Mickey Rourke is a huge animal lover. When times were hard for him he credited his dogs for getting him through it all. He has publicly attributed his comeback in the movies to his dogs and has describe one of his dogs as the "love of my life." He is well known as a pet lover, being particularly fond of chihuahua mix dogs. He is also a big proponent of spay/neuter. In 2007 he participated in a protest outside of a pet shop and has also done public service announcements for animal welfare.

Recently while shooting a movie (Dead in Tombstone) on set in Bucharest, Romania, Mickey Rourke made a life changing decision that will help thousands of homeless dogs in Romania. He made that decision after a stray dog, whom he named Foxy, wandered onto his movie set. Rourke has since adopted the shepherd mix.

For decades activists have protested, pleaded and negotiated with the Romanian government to stop slaughtering the estimated 50,000 to 100,000 stray dogs that live on the streets in the capital city of Bucharest. The dogs live horrible lives scrounging for food and being hunted down by dog catchers who are well known for their brutal killings.

Since Mickey Rourke has personally come face-to-face with the stray dog problem in the Romanian capital, he was moved to offer a solution that promises to vastly improve the lives of the strays there. He has vowed to raise 1.5 million Euro to build an enormous shelter for the dogs and personally pledged a donation of $250,000 toward the facility. He has decided to call the shelter "The Wild Dogs of Romania Sanctuary" and says it will be 'as large as a football field and will be able to host thousands of dogs.' Hopefully a much needed aggressive spay/neuter program will also be affiliated with it.

Mickey has also guaranteed that no one will make any money from this investment. He will be returning to Romania whenever necessary to oversee how the project is going. Because of Mickey's kind actions someday very soon the much persecuted stray dogs of Bucharest will finally have a refuge of safety.