The only thing we wish is that we can continue to offer our dogs a safe home! And maybe raise some awareness in people!
On the other hand, a smaller wish on my part was that after my last stay (March/April 2022) at our dog shelter, I could fill the blog with words that describe the stay and how we got on. But we are not allowed a "break", the next surprise comes one after the other and either blocks us or even throws us back. The only thing that really helps us at the moment are some supporters who stand by our side in a fight that is extremely rare to find in this form, maybe not even exist a second time at all.
(April 22nd 2022: Brava at the vet)
After my return on April 28th, 2022, I hardly settled in, and already suffered an accident at work in my new job, which cost me several important days in an "apprenticeship" and thus endangered it. Dita has just sent me another message that makes me think and doesn't let me rest. I hardly know where to start... The overall situation is coming to a head, it seems impossible to explain everything in detail, but I must at least try to start presenting our situation in order to awaken an understanding in people, which requires a lot of courage and clarity.
(May 6th 2022: order for CT examination after accident at work)
The "Project: concrete foundation" was canceled without further ado, all the effort for the calculations, drawings, material and price information for the foundation was for nothing!
The additional effort caused by other, creeping problems, the Ukraine crisis and the global economic situation and some local circumstances do not allow it.
The path that leads to our piece of land is not (or no longer) passable for concrete mixer trucks after the heavy rainfalls in the last months.
The registration of our piece of land cost us 10,000 Reais (€2,000).
In addition, there were repairs to our car, which was badly affected by the heavy rains of the previous months.
On my return journey on April 27th, 2022, the passport control found that I had to pay a penalty of 10,000 Reais to the Federal Police Brazil for the year 2019 because I had exceeded the 90-day tourist visa at the time. Latest when I next enter in Brazil, I have to pay around €2,000 to the Brazilian government. For the fact that I financed the construction of the kennel out of my own pocket and did it by hand.
The euro is weakening heavily, we have a worse exchange rate from the Euro to the Brazilian Real. At the same time, all currencies worldwide are plagued by inflation, or the prices for everyday products are rising sharply.
I'm now saving the 10,000 Reais penalty for the next few months from the wages of my new job. Many will say "Well, you got yourself into it!" and I have to stand by that too.
But sometimes you seem to have to make "mistakes" in order to do something good.
(boleto penalty)
The dogs of our "neighbor" from whose property we pump our "drinking water" are in danger of being confiscated by the federal police and the public minister. That means the dogs will be killed sooner or later if they are brought into a public shelter.
The situation is ambivalent: the neighbor has hardly any means to feed his dogs properly/daily. His piece of land is not fenced in so that the dogs can escape every time. He doesn´t sleep in his farm either, but in the city. So his dogs sometimes run to the nearest neighbor and tear chickens there or attack cows. This is often attributed to us, until we show during an inspection that our dog shelter is fenced in. Such an inspection was just today again by the federal police and public minister.
The situation went so far that shots were fired even at night, which were probably aimed at our shelter. One shot went through the roof of 3 older farmers who have their farm not far from us. Since then, they no longer sleep in their farm at night, but drive to town to sleep every day. Our water pump, which is in the well on the neighbor's property, has been sabotaged. We could clearly see a cable being severed with a sharp blade. But since the fountain is on the neighbor property, we don't know whether it was meant for us personally or perhaps for our neighbor.
(April 22nd 2022: Video of neighbours dogs who live wild in the forest)
While I'm still writing this blog comes the next bad news from Dita: The hoses for the injector were visibly cut through on the car, the same on the water pump with the cable. :(
We are being sabotaged , no doubts...
(May 13th 2022: cut fuel hose)
We 3 people in the dog shelter live at the subsistence level, get leftovers from a retirement home in the city. Food that they would throw away because it is no longer usable. That's what we eat in shelter. In order to be able to store these food donations, and the fruits from our own land and also the daily liver for the dog food, I also bought a new freezer. The search for used freezers was in vain. Nevertheless, a solution had to be found, as the liver now sometimes comes with a delivery for the whole month. On the other hand, the delivery sometimes fails completely and we have to switch to dry food.
In the meantime we had also done a feeding experiment and didn't boil the cornmeal but only mixed dry cornmeal with liver. To make Dita´s and Jade's job easier, not having to collect wood every day and keep multiple fires burning for hours.
But several dogs didn't eat it at all and we stopped the experiment after 3 days. The prices for liver, cornmeal and dry food changes weekly and we spent days researching prices and invoices to find the best feeding-variant in terms of prices, but also to be able to counteract delivery bottlenecks.
(March 23rd 2022)
(April 1st 2022: Pirata exploring the new freezer)
Our hands are tied, we have no means to take in the neighbor dogs. But that is what the police and the public minister are likely to be asking for. We are a dog sanctuary that is completely private, but we have received a piece of land from the city hall through a written agreement with the old mayor and city hall. We are therefore still dependent on the city hall with the new mayor as well as on our neighbor (for our water supply). Both can make it even harder for us, no matter what the deals are.
Things are a little different in Brazil than in Germany. The only thing that can save us is that we manage to make our own piece of land so safe for the dogs as soon as possible or latest by early/mid-2024 that they at least can not get onto the neighbor's property and maybe injure cows. Even if it's not our dogs that hurt other people's cows, we still need to be able to prove that with a secure fence it's impossible for the dogs to get onto the neighbor's property in the first place. We also saw a couple of stray dogs the last time we visited our new country. There are also puma's and other wild animals in the area that sometimes tear a cow for themselves. If we don't have a secure fence around our planned new dog shelter in this case, then it's easy to blame us.
(April 26th 2022: Diesel taking care for Menino)
We want to do something good with the sanctuary, but are overwhelmed by surrounding problems and dependencies. So much so that Dita starts bleeding from nervousness, which often lasts for days. :-(
I have already written to several organizations, TV and radio stations and well-known people who are dedicated to animal welfare, asking for help...
We are not the center of the world, we are more than aware of that, yet we hope for a miracle and support to enable us to escape the ever-growing nightmare. We've come this far and we can't give up, it's not going to happen!!!
Spenden-Link:
This way donations can be made directly to Brazil.
It also allows supporters to get a feeling for how current exchange rates can quickly affect our situation.
written May 13th | 2022
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