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There are only five shelters for dogs in Ryazan, and among them there is not one existing at the state expense.

There are two traffic capture services working under the APVV program-capture-sterilization-vaccinations-release. But officially they cannot constantly contain animals, this is not financed. All shelters work only due to donations of caring people and sponsors. At the same time, in the Ryazan news, stories about flocks of stray dogs appear every now and then, and in the comments they often offer to fight them with cruel and meaningless methods.

I wanted to help animals, develop dog-free culture in the city and change the image of a homeless dog in the minds of people. So at first I became a volunteer in a private shelter, and then, together with a friend, I organized a charity project with the motto “help people to help animals”.

In the article I will tell you where we started, how we collect money for dogs, how much we spend and what difficulties we encounter.

How to help others

How I became a volunteer

I live in Ryazan, for several years I worked as a business development director at a marketing agency. I really love animals and since childhood I wanted to have a dog, but I did not dare, because I always worked and traveled a lot. But I thought that I could become a volunteer and spend several hours with dogs at least once a week.

In 2016, I found on VKontakte a couple of groups of animal shelters. One was more or less popular, but the other, as it seemed to me, especially needed help. In the “Thank you for life” group there were only a hundred subscribers, but there are a lot of photos of dogs in search of a house and an endless stream of announcements about collecting donations.

I wrote to the administrator of the group: I told a little about myself and why I want to help animals. The administrator replied that the volunteers are always needed, suggested that they come to know the dogs and go to the enclosures. In the same week, I first went to the shelter and still help him.

How everything works in the shelter "Thank you for life"

The shelter was opened in 2010 by friends Sergey Safroniy and TatKate Torhova. Then, few people spoke about the problems of homeless animals in Ryazan, and the guys rented the land, built the aviary and took themselves from the streets of the first dogs. They are still on duty in the shelter and participate in many city events to protect animals.

Most often, dogs fall into our shelter like this: someone sees the animal on the street, finds the group “Thank you for life”, calls TatKate or Sergey. If there is a place in the shelter, then either the found himself brings the dog, or the volunteer goes behind it.

The enclosures where the dogs live are in the Nespeslevo area – these are the outskirts of the city, by car from the center there are 20 minutes from the center, and about an hour comes out with traffic jams. Nearby there are garage complexes, several factories and a field – it is convenient to walk with dogs there. The shelter rents land for 10, 000 r per month, there is a change house on the territory, electricity, but there is no water – its volunteers bring with them in large bottles and cancers.

Part of the aviary is covered with a roof – under it there are booths, which in cold weather are insulated with straw. There is a wooden flooring on each aviary

The enclosures are designed for 25 dogs, and compared to large shelters, where 100 wards live and more, we have almost resort conditions. Three or four dogs live in one aviary, and in the largest-up to seven dogs. Animals are settled according to several criteria: according to temperament, state of health, and sometimes on a sexual basis – the least of all volunteers want even more stray dogs to be born.

Our wards also live on overexposure – these are temporary houses for dogs that have no place in the shelter or special care is needed. Overpass is usually provided by caring people who have the opportunity to take care of the animal for some time. In this case, we pay for all expenses for the maintenance of the dog – I will talk about this further in the article.

Volunteers try not to gain more than 25 dogs, but if you can’t find overexposure, then you have to settle the dog in the shelter. Now all 25 seats are occupied, and eight more of our wards live on overexposure.

Over the day, the volunteer on duty is fixed, everyone comes at a convenient time. At the weekend, guests come-people who just want to help in a shelter, but once.

In ordinary life, volunteers are office workers, freelancers, students, pensioners. As I understood from your experience, any work or study can be combined with volunteering: even if you are busy on weekdays, you can take on a day off on a day-off day or Sunday.

In the shelter, volunteers spend an average of two hours. Here's what they do:

1. Clean the aviary.
2. They feed dogs and make sure that there is always water in bowls.
3. Give medicines.
4. They walk with dogs beyond the territory of the shelter, accustomed to the collar and leash.
5. They train dogs and teach basic teams.
6. Combed, cut the claws.
7. They stroke and hug, take pictures, prepare posts about dogs.

Shelter problems and first earnings

I came to the shelter on Sundays. I liked to deal with dogs, and in general, volunteer work brought pleasure. But soon I understood the main problems of the shelter:

1. Too few volunteers – there were 7-9 people in total. If someone could not go out on his day, others had to be replaced. Because of this, volunteers sometimes felt depressed and tired. It was necessary at least twice as many people.
2. There were neither constant sources of funding, no safety pillows. The entire budget of the shelter was based on spontaneous fees with calls like “Not enough for rent! ”, “Urgent operation! ”And so on. In such cases, caring people simply once sent money. But we needed a pillow of at least 50, 000 r and a configured donation system.
3. There was no sufficient PR – a group of shelter on VKontakte did not bring subscribers, dogs were taken very rarely. At some point, it even seemed that people stopped paying attention to announcements for helping animals.

