Magdalena Radu has worked in the Giurgiu area for many years as a lawyer and animal rights defender. Magda also serves as chairman of the association Asociatia Phoenix. She used to manage and develop the conditions at the public shelter located in Giurgiu about 80 kilometers from Bucharest, and has been operating a rigorous spay and neuter campaign in the town for several years, reducing the numbers of dogs on the streets and offering medical care for the injured.
As described by friends; Magda is an incredible iron lady, and it feels like there is nothing that Magda couldn’t organize or arrange.
I asked Magda to tell me about herself. Who she is, where she came from and how she became to be “the iron lady” of animal welfare in Romania?
"I have always loved animals", Magda answers, "and since I was just a little kid I never understood how people could eat “children of animals”, so I didn't!
I became a lawyer because of the idea of justice", she continues, "I loved my job, and I did it with all my heart, as I do all things in life! At one point I had to choose between my job and the animals, and the animals came first. But my job helped me for a long time to support the rescues I did. I can say that I sacrificed myself for what I loved, and this big love that I have for the animals made me love to do it! I have great passion for everything I do. If I see a being in the water, I jump for it without thinking twice.
Giurgiu Public Shelter and the birth of Asociata Phoenix
Magda used to manage the
public shelter of Giurgiu after the former manager of the shelter was
discharged from office for misuse against the animals. But the road to getting there wasn't easy. When Magda first discovered the public shelter of Giurgiu in 2006, she
tried talking with the authorities. Their answer was that they only speak with
an organization, not with a private person, and so Asociata Phoenix was born.
"They asked for it, and they got
it", Magda says with humorous sarcasm.
Asociata Phoenix closed down dog catchers in February 2007 for
maltreating animals and illegality in conditions.
"They tried to kill dogs during night time, so me and my husband, after
many nights of watching, caught them killing dogs by hitting them in the head (the video
was on national TV and we have it)", Magda reminisces. In the entire year of 2007 Magda closed them down 3
times.
"Being a lawyer and knowing the legislation has been the biggest advantage
in stopping the activity of dog catchers so many times. It's strange that
in Romania you have to know the law in order to show to authorities that they broke it!"
Before Magda stepped in, the public shelter had a contract with a commercial "best
solution & consulting team", and the town was paying almost 100 €/dog. Magda proposed a public/private partnership; the association comes
with its money and the government funded public shelter with their money for a big neuter program, resolving the problem faster. Magda also proposed to activate an adoption program.
They chose Phoenix for the contract. After a short
time however, when euthanasia law was in discussion, authorities raised the question whether or not Magda would agree with killing dogs if the law passed.
After only a month and a half, the Giurgiu public shelter was handed back to the former
manager, a decision made by the city mayor.
While in charge of the shelter in 2011, Magda was able to make huge changes.
First on the agenda was getting good, clean water to the shelter. The old water was so bad that many dogs had digestive
bleedings or died from it. So that's what Magda did; she brought them good
water.
The second biggest problem at that moment was hygiene. It was
summer when Magda took over, and the cages desperately needed water installation so that cleaning and washing of the cages could be properly done. And so, once again, Magda made it happen.
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| Giurgiu public shelter before Magda's management |
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| Giurgiu shelter before Magda's management - dead dogs amongst the living |
The third
challenge was the workers. All workers were used to the old ways of how the shelter had been run, where nobody
really had to clean or care for the dogs. So now when they really had to seriously
do some work, they didn't like the job anymore. Unfortunately, that meant more work for Magda, who after her own job program would
go to the shelter and do the cleaning.
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| Clean cages at Giurgiu public shelter after Magda took over |
Proper disinfection was the next step. And after that,
because the cages at the shelter are pretty small, a new rule was to walk each dog.
"This
nearly made the workers have a heart attack", Magda says laughingly.
Each week a doctors team from Bucharest would come to the shelter to perform
neuterings, and in 4 weeks, Magda and the team had 150 dogs neutered. 20 dogs went to adoption to
Germany and more than 20 to Finland.
Asociata Phoenix and Magda's Angels Place (MAP)
Asociata Phoenix has during its years been able to accomplish many great things, like verify the dogs catchers' (authorities)
work, rescuing, starting a spay/neuter program and national adoption. Because back then, between 2006-2010, Magda had no international connections, all principal financial
resources came from Magda's job.
"90% came from me, and the rest from small lucky
local donations", Magda explains.
Magda Radu has been building the Happy Angels House (now, renamed Magda's Angels Place) since August 2011 when she received the news that the authorities behind Giurgiu public shelter were ending the contract. Magda had to
remove everything, dogs and equipment. At first Magda thought about putting some of the neutered dogs (that didn't have adoption requests at the time)
back to relatively safe
territories, but when facing the choice... she took them all with her (160 dogs).
