When Sara Turetta moved from Italy to Cernavoda in 2002 she had convinced the mayor to stop the killings and let her pursue the neutering programme. The city hall gave her an old, rundown building to use for the project and a lot of time, money and energy had to be spent before it was turned into its current form with a shelter, vet clinic and a quarantine area. The shelter was gradually built around the clinic because dogs were constantly arriving to be neutered and not all of them could be released back to the street.

The flooding of the adjacent river Donau has been a problem from the start, especially in spring and summer, when the water sometimes rises so high that it enters the clinic and destroys materials and equipment. In the summer of 2010 there was terrible flooding combined with heavy rain that destroyed homes all around the town. The water flooded the shelter and the clinic. The dogs all survived thanks to the hard work of the employees who moved them to safer areas or released them temporarily. Next time the dogs might not be so lucky. The shelter needs to be moved as soon as possbile.

The city hall also wants the land that the current shelter is located on and this poses another threat to the shelter. It has also become clear that all the activities that Save the Dogs want to engage in, such as education, can't be executed very well in the current location.

Pictures of the flooding in 2010:

You can see more pictures here.