It was also necessary to publish posts about collecting donations in personal social networks – this is a common practice among volunteers. But I did not see great benefits from my posts, and indeed I was uncomfortable to ask my friends to ask for money. And once it came to my mind that you need to do some thing that you can sell, and make money on this for a shelter.

In August 2018, Ryazan held a fair with products of local craftsmen who produce a variety of souvenirs. The organizer of the fair invited our shelter to put a charity stand with trifles for sale. Then I thought I thought to make badges with the image of our wards.

I told about the idea of a friend who works as a tattoo artist. She supported the idea and drew dogs for free. The illustrations were then engraved on wood by my friend in his workshop. He also did not take anything for work and materials. We glued magnets and pins to the blanks – this turned out to be about 50 badges, which I decided to sell for 100 R.

The heroines for the badges were the dogs Knopa and Sansa, who by that time had already lived in a shelter for several months

Half of the badges were placed on the counter by my friends. And the other half was taken by pet food vendors at the same fair. Some of the badges were sold out in a couple of days – the guys on whose shelves they were sold said that buyers were more willing to sort them out when they found out that the money from the sale would go to help shelter animals. The remaining badges were later sold through my Instagram account – in total, I managed to earn 5000 R for the shelter.

I made money for the shelter by selling badges

I realized that people are interested in this format of helping dogs, and I decided that this direction should be developed.

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In the fall of 2018, I wanted to make New Year cards with illustrations by my friend, designer Margaret Dyachenko. We met to discuss layouts, but in the process, Rita had the idea to make wool socks, and we came up with a few concepts that same day.

It seemed to me that woolen socks would be a great gift: it was the end of autumn, the New Year was coming, and the design of the socks turned out to be very original. In addition, the warm and kind product fit very well with the idea that in this way a person helps animals and gets something tangible and pleasant in return.

Rita found a suitable factory in the Tambov region. In correspondence, we agreed on the material for socks, quantity and price. It turned out 400 pairs of sheep wool socks – four designs of 100 pieces for 70, 000 R. Rita offered to break this amount in half. So I got my first partner, and a month later they sent us 48 kg of woolen socks – we kept them in the office of friends.

400 pairs of socks no longer looked like a trifling souvenir in support of the shelter, so it was necessary to somehow name your project. Almost immediately, the name SOBAKEN was born – the emphasis on "a", but we are not offended by "Sobaken" either.

We also decided that socks needed beautiful photos. I didn’t have to look for a studio and a photographer for a long time – by that time, all our environment already knew about the project, and one of the friends held a photo shoot for free. It turned out a lot of cool photographs that could now be safely published on social networks and talk about "dog" and his mission.

We started an Instagram account for the “dog”, prepared posts with a story about buying socks to help homeless dogs and set a price of 500 r per couple. But the first few couples we sold to friends before the publication, because everything around was delighted with socks. Then orders began from strangers who saw posts on Instagram and VKontakte.

When the first money began to fall on the card, and we began to write words of gratitude and support in social networks, we realized that the product really needed, and the project itself causes people to inspire and the desire to help.

The first "Kraft Market"

Before the New Year, my friend Lina organized Kraft Market in Ryazan, where local craftsmen put their products. We also decided to participate and sold almost half of the entire party in a couple of days. And the remaining socks sold through Instagram until the end of winter.

In total, in that party we earned about 235, 000. We distributed this money in this way:

1. 41, 000 P gave the shelter “Thank you for life” – the money went to pay for land lease, sterilization and treatment of animals, payment of transportation costs. The founders of the shelter were very grateful to such help. They reported on expenses in detail in their group on VKontakte.
2. We postponed 44, 000 r as a pillow for a shelter and donations to other projects.
3. 70, 000 r, which was invested from our own money, Rita and I took it back.
4. For the remaining 80, 000 r, we ordered a new batch of socks.

In addition to the money earned, there was another big plus – the audience’s interest in the shelter grew. The group “Thank you for life” began to subscribe more often, more reposts appeared. New guests more often came to the shelter, many offered to buy food, medicines to dogs. Unfortunately, dogs were not more likely to be taken home. But the fact that many drew attention to the problem of stray animals have been of great benefit.

I was glad that we made a cool product that people liked and helped animals. Our idea was confirmed: people like not only to sacrifice money, but to receive something in return for it and thus be involved in a good cause.