"I had a piece of my own land that I bought a long time ago. I had to build gates and fences in one day, and I moved there over night. It was an empty field, with no water, only two
small decommissioned rooms that we used for puppies."
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| Rooms for the puppies |
The first challenge for Magda was to
find water. The second challenge was electricity, and after that she had to build safe cages because winter was closing in. Magda's option wasn't normal cages, but something like "wood
rooms" because it offered more protection in case of too much snow (and that's exactly what happened - Romania was struck with one of its worst winters in a long time). Thanks to the wood rooms, none of Magda's dogs died (like was the unfortunate case at some other shelters). "I used a lot of hay to help
keep the dogs warm", Magda says.
The vision of Angels Place was beginning to form in Magda's head: An adoption and rescue center for street dogs and cats in Giurgiu. In Angels Place they would be
safe, warm and given the veterinary treatment needed. Adoptable dogs could be
adopted across Europe, whilst unadoptable dogs would be returned to a safe area in which
to live. And, of course, all dogs would be neutered.
There are many happy endings already due
to the work of Magda Radu.
Magda
also wanted to point out that without the help of the finnish people
and Pelastetaan Koirat ry, there wouldn't be water, electricity or
material to build from to make the project of Angels Place possible.
"They
were the only ones who helped and for this I wish to thank them all,
for each and every penny and dogs food donated! Kiitos"
The project plan was to build 40 rooms, but due to winter closing in
and running out of money to pay for everything, the wisest thing was to make half of the originally planned amount of rooms ready in order to have the dogs safe.
"Today, we wait for good enough weather to start
building again", Magda says.
Next steps in the project is to make a play-garden for the dogs (having them in
cages is not what Magda wishes for them); plant trees and to
recondition the decommissioned rooms and make a bathroom for people who would like to
visit.
Magda's Angels Place will also offer an ideal site from which to run spay and neuter
operations. Extensive work has already
taken place on building the center, but more help is needed to finish the project. There
are very few rescue and adoption centers in Romania, and Magda is hoping this
pioneering project will inspire rescuers in other towns to follow suit and
build their own places of safety for these beautiful dogs.
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Angels Place in the making
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| The first steps of Angels Place |
Donations for Angels Place
Although Magda's Angels Place is a stand-alone project not directly affiliated with Asociata Phoenix, all the donations go through the Phoenix account. This way people will know that it’s a "controlled
thing".
"Each year we make the balance of payments and have finance control so I can
show in black and white where every penny went", Magda explains. "If
somebody donates for the neutering programs, the money will go there, and if a donation is made to Angels Place,
it will go to Angels Place."
All the work and everything done is kept alive by
donations.
"I was my own principal sponsor until I got sick (Magda has been diagnosed with cancer). But from now on I
hope people will read more and won't let this project die."
Once finished, Magda's Angels Place can provide DECENT
space for more than 100 dogs. Meaning, if possible, there
should be two, no more than three dogs in one space.
The hard part will be finding trustworthy people to work at the shelter. In Romania, many of the workers don't like dogs, they only pretend to like them to get paid. And it is difficult to put the basics of the work on
volunteers because it can be unsafe.
"At the moment I prefer me or my husband to go there.
At least then I know we have safe volunteers."
Future plans involve finding the right kind of person to work there.
Looking back and looking forward
What
accomplishments are you most proud of?
"When all around Romania cruel dog catchers were killing dogs,
here in Giurgiu they weren't even allowed to catch dogs after I closed them down. In 2007 I was able to save more than 700 dogs from the dog catchers. Now our streets here in Giurgiu are not
full of dogs (ie 3000 stray dogs in a small city with 54.000 people), because all this time I've organized neutering campaigns. Over
3000 dogs and 1000 cats where neutered by my work here."
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| Sterilization campaigns |
What
is the most important thing, in your opinion, to help the stray dogs in
Romania?
"We have a big problem here in Romania;
authorities are not interested in the well-being of animals. In their point of view, the
only way is killing. Because it is illegal now, they have no real intentions to
resolve the situation. I strongly believe that we have to keep them on the
loop and keep pressuring them: international, national, media. The most
important thing now is to stop the authorities from making commerce on the life
of animals. And as a final solution we should sue the authorities. Or Romania will
end up like S-Italy (where mafia controls this)."
What are your
plans for the future?
"I wish Magda's Angels Place to become a shelter with continuously improved
conditions. I want it not to be compared with romanian shelters in the future."
Pelastetaan Koirat ry has been cooperating and helping Magda since 2011.
If you want to support Magda's work for stray animals and the rescue center
"Magda's Angels Place": please share her appeals, adopt or foster a homeless
animal or donate:
PAYPAL: phoenix_animale@yahoo.com
IBAN and Swiftcode:
NGO Phoenix-animal protection and human care;
RO95BTRL01904205852050XX
swift BTRLRO22GRA
www.sponsume.com "Happy Angels House"
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| Pictures of some of the dogs at Angels Place |
