“Mrunio” was founded in July 2006. Since then, I have been trying to convince the municipalities that stray dogs and feral cats’ problem is serious and should be taken care of, without delay. Unfortunately the municipalities don’t want to deal with animal problems. They deal, if

they are forced to, with stray dogs’ problems; but not with abused animals. Cats are treated worse than rats.
 
At this time Foundation has got some support from district authorities. Unfortunately, they can not participate in an animal protection project in an active way; as Polish law specifies that "Providing care to homeless animals and catching them lies with communes” (and not with districts). There are 14 communes within our district. It has been impossible to get the agreement of all of them.

I decided then to act differently. It seemed a better idea to convince one Mayor to become a leader of the project. As usually lots of people like to follow the leader and the Mayor of Kłodzko is a typical politician so he likes to hear that he is a born leader. Bringing the media help a  lot too. On 1st October 2007 the Mayor of Klodzko and I signed an Agreement of Cooperation to deal with homelessness problem.  So,  the municipality pays we back some of the money I spend for taking care of stray dogs. Some of the expenses only. I managed to convince  the Mayor to build a little temporary “shelter”. I also created a network of foster homes. Our temporary “shelter” is for 5 kennels only. I got  the place outside the town to build the shelter there. It can be for 10 regular kennels and 4 isolation kennels. We have a volunteer to work  with the dogs there. We have money to run it but we have not money to build it. That little shelter would help very much locally. It could be a  good example for other communes to follow.  

A battle to fight homelessness is not just building a shelter. Building shelters won’t solve the problem. No matter how many shelters we build,  they will sooner or later get filled with dogs. There are limited funds for running shelters, so the dogs will obviously have the poor  living conditions and less and less chance for re-homing. First of all the growing population of stray dogs has to be limited – by neutering.  There is no funds for neutering and there is no will to get funds to do that. I am sure that it could be possible once someone starts the  project. We are willing to do that if we manage to obtain some funds to start. The project is big. We would have to neuter at least a 1.000  dogs per commune; we have 14 communes in our district and 26 districts in the department. I am not able to calculate the costs of the  project at the moment.

Secondly, the educational program has to be launched at schools, public libraries, community centers, etc. Education should include: responsibility for ones own pet (too many cases of abandoning animals; too many cases of abusing animals; horrible life of chain dogs; etc); helping the stray dogs and feral cats; helping in a future shelter; helping charities; reveal the cases of animal abuse; understand the necessity of neutering program not only for stray dogs but for all the dogs. I have already started to organize the program for elementary schools: “Humanitarian education in English”. There is a big push for children to learn English in Poland, so I decided to use it and I proposed a combined project – to learn English having a specific subject: animals. There is a big interest in that project. The teachers are willing to help. There was an article in nation-wide newspaper about that idea. This is important because the support of media is definitely
helping. The project should start in September. Thirdly, roper adoption program through media and web-sites:  of municipalities and schools.
 
- Building a shelter.
 
Shelter is not a new home for a homeless pet. It is a temporary refuge until a new home is found. Home is family and no family should live in a shelter.
 
Terrain for the shelter is provided by the Mayor. It is located in wonderful entourage with lots of trees and bushes on it and the forest around.

- The shelter should include huge exercise spaces and playground for dogs.
- The cats should live free. There should be one barn for them with several floors and lots of places to hide and lots of things to play
with. There should also be lots of little tree houses for the cats who like to be alone. They would have one specific place to eat.
- The important place is the reception. It should include a kind of big living room and few smaller rooms with armchairs and sofas, toys for children, cats and dogs; a little library. Cats should have a free access to that accommodation. It is important that the cats have constant contacts with people. They can play or just simply sit on peoples’ lap, on the armchairs and sofas. There should be dogs around there. The dogs however must be carefully selected.
- There should be a store near the reception.
- Cafeteria.
- All usual for the shelter places, spaces and compartments.
 
Later on with some luck and some money we would build:
 
- Hotel for the animals (that would limit dog/cat abandoning in summer season).

- Vet Clinic (we have to drive over 1,5 hours to the closest clinic; there is a big problem to make an Ultra Sounds or X-ray examination in our district; it is impossible to make a blood test).

- Education and training center of various kinds with conference rooms (for dog behaviorists, voluntary service and humane education for children …)
- Dog Therapy Center
 
That should not be just a shelter but a complex of various locations directed to improve the life of animals and to improve the relations between humans, felines and canines.
 
That people and animals are happy together.