Photo from our first craft market. We then made stickers with the project logo – one on myt-shirt. We handed out stickers for free, and they were also willingly taken apart

Office and work organization

In March 2019, we ordered a new batch of socks, and rented a 9 m² office for storage in an old building in the center of Ryazan. Ironically, our windows overlook the garden at the house-museum of academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov – he studied physiology on dogs, and in Ryazan there is even a legend that dogs now bypass his house.

The landlord, also our friend, supported us and rented out the premises at a very low price for this area – 5, 000 R, although usually renting such a room here costs about 15, 000 R. We paid for the office rent out of our own money in half.

Margaret and I entered the project entirely on a volunteer basis. We understood that all the money raised would go to help the shelters. But we both had main jobs that brought in a good income, and we were engaged in "Dog" in our free time. We are both from the digital world and finally got the opportunity to produce something that you can feel, wear on a cold day or give to a friend.

Tasks were distributed approximately equally and to the extent possible. Rita was responsible for the design and illustrations, I wrote the texts. Product design ideas brainstormed together. I had a flexible schedule at work, so I could go to the post office in the middle of the day and pick up a best dog food storage container of socks, while Rita took orders.

We did not send orders every day – we allocated a couple of days a week for this, otherwise it would take too much time. But if the client asked to send something urgently, we always met him halfway. We sent socks to many cities, and the most distant points are Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in USA and New Jersey in the USA.

Weekdays passed like this, and sometimes even Saturdays. On Sundays I was on duty at the orphanage for two or three hours. Later, we hired the only paid employee – a manager who took orders, led social networks, helped to participate in markets and make any decisions important for the project.

Both the main work, and the process of creating socks, and the result were a pleasure – we sold the second batch of socks in 300 pieces in March and April and earned about 200, 000 R. But wool socks are a seasonal item, so we came up with a few things that people would like to buy forever.

How Sobaken collects donations

We came up witht-shirts and hoodies in 2019. They made black and white clothes with the inscription Sobaken and Stranger Dogs – then the Stranger Things series was very popular.

We were also often asked: "Is there anything with cats? "Since we sometimes support homeless cats, we made a Kisken print and also printed it on a hoodie.

We purchaset-shirts from suppliers of a European manufacturer, because I like quality and style – even after many washes they do not sit down and are not covered with rolos. And Hudy is sewn for us at a factory in Boston.

That's how much we spend on production:

1. T-shirts are purchased 450 r, hoodies of 1600 p.
2. Prints cost from 120 r to 400 r, depending on the size and number of colors.
3. Delivery costs 1000-1500 r, depending on the weight of the party. The party usually turns out an average of 50 items.

It turns out that about 30, 000 are spent on the party.

We sellt-shirts for 1100-1300 r, and hoodies – 2700-3100 p. On a photo shoot of new things, we are not spending anything yet-we take everything away ourselves or with the help of friends-photographers. We also publish ready-made photos with the text on Instagram.

The sale of one batch of Hudie andt-shirts brings about 205, 000 r – this money is not always able to earn at once. For example, we did things from the Stranger Dogs collection in the summer of 2019, but so far everything has not sold. If we talk about fresh numbers, then in 2021 we earned ont-shirts and hoodies 409, 000 p.

We earned on the sale oft-shirts and hoodies in 2021

Solpers. In 2020, we came up with dog sunbeds, but I did not want to buy material. We like the idea of reuse, so we decided to use old jeans as the main material.

We posted on Instagram information about the collection of jeans and in a couple of days we received a bunch of responses. Literally in a week we got almost 250 kg of jeans – some were brought to our office, and we took part ourselves.

After the selection and washing, the jeans went to sewing not in the studio, but to our familiar severlast – she was glad to participate in such a case. Hollofiber and synthetic winterizer were used as a filler, and rubberized fabric for a durable bottom was used. These elements had to be bought, because for reasons of hygiene and strength, it is difficult to replace with something repeated.

Sunals sewed different sizes: from small ones, 45 × 55 cm, to huge – 100 × 130 cm. Small and medium-sized sewed constantly, and huge ones were made to order. We did not count for sure, but in total it turned out about 40 sunbathers, their cost began from 1200 r.

Managed to earn on sunbeds in 2021

We spent 20, 000 R on materials, paid a pensioner 24, 500 R. Ten sunbeds are still in stock and the rest have been sold out. In 2021, we earned 30, 000 R from them. A nice bonus – more than a hundred pairs of old jeans have found a new life.

Waist bags made from remnants of trampoline fabric and seat belts are another of our recycling initiatives. We made a model for walking with dogs, thought out convenient pockets and fasteners and gave it to the production of a Boston brand – they themselves take out fabric, belts and sew bags from them.

