ZAGREB, February 2, 2020 - Almost 1,100 animals were adopted in 2019 from the Shelter for Abandoned Animals of the City of Zagreb, better known as Dumovec, just like in 2018, so that 844 dogs and 248 cats found their new home, the shelter said earlier this week.
Most animal adoptions, every fourth, take place on a Saturday.
"A lot of people come because they have seen a photo of a pet on our website, but when they arrive, they 'fall in love' with another one," says the shelter's manager Tatjana Zajec.
She says that they have been warning people for a long time that the pet's appearance is not something they should base their choice on. "A pet should be chosen according to a person's lifestyle. The person and a dog or a cat should 'click' and they should be suitable for each other in the long term," Zajec says.
The number of interventions in which the shelter's fieldwork staff assisted state and city services nearly doubled last year. There were 134 such interventions, with the team mostly helping veterinary inspectors and the police. The team had a total of 2,100 interventions. Besides pets, domestic and wild animals also needed help. Birds required the most interventions, 774 of them.
Wild animals are inspected and treated by the Zagreb Zoo, while the shelter's veterinary clinic takes care of cats and dogs. Its veterinarians performed about 10,000 examinations, vaccinations and surgical procedures.
"In its 19 years the shelter has become a place for the systematic care of abandoned animals. Our staff are on call 24 hours a day so that injured animals could receive the appropriate care even in the middle of the night. The current needs of abandoned animals in Zagreb exceed our capacities. We therefore hope that owners will become more responsible toward their pets and that we will be able to expand our dog and cat housing capacity as soon as possible," said Damir Skok, the director of Zagreb Zoo, which includes the Dumovec shelter.
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