THE DOGGY THAT STOLE SUE BARKER’S HEART

For the past six years former model Victoria Eisermann has dedicated her life to K-9 Angels, a charity she co-founded which helps stray dogs being maltreated in Romania. It has rehomed about 850 dogs there as well as building a state-of-the-art shelter that houses 120 needy dogs.

‘We saw a post from a Romanian woman asking for help to rehome a Jack Russell that had been found abandoned,’ Victoria says. ‘She had ten dogs she’d saved living in her tiny apartment and no room for any more. I put up a post on Facebook about the Jack Russell, we were inundated and K-9 Angels was born.’

The problem of strays is acute in Romania because the Communist regime led to millions of people being relocated into high-rise flats and abandoning their dogs. ‘I think the authorities are overwhelmed,’

says Victoria. ‘We recently found a dog with bullet wounds, people had been using him for shooting practice. It doesn’t bear thinking about.’ Even the dogs that aren’t treated badly struggle to survive, like the pregnant dog found frozen to death in the snow recently and those without fur on their paws because they’ve had to scrabble around for food. Adopters can look on the K-9 Facebook page or website to see dogs available for adoption. They then contact K-9, who arrange the administration you need to bring the dog here. K-9 also run a spaying and neutering programme in the town of Craiova. ‘Our motto is every life counts. One dog going from a terrible situation to an amazing home in the UK is wonderful,’ says Victoria, ‘but to really make a difference we have to eradicate strays. Our aim is to spay and neuter every dog in Craiova before moving on.’

It helps that they’ve received high-profile backing. Simon Cowell’s a supporter, as is Sue Barker – who adopted Baiatu, an eight-year-old crossbreed (pictured far left, with Sue) via the charity in 2015. He’d been living in a factory, surviving on scraps from workers. Today Batty, as he’s now known, is happy and Sue’s a patron of the charity. ‘They do terrific work,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t go into those pens knowing I could rescue only a very small number.’

Victoria says that without K-9 these dogs would be doomed. ‘They’re beautiful dogs and they just want to be loved.’