We ordered 100 pieces, it took a month to tailor. The cost of the storage container is 1800 R, and we sell them for 2300 R. It turns out to sell about five bags per month. During the year we sold 67 pieces. After deducting the cost of delivery and the cost of production, it turned out that we got about 190, 000 R.

Made money selling bags

We added shopper bags to our assortment in 2021. Shoppers are purchased from the same supplier that producest-shirts. And we print prints for free in Ryazan from our friends who are engaged in silk-screen printing.

We made 100 colorful shoppers: the cost of one storage container is 400 R, and we sell them for 800 R. So far, we have sold 55 pieces – after all the deductions, we earned 44, 000 R on them.

Address tags, paw soap and other little things. A very important place in the development of Sobaken is occupied by our friends and talented craftsmen who are ready to support the project. We sell some things and return the cost to the craftsmen, and we even receive something as a gift.

Friends suggested making address cards, paw soap, beaded chokers with a dog pendant, gingerbread cookies with our prints on the glaze, wooden toys. The ceramics studio provides us with space and materials for creating souvenirs – badges, magnets, plates. The founder of the flower studio gave us indoor plants, which we sold at the market, and the profits were also transferred to the shelter. And in a friendly printing house, we print everything we need for free or at a big discount.

In a couple of months, we sold a trial batch of dog soap – for 10 pieces we managed to get about 2000 R. The product turned out to be necessary, and subscribers asked to add soap for cats to the new batch, so we plan to make this option in the future.

We sell badges in markets and offline points: two beauty salons, a store of goods from local manufacturers and co-working – they do not charge money for this. We almost do not keep records, but for the year we sold exactly at least 100 pieces – about 30, 000 R came out.

Once we made a batch of 30 magnets to order as a gift to guests at the wedding. This brought to a dog a piggy bank of 9000 r net profit. But in general, on all these little things in 2021, we earned about 40, 000.

Hot dogs. One of the bars of our city on Sundays sells hot dogs in favor of dogs-in a month it rains about 15, 000 r, and since July 2021 it was possible to earn 56, 000.

Once a month we arrange a pop up market in this bar and a market at a party in another bar. Typically, such sorties bring 10-20 thousand, but there was a case when it was possible to sell at 40, 500 r – for Ryazan this is a good result. It was more only on one of the largest markets of Dallas, where in 2020 in two days we received 113, 000.

Socks. Basically, we sell everything through Instagram, and in December 2020 we agreed to sell socks on Wildberris. For the year we sold 700 pairs of socks – after deducting the marketplace commission and payment for storage of goods, it turned out 319, 000.

Then we also deduced the costs of cost, packaging, transportation and taxes – it turned out that the dogs got about 200, 000. In just a year of the sale of socks on Wildberris and Instagram, 400, 000 were brought in Instagram.

Corporate orders. Corporate orders bring most of the profit to the project. Once we offered one brand to order socks as a gift for employees-we talked about our project, his mission, and we ordered 50 pairs of socks.

Then we had five more corporate orders, and we have developed the following scheme: if they order up to 100 pairs, then we make socks with an existing design, and if from 100 pairs, we can develop the design specifically for a particular company.

At the end of 2020, we completed six corporate orders, which brought about 300, 000 r net profit. We distributed this money into three parts of 100, 000 r – to the sterilization program, for repairs in the shelter and for the purchase of new products. And in 2021, corporate orders brought 284, 000 p.

Brought corporate orders for 2021

Many of our friends as a birthday gifts ask friends to transfer money to a shelter – so once our friend brought dogs at once 108, 000.

That in the end for money

When ordering online, money is transferred to my card Tinkoff Bank or Sber. On markets, they are paid mainly in cash. And for donations, we opened a separate link to Tinkoff Bank.

For a year and a half, we received 215, 000 r as donations, but the money on this account is not delayed for a long time – they almost immediately go to pay for overexposure and food. The question of whether this money really goes to help dogs is very rare: we openly share all the information, and people trust us.

For 2021, the "dog" earned 1, 668, 000 r

Socks	400, 000 p
Corporate orders	284, 000 p
T-shirts	264, 000 p
Donations	215 000 p
Waist bags	190 000 p
Hoody	145, 000 p
Hot dogs	56, 000 p
Shopper bags	44, 000 p
Soap, magnets, chockers, addresses, trifles	40, 000 p
Solpers	30, 000 p

For 2021, the "dog" spent 1, 428, 450 r

Production of new products	522 650 p
Dogs on overexposure	356 100 p
Feed and medicine	214 900 p
Warehouse rental and manager's salary	176 000 p
Translations to shelters	82 500 p
Sterilization	45 300 p
Postal and transportation costs, taxes	31 000 p

As a pillow of safety, it was possible to postpone about 240, 000. But free money is a rarity, more often we go to zero. We publish detailed reports on Instagram each quarter.

