October 2, 2020 - Ivana Kramer from Vukovar became Croatia's first animal rights lawyer after graduating from the Faculty Of Law in Osijek

Ivana Kramer from Vukovar has become Croatia's first animal rights lawyer. She did so after graduating from the Faculty Of Law in Osijek, having received her diploma on September 23. The Faculty Of Law in Osijek is the only one in Croatia that has an elective course in animal rights.

In a recent interview with Vecernji List's Suzana Lepan Štefančić, Ivana explained that her desire to become Croatia's first animal rights lawyer stemmed from always having been around animals. “I have three dogs,” she said, in explaining her choice of the elective course in animal rights, “and my mother Željka adopts and helps abandoned animals.”


Some of the animals that Ivana's mum Željka looks after in Vukovar. Photos from the Facebook of Željka Kramer.

Ivana commuted to the Faculty Of Law in Osijek for five years in order to complete the course, choosing to stay living at home in Vukovar rather than move to the Slavonian capital. She says she would ideally like to stay in Vukovar to begin working in this field of law.

Her elective course in animal rights was undertaken in the final year of her studies and was the step that propelled her to the status of Croatia's first animal rights lawyer. During this final year, she researched the Animal Protection Act, which was implemented in 2017, with an emphasis on the situation in the Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem counties. Her research included dog shelters in Vukovar and Osijek, where she occasionally volunteers.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

As Glas Istre/Andjelo Dagostin writes on the 20th of January, 2020, on a sunny winter afternoon, Glas Istre reporters arrived at Pazin Animal Shelter, housed in two buildings of an old military complex located just north of Pazin, at a location called Loke near Pazinčica.

They were welcomed by the Pazin Animal Shelter's manager, Pazin local Mae Isaksson, who, together with her daughter, Maja Lilith Klemen (president of the Happy End association) and volunteer, Swede Benny Andersson, has been caring for abandoned animals, primarily dogs and cats, for over a decade now. On weekends, 20-30 volunteers come from all over Istria to lend a helping hand at the Pazin Animal Shelter, and in the summer months, even tourists show up. Some come and work, but most walk the dogs.

When they decided to open an animal shelter back in the spring of 2010, they looked for terrains and facilities around Pazin that would be suitable for this, however, Pazin itself had very little to offer. They decided to equip a part of an old military complex that was empty, devastated and that had been of no interest to anyone for some twenty years. Pazin requested that the Ministry of Defense hand over these non-prospective facilities for ownership, concession or lease. In the meantime, the asylum-plots were included in their spatial plans for the purpose of the animal shelter, and some time has been lost on the property-legal solution of a disputed piece of land, a classic Croatian saga. Nevertheless, a shelter project for fifty dogs was completed and a location permit was issued for it.

''Ten years have now passed and we haven't gotten anywhere,'' says Isakkson, and when asked where the plot is, he says that the asylum-containing plots of land are currently owned by the State Property Ministry, which now has no obstacles in its way to solve the problem. He notes that they have encountered a legal problem, however. Specifically, the first few metres of the plot on which the main shelter building is located was affected by the flood risk zone and it should therefore not be located in such an area. Owing to that, Pazin applied for an asylum permit for an adjacent plot of land that is not in any area within the risk zone.

''But what happened at the end of last year? A new law on shelters was released that deleted the item on flood risk zones, so that what has been the biggest obstacle for us to legalise the facility has now been resolved. It would be expensive for us to go and build a brand new shelter,'' Isaksson says, adding that after Pazin's involvement with the water and rubbish collection, they needed more electricity, a septic tank and renovation of facilities as well as the installation of more adequate heating, etc.

For the time being, solar panels are being used for light, as some dogs must be treated with their various therapies at night.

"We're now waiting for the opinion of the County Office for Spatial Planning as to whether or not there is any other legal obstacle preventing us from registering the Pazin Animal Shelter. But now it's certain that the asylum will come to be: either it will be registered or a new one will be built on the adjacent parcel of land," Isaksson explained.

