Subscriptions
for good causes

Q1

Tell me, have you ever helped animals or shelters financially?

Yes. And I volunteer: I take photos of animals so it’s easier to find them a new home.

Q2

What exactly made you do it that time? What was the situation? What did you see? What did you think?

I was at home, scrolling Instagram and Facebook, eating with one hand. There are so many animals that need help. I saw a personal story of one animal online and felt so sorry for it. And seeing others help: I’m not alone, I’m not weird for doing it.

Q3

Did your donation go to the shelter in general or to a specific animal?

To a specific animal. It feels better to respond to one.

Q4

What steps did you take to make the donation? What did you tap? What were you thinking along the way?

On Facebook I copied the card or phone number from the post. On Instagram I took a screenshot and copied the number from the picture in my gallery. Then I opened the bank app and wrote the animal’s name in the note. After that I sent a DM: “sent the amount”. Sometimes I went to the bank in person, to send it to another bank’s card without a fee.

Q5

If you ever thought about donating but didn’t tap “Transfer” (didn’t finish the bank transfer), what stopped you? At what moment? Why did you give up?

Yes, I’ve turned transfers down. I got distracted. Or I took a screenshot to donate when my salary came, then forgot. New animals kept appearing.

Q6

How often do you donate to animals?

Big amounts once every two months, my income isn’t steady. Small ones every month. 13% of my income always goes to animals.

Q7

Tell me how you decided to donate. How did you choose who to send money to?

Shelters I know. The ones that give feedback, talk to their followers and share contacts of who else can help. Or a desperate post from an ordinary person who can’t cope. The rescue story matters a lot: who found the animal, where and when, what happened, its medical history and life updates.

Q8

What feedback did you get after your donation? What did you feel? What did you think?

If I don’t message them, there’s no feedback at all. If I do, they reply and thank me. If they replied, the money arrived and it will go to helping animals.

Q1

When did new animals last arrive? What was the situation?

Kittens get left at volunteers’ doors. Tiny ones, still on milk, need 2–3 weeks of foster care to survive. Their immunity needs that time to build antibodies. People we know call and ask us to take an animal, but places are limited and we don’t accept all of them. People can be aggressive: they call to hand over their own animals because they don’t need them any more, or they’re moving away. And there are lost animals, then we have to find the owner.

Q2

What did you do? What did you feel? What were you thinking?

They need constant watching, feeding, massage. Every hour counts. It’s constant stress. Adoption takes a long time, to protect the animals: people are irresponsible, they abandon animals and treat them badly. And everyone wants a breed.

Q3

How did you register them? What steps did you take? Where were you, and what was happening around you?

There’s no paperwork. Everything is in my phone: Notes, WhatsApp, receipts. An animal gets its name after a month or more, when everything is already fine. On a dog’s card: photos before and after. There are chips, but no chip database yet. You only see the number, nothing about the owners, the address or the vet clinics.

Q4

When did the shelter last have an urgent need? How did you realise it? What was the situation?

Ticks, Lyme disease. One IV drip costs 10,000 lei. Treating the dogs takes good tablets, 400 lei. Distemper and parvovirus too. Vaccines are needed all the time. There’s no law on animal cruelty, and we need one to join the EU. The police don’t even come to those calls.

Q5

How did you deal with the shelter’s lack of funds?

Fundraising on Instagram, volunteers. There are 2–3 of them, they help at least once a month. Help also gets sent from abroad, and animals find homes there. People meet the animal in person, outdoors. It needs a rabies vaccine, a rabies test 6 months later, and a chip. The test can only be done in Romania, and sending the blood sample there is expensive, 300 euros. There’s a baker abroad: a sweet for a euro or a pound. Any product can work like that, as a donation for the animals. We need money to save more animals and make more places in the shelter.

Q6

Tell me about the last time you received donations for the shelter. What did you do? (How do you keep track of donations?)

Donations come by PayPal and cash. We keep the receipts. A report on cash donations once every six months. After a year, the shelter’s account opens. People can send 2% of their taxes to charity. People also give food and meat, bedding, towels and pads, kennels and cages, leashes and carriers, litter trays, toys, medicine and vaccines. They can pay for grooming or vet services. Or give their time: walk the dogs, feed the animals, take photos, write posts to find a new owner, or foster.

Q7

When you last announced a fundraiser for the shelter, what steps did you take? What did you open? What did you tap?

There’s very little time for social media. I start writing a sad post, cry, and delete it. It’s hard to write. So the posts show animals that are already beautiful and healed. A real story with the hard photos scares people off, or brings negative comments.

Q8

What did you feel and think after you opened the fundraiser?

Show the reality and people attack you. Show nothing and they think you do nothing. Volunteers argue in the comments about who rescued a dog.