We also took up the official design of the "dog". First of all, they thought of becoming a fund, but such a legal form is not suitable for us: the funds do not produce and do not sell anything. Therefore, we want to arrange an ANO – an autonomous non-profit organization.

If we become such an organization, then there will be two large pluses:

1. We will be able to apply for grants to help homeless animals, as well as receive official donations from legal entities.
2. We will receive benefits for services in state organizations – for example, in the treatment of dogs in state veterinary clinics.

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While slowly consult with a lawyer, we tune in to a long work to collect the necessary certificates and reports. I think that in 2022 it will be possible to officially arrange our "dog".

How much does a dog's life cost

Despite all our efforts and the growing interest of society in the problems of homeless animals, they rarely take dogs from the shelter and overexposure. In 2021, only one dog from a shelter and six puppies from private overexposure managed to find a house.

Most dogs in a shelter are permanent residents. There are chances for attachment mainly among puppies and adolescents, in small dogs and in particularly remarkable persons. Dogs after 5-6 years often remain in the shelter until the end of their life. Therefore, the place in the aviary is rarely released.

Unfortunately, we cannot always take the dog to a shelter, even if we have enough money. There are two reasons: either there is no place, or there are not enough volunteers. Then we put the dog on a private overexposure, most often they are paid. Since we began to appear more paid wards, most of the profit of the “dog” went to their maintenance.

I’ll tell you how much the content of one dog costs per month and a year.

In April 2019, a car knocked out a car, he survived many operations and hit us in a shelter. He learned to walk again, socialized, but so far he has not found his master

Feed. The middle dog weighing 25 kg eats 350 g of dry dog food per day. This is 10. 5 kg per month and 126 kg per year. We buy Purina Dog Chow for dogs – this is the cheapest of the food of acceptable quality. It costs 180 r per kg. It turns out that we spend 1890 r per month on dog food, and 22, 680 p.

Rawhound vaccination is required for any animal, it must be done once a year. The imported drug "Eurican" costs 600 p. There is a domestic “multican” – it is twice cheaper, but most doctors say that it is not so effective. Therefore, we buy the drug more expensive.

Processing from parasites. Every six months, each dog receives tablets against the intestinal parasites “Milbemax” or “Milprazon” – we spend 700 in a year.

With ticks, everything is more complicated and more expensive. They can come to life even in the winter in the same straw in the booths. And home dogs can easily catch the tick for a walk near the heating main. Therefore, I recommend treating animals from these parasites throughout the year. Once every 35 days we give dogs tablets from fleas and ticks “Simparika” – it turns out about ten treatments per year, that is, 3, 500 r per dog.

Diseases, surgery. Vaccinations help to avoid the worst and most expensive diseases. But, living in a shelter, one way or another a dog will get something. Of the frequent problems – cystitis, worms, otitis media, skin diseases and allergic reactions. On average, 2000 p. We also definitely sterilize and castrate dogs, depending on the size and floor of the dog, on average, 4000 r.

Booth. Two dogs can share one booth – especially in winter, when it is vital. In street enclosures, booths often become unusable, once every couple of years they need to be repaired or changed. About 5000 r goes to one booth.

Land rental for a shelter costs 120, 000 r per year. If you divide into 25 seats, it turns out that the place for one dog in the shelter costs 4800 r per year.

It turns out that about 43, 500 per year take to maintain one dog in the shelter. If the dog has chronic diseases, then it will need additional medicines, and the budget will increase.

On average, it goes to the maintenance of the dog in the shelter for the year

If the dog lives on a paid overexposure, then a fee for the services of a person who took a dog is also added to the cost of food and treatment – 5000-9000 r per month. That is, during the year the dog’s maintenance can cost almost 134, 000 p.

For example, one of our wards, the cappuccino dog, suffers from a dry eye syndrome. As a child, he was ill with a plague, barely survived, but received complications-because of this, his lacrimal ducts are not moistened themselves. Kapuchino needs to buy special ointments, drip drops in the eyes several times a day.

Dogs such as Kapuchino cannot live in a shelter where volunteers come only once a day. He lives on a paid overexposure for 6000 r per month. Together with treatment and food, its annual content costs about 120, 000 p.

Perhaps there will be those who ask: "And why all this? "But even such a dog is quite realistic to find a house. For example, a owner who works remotely and will be able to perform eye procedures several times a day will suit him. In addition, Kapuchino is a very charismatic, obedient and kind dog. Therefore, we continue to care for complex animals.

How has the attitude of society to homeless dogs changed

Almost six years have passed since the moment I came to work as a volunteer. All this time, the attitude of people to homeless dogs has changed before my eyes. Every year more and more caring appeared – from ordinary citizens to business representatives.