Legalising the business would ultimately provide them with finances (food, veterinary care and employee benefits), as they now depend on a donation from Pazin and on people's goodwill.

When it comes to the question of how many animals have been adopted so far, Isaksson responded:

''Considering all those who only stayed with us for a few days or were temporarily staying with someone, we must have adopted over a thousand dogs by now. Until last year, on average, we received and fostered about a hundred dogs a year, but then you're there from morning till dark, there is no moving anywhere. Last year, we significantly reduced the number of dogs we took in because of our uncertain future,'' said Isaksson, adding that cats are rehomed much less frequently.

They currently care for 40 dogs and 60 cats, but they also have pigeons, ducks and even one young seagull. A real little zoo. How did the young seagull come to the Pazin Animal Shelter?

''They brought him from Pula for us to rehabilitate him and then let him go. We planned on having him with us for a week or two until his injured leg was healed. And now he's completely healed, but he can't fly even though his wing looks normal and the x-ray shows nothing, apparently some nerve is destroyed. Maja tried to put him back by the sea anyway, but the bird did not want to go. One can see that he knows what to do, run, take off, but one wing doesn't work at all and now he lives here. He gets along with the ducks very well,'' Isaksson noted.

In the enclosure, five ducks and one seagull swim around in small pools. Very nice. How did the ducks get there?

''I bought them at the cattle fair in Zminj, because I felt sorry for them. The seller said that these little ducks would weigh three pounds in three months and would be ready for slaughter. And so, for two years now, which is already old age for fattening ducks in our country, here they are,'' said Mae.

Although this is not the focus of their activities, Glas Istre journalists asked whether they were engaged in animal rights initiatives or improvements to farm conditions.

''Whenever we have the opportunity and time, even though we have no space here, but we certainly support and join any such petition or action,'' Mae replies. She added that when they started the Pazin Animal Shelter, the ideas were much larger and more complex - an animal centre with special departments for dogs, cats, a wildlife rehabilitation centre, and a farm animal shelter where children could be shown how animals should live, etc.

We don't advocate veganism so much, people should be left to choose whether they want to eat meat or not, but we advocate for the proper conditions of domestic animals while they're alive,'' points out Mae, who says they had big plans, but after ten years they are already a little tired and have lost hope that some of it will ever come to be.

This does not mean that they do not have wild animals visit within the vicinity of the Pazin Animal Shelter, because of the proximity of drinking water in the stream, they often see wild pigs, foxes, roe deer, badgers, rabbits, weasels and more.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more.

Animal welfare is a burning issue for anyone who has half a heart, and in Croatia, there is a lot that could be improved at the city, county, municipal and even state level when it comes to respectable animal welfare practice. While some more popular tourist cities, such as Dubrovnik, continue to act ignorantly and fail absolutely miserably when it comes to animal welfare, other cities across Croatia are much more proactive. Pazin in Istria is one of them.

As Glas Istre/Andjelo Dagostin writes on the 4th of October, 2019, in the popular Poreč Italian Community building, a donation action for the Happy End Association - an asylum for both dogs and cats in Pazin, organised by the Poreč Lions Club, was held in Poreč's Freedom Square (Trg Slobode).

In the aforementioned building, a large number of members from Novigrad, Pula, Poreč and Opatija, as well as the residents of Poreč and a large number of children gathered together for the donation action.

It was an evening of magic, cabaret, poetry, dance, music with the participation of the magician Dario, cabaretist Davidina from Trieste (Italy), duo Anita and Dante Marušić from Buje, tenor Kristian Marušić from Grožnjan, poet Valter Turčinović from Buje, cellist Hana Gubić from Poreč, pianist Suzana Uršić, flamenco dancers of ASD Ventaglio from Trieste (choreographed by Hana Rivano), "Wild Country Dancers" from the Buje-based ''Liv'' Association, Ele Dance from Trieste, Mrs. Bojana and her dog Frida's show, and the presentation of the dog hotel ''Istra Dog Land''.

