Julie and Colin Lewis are the  Chair and Treasurer of the RSDR  UK group. 

We first became aware of the plight of the Bulgarian street dogs during a snowboarding holiday to Bansko.  There were many dogs foraging for food around the town, many of which were young puppies.  One family of dogs lived against the hotel wall with no other shelter from the cold and snow. 

Each morning we took food from the hotel breakfast bar and fed it to any dogs we found; one female in particular caught our attention and we sought her out each day.  On our return to the UK, we decided that we would return to try and find her and to bring her back home.  It was at this point that we began searching the internet to find any charities that could help us in our quest.

We found RSDR and that is where the story really begins.  Although many miles from Rudozem, Diane did kindly offer to take care of the dog if we were able to find her again; unfortunately despite spending a week searching for her later that year, she was nowhere to be found.  Another charity informed us that there had been a cull in the spring after the tourists had all gone and many dead dogs bodies had been found in bin liners in the streets.

Horrified about this news and unable to do more for ‘our’ dog; we decided to support Diane and Tony in their work.  After meeting the family and seeing the situation in Rudozem, it wasn’t a hard decision to make.  We talked to Diane and Tony about what we could do to help and agreed that setting up a group/charity in the UK would allow us to help with fundraising and increasing awareness of the work they do.

We are committed to this cause and further details of fundraising events will be on our Home Page under Events.

 

Mandy Spicer is the UK Adoptions Co-Ordinator.  Mandy will be arranging adoptions in the UK, organising home checks and offering ongoing support to adoptants and helping RSDR UK with any fundraising.  Mandy will also be offering her house as a collection point for items. 

 

 

Heather is the secretary of RSDR UK and has been supporting RSDR since early this year (2010).  Heather  also took part in the sponsored swim in August with Julie, Heather's sister (also called Julie) and her friend Terrie.

 

 

 

Diane and Tony Rowles moved to Bulgaria from the    UK in August 2007 with their 4 children, 4 dogs and 2 cats.  The idea was to live a more peaceful life, in contrast to the busy lifestyle they had in Britain.  They bought a family home in Rudozem and another property which needed renovating in a village about 1 hours drive away.

It wasn’t long before they saw the treatment of the street dogs and when money allowed, they would feed them on the streets.  They saw how the local people reacted to having street dogs in the vicinity and were shocked to see them spat on, kicked or have stones thrown at them.

Early in 2008, their youngest son Luke befriended one of these dogs as he was going to be shot.  You can read about Ranger’s story at this link Rangers Story

After that, more dogs were rescued and taken to the family home to be cared for and to be kept as pets.  However it soon became clear that something more needed to be done and in March 2009, RSDR became a registered foundation.

An adoption team is now well established in Holland and to date over 100 dogs have found loving new homes.  The aim now is to raise sufficient funds to buy a piece of land and build a clinic/shelter; not only to house more dogs but to provide a neuter/spay clinic for local people to access and also for some of the street dogs we find, as this will help to reduce the street dog population in the future.