It is great to see how people who are not involved in volunteering find animals and take to their overexposure or independently look for a house for them. This is a big step and help to all organizations and people who are trying to reduce a huge number of homeless animals on the streets.

It is also great that the business is moving towards: at least six dogs of establishments appeared in Ryazan, and many bars and cultural spaces provide their own sites for events to help homeless animals for free.

Before the pandemic, I regularly conducted zoyetics lessons in schools and universities. For younger schoolchildren, this was called "Lessons of Kindness. "In the classroom, I talked about the problems of homeless animals: why they find themselves on the street, what needs to be done before you get a dog, why it’s good to take dogs from the shelters.

I think it is very important for children to have such lessons. Their consciousness is still ready for change, they are not indifferent and sincere. They will not hear this information anywhere else if the family does not take care of animals.

Now, when outsiders are not allowed to go to public institutions, we hold such events in a private format or online. I also give similar lectures for large brands whose culture supports philanthropy and responsible attitude towards the world around them.

At the same time, I feel our “smallness”: we help dozens of dogs, and at this time hundreds are born on the streets in all corners of the country. Really significant improvements can be achieved only through changes at the legislative level and with the support of the state.

The current law on the responsible treatment of animals is only the first step towards building an animal welfare system in USA. Judging by the news, so far the police have been reluctant to accept allegations of abuse and rarely deal with these cases. But I want to believe that over time, the problem of homeless animals in USA will be solved.

Main difficulties

I often find it emotionally difficult because I blame myself for most failures. I was not active enough in the building, I didn’t write to a potential partner, I didn’t ask for help from a familiar designer and stuff like that. I think too much for other people and what they think. It is still embarrassing for me to ask for free help, every time I have to overcome myself in this.

The shelter of the wards is my most sore spot. When dogs stay in foster care for months, I get discouraged. “What if no one takes them? ” My friends ask me. I answer that the owners will be found, but sometimes I myself lose faith.

Markets on weekends take 1-2 full days and take away time that I could spend with family and friends. There are moments when you want to quit everything, because you are tired, a difficult period, there are few orders or no inspiration, and sometimes it just seems that everything is in vain. But then someone writes words of support, says that they are proud of our project, offers help and ideas for development. It helps you get back to normal.

Wards of Joe and Tiger. They live on paid overexposure in the village. These guys, along with their two sisters, were found by my friends on the flood of the Oka River. They attached only one girl, the other three have been living on overexposure for six months

What to do to reduce the number of homeless animals

Animals usually end up on the streets in two ways: they are thrown away by their owners or they are born there. The second usually follows from the first.

Many shelter curators carefully choose the owners for their wards: they ask if the person can devote enough time to walking and training the dog, who the dog will stay with if the partners part ways, and so on. Very often, already at this stage, people realize that such details have not been thought through. In this case, they either take time to weigh everything, or they immediately realize that they cannot live with a dog.

Breeders of huskies, shiba inu, beagles and dachshunds sometimes sell their puppies without further ado. Future owners do not expect that the husky will destroy the apartment out of boredom, the shiba inu will not unquestioningly follow orders, the beagle will run away on the trail on the street, and the dachshund will refuse to let the husband of his beloved mistress into his own bed. Not everyone who adopted a “fashionable” dog is ready for the problematic behavior of the animal, and as a result, many of them end up on the street.

Another source of evil is sellers from classifieds sites. They sell purebred dogs at a very low price, without documents and regaliach a seller may turn out to be a "breeder" – one of those who breed animals in terrible conditions. These animals are discarded after they cease to perform their only function. Therefore, my advice is not to buy dogs at Avito, do not support crimes against unfortunate, constantly giving birth dogs.

And dogs get lost – and in this way they also end up on the street. This may be a dog that fell off the leash from fear during fireworks, or an uncastrated male ran after the female during estrus, or the dog is generally let out on its own. The minimum that any dog needs is a collar with an address book and the owner's phone number.

You also need to put a chip on which the dog can be identified in the veterinary clinic and call the owner. The installation procedure is painless, takes a couple of minutes, costs 1000-3000 R, and the chip is installed once for life.

An important factor that will help reduce the number of homeless animals is sterilization. All non-breeding animals must be spayed or neutered. Unfortunately, quite a few owners live with outdated stereotypes: “a dog must give birth for health”, “how can I deprive him of his manhood”, “the dog will become fat and lethargic”, and so on. And someone simply does not have money for this operation.

Sterilization of stray animals is an important measure for regulation of numbers. We support such programs in Ryazan. For example, they allocated 100, 000 r from the dog’s budget, for which more than 30 dogs were sterilized.

