Romania is a beautiful country but the way it's animals are treated is many times far from beautiful or humane. In fact it is down right disgraceful - stray dogs are shot and poisoned by the govt. Both puppies and adult dogs are often discarded and left to fend for themselves. It is a huge problem in that country.

 But there are still some compassionate people who try on their own to help the strays. One such person was Ovidiu Iftode who was bicycling near his home in Romania when his 13-year-old dog found several puppies in a bag that were thrown into a shallow river. He pulled them out of the river but was unable to bring them home that day.

When he returned the next day, he discovered to his horror that the puppies had been taken and thrown into the river a second time again in the bag. But the five puppies had a guardian angel in Ovidiu, who rescued them again from the river. It should be noted that discarding unwanted puppies is a common occurrence in Romania. According to Ovidiu, "It's pretty disgusting I know, but the way people think around here is that they'll become stray and attack smaller animals for food."

This time he carried them across the road to a corn field and then brought some milk and some food for them. After eating they became quiet and went to sleep. On the third morning when he went to check on them he discovered that somebody had taken them from the field and threw them in the river, this time one by one.

Both Ovidiu and his father retrieved the puppies from the river. Although it was shallow, it was deep enough for a puppy to drown in and they were clinging to sticks and rocks to stay alive. Ovidiu and his father dried them off and fed them. This time they put them in a box and moved them far from the road and the river onto their land.


However once again when they went to check on the puppies the next day they found that someone had taken the box with the pups and again thrown them into the river. This time they decided that they had to take them to their home for safety.

Here they worked on cleaning them off from the mud and fleas and fly eggs and larvae that was caked on them. It took five hours to do all of this for the five pups. They then bathed them in a solution that a vet had recommended to kill any remaining insects. The pups were so exhausted from all of this that they slept for 10 hours straight afterward.


The pups are now doing well. Ovidiu explains the way of thinking in Romania, "Throwing and killing puppies and kittens is far too common here, people only want 1 or 2 dogs around their houses and will kill or throw away any puppies that are born. They are also too lazy to spay or neuter them. Kittens are killed because they often kill chicks or ducks (which they do because people don't feed them and expect them to hunt birds and mice)."


Ovidiu gives credit to his 13 year old dog for finding them in the first place. "This is my 13 year old dog, Laika. I took her off the streets when she was 1 year old. She's extremely intelligent and well behaved and she's had a strong impact on my childhood. You know...try and be the person your dog thinks you are. She's the one that actually found the bag of puppies and she's been very protective of them, guarding and overseeing them ever since we put them in our yard."
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