All the performers performed for free in order to collect animal food, medicine and donation money for the Pazin-based Happy End Association, which cares for a large number of dogs and cats in its asylum. Everybody in attendance donated money or brought food for the dogs and cats instead of tickets, and a light dinner and drinks was organised for everyone after the show.

A special contribution was made by the Bau Miao Help Association from Buje, which collected and brought in 29.5 kilograms of dog biscuits, 14 kilograms of cat biscuits, 21 kilograms of wet food (meat) for cats, 21 kilograms of cat meat, five kilograms of cat litter with anti-odor granules included, large and small containers, pillows and blankets.

In total, more than ten thousand kuna was donated in cash for the purchase of yet more food and animal medicines, and around the same amount was donated in both dog and cat food.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

July the 20th, 2019 - When it comes to animal welfare, it's an understatement to say that there is a lot to be desired for in Croatia when speaking in general terms. Of course, on an individual level the care tends to be good, bar a few cruel and disgusting acts which unfortunately take place all over the world. The state's initiatives for animal welfare however, are desperately lacking.

One of the charms of the Croatian coast are its many, many cats wandering around the stone streets in search of a dropped fish or a bit of meat from under a restaurant table. While some find the presence of so many (often loud) street cats a bit off-putting, most people find that multicoloured cats, sometimes with a missing ear or eye, searching for scraps among the array of legs to be sweet.

Dubrovnik, where the cat colonies reign strong, is one of Croatia's problem cities when it comes to the care of these animals. Instead of introducing a capture, sterilise and release program funded either by the local government or indeed possibly through the EU, Dubrovnik chooses to completely ignore the increasing issue of too many feral cats wandering the streets, breeding not only among themselves but in turn breeding parasites and potentially dangerous diseases.

Cruel individuals tend to try to ''fix'' this problem by placing poison down, resulting in a slow and absolutely agonising death for the animal that has eaten it, as well as for any animal which then comes to eat its body.

The famous makeshift animal shelter located on the top of Bosanka, Žarkovica, run by the tireless animal lover Sandra Sambrailo and receiving no support from the city is just another shame of Dubrovnik which it has tried to push further and further away from the glitz and the glam of the centre of town, as if exporting its problem out towards the border with Bosnia, so as to have as little to do with it as possible.

This ugly side of Dubrovnik isn't seen by many, and that is, just as with many other Croatian tourist destinations - just how they like it.

Fortunately, unlike the City of Dubrovnik and its continually neglectful, shameful policy towards its stray animals, a municipality in Central Istria with much less international popularity has taken charge in caring for its stray cats. 

The Motovun Municipality writes on its Facebook page:

''In cooperation with activists, the vet hospital and the Motovun park communal company, the Motovun Municipality is taking care of stray cats. The cats are regularly sterilised/castrated, and a few days ago, the Motovun Municipality also received two wonderful new cat feeding stations.

The feeding stations consist of a covered area for food and water, and in the extension, there is a separate space in the form of a box where the animals can escape from the cold and rain.

The feeding stations are located beneath the first city gates, and below the kindergarten. The aim is to provide the animals with a safe and quiet feeding and living space to try to keep as many cats as possible away from the city squares and off the streets, as well as from the terraces of hospitality facilities.

We'd like to thank Radijal K Izrada Stolarije carpentry, who made and donated the feeding stations for the cats, we'd like to thank activists for caring for the animals and for their cooperation, we'd also like thank the vet hospital in Poreč for its excellent cooperation and professional work, suggestions and assistance, and the utility company Motovun park d.o.o. which transported the new feeding stations here to Motovun and set them up at their foreseen locations.

The Municipality of Motovun is a pet friendly destination!''

Bravo, Motovun!

Follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more information on animal welfare in Croatia, how you can help, and much more.