It was December 2009, I was 28 years old and in my heart, I knew I was ready to get my own dog. I googled 'dog for sale' and soon I was scouting sites looking at the countless ads.
Pola and Victoria
Even though it is a widely known fact, that dogs should not be given as Christmas presents, the site was full of 'puppies ready to go home for Xmas' ads posted by dog breeders.
Among all the purebred cute pups' pictures, I noticed a little sad mutt staring back at me from the grainy photos. She was black, had an overbite and clearly wasn't the most beautiful puppy or a purebred dog. I clicked on the link and read the content of the add: 'Our landlord doesn't allow us to have this dog anymore must get rid asap'.
I didn't really think much about it but my gut told me to act: I phoned the number and arranged to collect the dog in the evening. She was much, much smaller than she seemed on the photographs. She was shaking all the way home and would not leave my side for the first few days. It was unthinkable for me that she could be unwanted by someone. To me she was a treasure.
Even after few days. I couldn't bear the thought that she could be taken from me, let alone after a year or if I had raised her from a puppy. What would have happened to her had I not stepped in? I will never know. But she became my best friend and my partner in crime. She planted the seed in my heart to rescue and save more dogs like her.
In 2011, I co-founded a charity called K-9 Angels. I set it up with my two friends from the entertainment industry, Victoria Eisermann and Anneka Svenska (who left K-9 Angels over two years ago) and we set up on a mission to change the world and rescue and re-home as many homeless dogs as possible.
Back in 2009, it seemed ok to me to buy a dog online but now that I know more facts, I believe that it should not be allowed. Every year, just in Britain, about 50,000 dogs are abandoned by their families. Most of them shortly after Christmas (as they are unwanted Christmas presents) or right before the summer holidays.
As a result, the overcrowded shelters are forced to euthanize healthy dogs, simply because there is no space for them and no homes.
According to the annual Stray Dog Survey by Dogs Trust – the UK’s largest dog welfare charity, and who will never put a healthy dog down – between 2014 and 2015, 5,142 dogs were put to sleep by Local Authorities, that’s one dog every two hours.
In countries like Romania for example, stray, sick and abused dogs are a common sight. They roam the streets looking for food, they're beaten, poisoned or run over. The puppies have a small chance of surviving. Their lives are short, they fall victim to distemper or parvovirus. They sometimes literally starve or are killed by other dogs or by people.
Only this month, we sponsored medical treatment to Elsa, a little puppy that was literally set on fire by cruel people in the streets of Romania. Elsa arrived in the UK last week and is well loved and looked after by her new family BUT…. there are millions of Elsas out there and this could be easily prevented if only people spayed and neutered their pets.
So this is where we want to make changes now: to educate people how incredibly important it is to take responsibility and to make sure that you don't add to the problem by breeding your dog. There are enough dogs in this world and not enough homes.
To start with, our charity's aim was to rescue and rehome as many of the homeless dogs as possible. We would embark on our missions abroad, walk into filthy public shelters or pick up puppies from the streets as we were unable to leave them behind.
We would raise money to treat their illnesses, sponsor their passports and transport them to loving amazing homes in the UK. We absolutely love doing that. There is no better feeling than seeing a dog you saved safely snuggled up on a sofa, loved and cuddled by new a family. However soon enough, we realised that by only helping to find homes for the dogs, one by one, we were scratching the surface of the problem and it was easier to prevent than to cure. So whilst we still continue to rescue dogs one by one, we learnt that the best way to help is to organise mass spay and neuter campaigns. The statistics say that one young female dog and her offspring can produce up to 67,000 puppies in 10 years. So by sponsoring a quick and safe surgery for one female, we aren't only saving her from the stress of having countless litters and fighting for her babies' survival in streets - we are literally preventing dozens of thousands of short and painful lives being brought into this world.
Every year now, K-9 Angels sponsors so called 'spayathons' and up to date we have funded surgeries for over 3,000 dogs with plans to spay many, many more thousands. We don't only spay street dogs. We also help to pay for surgeries of pets whose owners cannot afford the procedure.
My friend and co-founder Victoria Eisermann cycled 700 miles in total to raise 10k which allowed us to fund hundreds of surgeries and this year she is climbing Kilimanjaro hoping to raise another 10k to fund as many spay surgeries as possible. (To support the vital spay and neuter campaign and to prevent needless suffering please copy and paste this link- http://goo.gl/kq3wzA)
In October, we are again embarking on a rescue mission to assist in our 'spayathons' and to help as many dogs as we can.
Tagged in Pola Pospieszalska