her, bring them over to the UK and rehome them but at the moment she is bursting at the seams”
She’s only about 20 minutes away from the Ukrainian border. So, for now, we will take supplies and help for six days and we’re planning a longer trip quite soon. If we get the funding together in time then we would like to go back over as soon as possible for longer.
“We’ve been very fortunate to get the flights covered and accommodation, a hire van, and the money for hopefully a big supply of dog food and dog items but a few more donations would be fantastic. Then we can plan the next trip straight away.”
We asked Tina about the possibility of adopting some of the rescued dogs and Tina said
“It’s really difficult to get foreign dogs or animals into the UK. It takes a lot of paperwork. These dogs are traumatized, they need to be assessed, they need to be rehabilitated and if you want to make space adopt from Romania or other countries. These are not your usual normal rescue dogs. They need specific care from somebody who knows what they are doing because otherwise, these dogs could end up in our rescues here, that are already bursting at the seams
