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Thousands of kilometers of wandering: volunteer lost her daughter and home to save 100 animals
Animal rights activists moved thousands of kilometers to Dagestan to build shelters for sick animals from scratch. Emilia took responsibility for hundreds of dogs and cats in need. Now she and her pets live in a remote place near Makhachkala. The woman told a correspondent of KP-North Caucasus about her trip.
Previously, Emilia was from Dagestan and worked as a pastry chef. She held management positions and her income was enough for a comfortable life. The woman lived in Yessentuki and raised a school-age daughter. But every time she passed a sick dog on the street, her heart bled.
"I saw with my own eyes how animals were abused. It was stressful for me. And when I saw all this in the nearest city of Yessentuki, I started catching [animals – ed.]. And in the end there were more than 20 of them," Emil recalls the beginning of the trip.
Despite the animal rights activist's good intentions, not everyone was moved by her mission. The family could not accept Emily's values, and the woman's mother took her granddaughter to live with her. Local residents did not like this neighborhood either. Sometimes they wrote complaints about home shelters.
"I would come to work at night and stay home in the morning so the dogs wouldn't bark at that time. Then he started complaining that he was howling at night when I wasn't around. So we got kicked out." Animal rights activists understand the neighbors' complaints and respond to them.
Emilia did not blame her neighbors for wanting to sleep at night. After that, life brought her to a neighboring village, and then to another city in Stavropol. We had to move from place to place every month. The last straw for her was her eviction from the house in Nevinomiysk. When the owner found out about the number of dogs, he kicked the woman out. Then she decided to return to her homeland.
"A caring person from Dagestan saw me. He has a farm, but he doesn't work on it. It's for sale, but no one is buying it yet. He suggested that we move in to have a roof over our heads. I moved in in June, installed water there and cooked on a gas stove. We connected a cylinder to the stove and cooked under a tree," Emilia says.
Emilia's immediate plans include building fences and houses for cats and dogs. The situation is complicated by the constant addition of pets that are saved from death on the streets by animal rights activists. Some are given to other volunteers, and in this case the women set strict conditions. She insists that volunteers do not give animals to other families. Activists recall more than one case when skin experts turned out to be under the friendly guise of new owners.
"I have 28 animals with me now. I entrusted mine to Stavropol volunteers, and they have known me for a long time. There are seven left in Yessentuki. And we have to take many animals from temporary shelters. "There are more than 100 of them," the animal rights activist admits.
The shelter still has many problems to overcome. As always, Emilie is unlucky with her neighbors. This time, they are threatened by wolves that approach the animals at night. Until the territory is fenced off, animal rights activists will have to spend the night next to their pets to drive away the predators.
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