How to become a volunteer

Everyone can become a volunteer in the shelter. The main thing is to love animals and have at least a couple of hours of free time.

For those who do not have physical ability to help in a shelter, there are many different options:

1. Help with dog attachment, make reposts, communicate with funds, look for potential owners.
2. Help with the collection of money, hold a charitable event.
3. Keep social networks, write texts for posts with attachment.
4. Take the dog for overexposure, help find volunteers.
5. Attract sponsors, bloggers, media.

This is our post about how to get to visit dogs in a shelter. Even just come to play with dogs is already help

I know cases when volunteering changed the life path of people. For example, one of our volunteers worked as a tutor. Having worked with dogs in the shelter, she got a job in the veterinary clinic: first as an administrator, and after training – an assistant to a doctor.

The shelter changed my own life. Since I had a “dog”, I met many beautiful people, participated in the most interesting events of the city. And I could not resist and took myself a homeless dog.

Once a familiar volunteer invited me to pick up a tax-shaped six-month dog. At first, an indifferent woman picked him up in the industrial zone, she herself found him the first family. But there he lived only a couple of weeks – they refused him because he picked up at home.

My husband and I were imbued with the fate of the baby and decided to take him to himself, and for the third year the dog Rocky has been living in our family. And the behavior managed to adjust – as always, they helped love, games, training and delicious ones.

Results and plans

Now I will not be on duty in the shelter – the affairs of the "dog" take me half a day, and eight wards on private overexposures take much time. But if possible, I visit the shelter: you are very attached to the dogs and love them as tightly as your own pet.

Of course, I want to make a “dog” more and more noticeable. I see several ways to develop the project:

1. Become a store and produce even more things under your brand.
2. Become an aggregator of local businesses who want part of the products to send to charity.
3. Create a full-fledged service for finding a pet and animal services.
4. Become a dream shelter.

The Dream Shelter is a multifunctional animal care center in the Ryazan region with warm enclosures for 50 or even 100 dogs, a veterinary unit and a zoo hotel. In USA, there is only one similar center, technologically advanced and, moreover, beautiful – this is the Yuna animal rehabilitation center in New Orleans. But so far I have no idea how this dream can be realized.

I went to the Yuna center for an open day in September 2019. This place is very inspiring to develop the theme of helping animals

Which path to choose – time, circumstances and like-minded people will show. But now I know for sure that we will continue to conduct educational activities, try to develop the urban environment and change the attitude towards animals.

There is still a lot of work to be done in this direction.

Would you like to write such an article for T—F? Any process in which money is involved in some form can be turned into a topic for Tinkoff Magazine. Read our manual for authors and apply for an article.

You have done so much! I read it in one breath, very impressive! Cool socks))

I help animals if someone I know opens a collection or the collection comes across on Instagram. Last year, they took a cat from a shelter, and at the same time they took a little help there in the form of food and medicine.

Pryan, thank you for what you do ����

Helmet greetings to Lena and Sobaken, thanks to whom we got Lunka

Thanks Sonya! Cheers to you and Lunka ❤️

I donate about 3% of my income to various organizations and individuals who help animals. I want to make up my mind and start going to shelters to help walk dogs

Call, go to shelters and communicate with dogs – a super activity, soothes, plus fresh air and physical activity)

I adopted a dog from the Mukhtar shelter in Severobaikalsk a month ago. I myself live in Los Angeles, I saw Jessica’s photo on Odnoklassniak in the fall of 2021, contacted the shelter managers, and at the end of January my dog was brought to me by train. Severobaikalsk is a small town, but everyone helps the shelter, I learned this from the leaders Brenda Vladimirovna and Yulia. They have about 100 dogs and some cats. Your experience impressed me! I want to be part of it))

Martha, thanks! Jessica is very lucky. We always need like-minded people!

Best content of the week! For a while, I was an overexposure for cats who couldn't get along with other animals. I constantly lived alone, sometimes, when it was very necessary, two cats, which I bred around the room and kitchen in my rented odnushka. Now I have a cat and a growing cat, both from the street.

Publicity photo – Samantha, my beloved cat from overexposure, 2011. She happily moved on to her new home.

Us-tas55, Every life is important, including yours (unfortunately). If you want to get a charge of negativity, then go to a public with a political theme, and here, people talk about good and do good.

I have 3 abandoned cats, they do not like strangers, they hide when guests come, all sterilized. Luka is 2 years old, Vasilisa is 5 years old, and Anfisa is probably already over 10 years old, she lived for many years in the courtyard and basement of a city house. Anfisa (Norwegian forest, red) can swim! Once she came to the pool, wanted to drink water, but could not resist and fell into the water (I was already ready to save her!), She swam, made a circle and climbed out onto the bridge! Now they live in their house in the village, in the summer they walk all day in the garden, and in the winter they try not to leave the warm house. Here are some sissies.

Our countrymen! Your merch is very inspiring! What good fellows you are! A little bit about yourself. That year we organized an NGO, rented a building from the administration, now we are building communications there and we will begin redevelopment into a detention center for the homeless. We want to work specifically under OSVV, in the future retraining as a full-fledged shelter. Why in the future? Now there are such standards for shelters that we, with all our desire, will not be able to organize this. At the moment, the financial question arose sharply, what to do it for? Of course, we make preparations, but the response is very sluggish and sometimes our hands drop straight down. You already have a bunch of successfully implemented ideas, can we rework them a little for ourselves?) After all, this will not be considered theft and plagiarism, but rather as friendly help to colleagues! For 2 weeks I was in some kind of vacuum, a little apathetic, your article revived me directly) Having told about yourself, you inspired me to further work! By the way, there is a chat in VK called "Work on OSVV – practice" where ANKO directors from all over USA are gathered, they share their experience, suggest how and what to do, help in registering NGOs, I don’t know if it’s possible to enter there from the search, if not, write – I’ll invite you! Thank you very much from Kasimov, I hugged your whole team! In VK you can find me on request Nikolay Tabunov (Kasimov)

The best that I read on this resource. I really liked the article. More of such people.

A really inspiring story, thanks. I am a volunteer with almost 14 years of experience from the province, so I always with pleasure draw experience from "colleagues" around the country. I immediately want to stir up something too, though you remember what is happening today and the ardor is fading away again towards the standard collection ����

Us-TAS55, it is impossible to compare an empty place with the life of a dog.

Thank you for what you are doing. It’s good that there are such people, God forbid good luck in all your endeavors!

Delight! I admire. Your experience is for me inspiration to action ��

Alekse-us-Tas55U. Of course! The difference from the dog brings, works, works and pays taxes, sponsor theraristic organizations (in the same way people!), robs, kills, rape, harm nature, leaves in the dangers of others, refusing to help,. A lot of things do a lot of things.

I transfer money from each salary, buy dog food. And also took the puppy from the overexposure)))

This year we carry a children's camp to a shelter where the guys will help in cleaning the territory, repair and bring the necessary things for a shelter in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

I admire people like you! Persistence, creativity, the ability to establish connections, build processes, constantly improve and develop all this and, most importantly, not forgetting about the original goals and priorities. Thanks for your work, you inspire and help to believe that it is quite possible to change something in this life for the better.

Great article! Inspiring and informative. Thank you, girls, your work ❤️

Girls, you are huge well done! I am from Ryazan, I heard about your project, but I did not even represent its scale and tasks to be solved! I admire your altruism and creativity!

Good afternoon. My husband and I express my great gratitude to you for your work, we wish you happiness and good luck in everything. Our story began 6 years ago with two thrown cats. In different ways, all the other 99 came to us, most of them are disabled (spinalniks, blind, after accidents, etc.). All these years we have existed without outside help and support. The husband went to sea and with this money there was our secret shelter. We bought insulated wagons, put the air conditioners there, as we could left with racks. Today we have a path situation. For known reasons, the husband lost his job, and in the shelter, the work increased, threw about 20 more cats. The situation is also burdened by the fact that for work we were forced to take a car on credit 3 years ago, in return for the old one, which was breaking all the time. Now and all summer we sold personal belongings on Avito, Named a bunch of money, trying to organize a workplace-angle where you can make different designer interior things, I once had exhibitions in museums. And the fodder ends. Medicines are ending. So I began to look for who came out of such situations. I can’t ask for material assistance, like you, in any case. We really liked the idea with a charitable store, but only on the Internet, it is not realistic to rent a room in Krasnodar, we will only work for rent, the cats will not get anything. And the information and assistance in the formation of a non-profit organization also really need. Whether you got how to consult with a lawyer, what nuances have ended. You really need to contact you to find out everything. We will be very grateful if you respond. Alya, Victor urgently needs help. Literally SOS.

Contents

• How to help others
• How I became a volunteer
• How everything works in the shelter "Thank you for life"
• Shelter problems and first earnings
• Born Free dog food review
• The first "Kraft Market"
• Office and work organization
• How Sobaken collects donations
• That in the end for money
  • For 2021, the "dog" earned 1, 668, 000 r
  • For 2021, the "dog" spent 1, 428, 450 r
• How much does a dog's life cost
• How has the attitude of society to homeless dogs changed
• Main difficulties
• What to do to reduce the number of homeless animals
• How to become a volunteer
• Results and plans