Glencoe couple’s ceilidh to aid Romanian dog rescue
It started with the adoption of one unwanted mongrel from an animal shelter in Romania.
Five years later and Hilary Anderson and Alex Shipp, who had taken that mongrel called Pixie into their home in the UK, have adopted several more Romanian rescue dogs and have their own thriving charity that rescues hundreds more each year.
And a number of those animals saved by Barking Mad Dog Rescue have found new lives in Scotland, including two in the Glencoe home of Kim and Ken Macdonald.
Two years ago the Macdonalds adopted Hazel from Barking Mad’s own shelter in the Romanian city of Constanta, and she was followed by Tommy a year later.
Last year Kim and Ken organised a raffle which raised more than £1,000 for Barking Mad and since then hundreds of pounds more have been raised through the sale of a printed collection of Ken’s nonsense dog rhymes.
And in a few weeks, on April 6, in Ballachulish Village Hall, the couple’s latest fundraiser to help Romania’s badly treated stray dogs will see people take to the floor at a special ceilidh.
‘Hazel had been picked up off the street and put in a kill shelter before she was saved from there by Barking Mad and taken to the charity’s own shelter in Romania,’ Kim explained.
‘People often ask why we adopted dogs from Romania with so many unwanted dogs in the UK – the answer is that dogs in shelters and rescues in the UK are cared for and looked after to much higher standards. They have a chance of a new life.
‘Many dogs in shelters in Romania, on the other hand, are kept in really distressing conditions and will be killed quite horrifically.’
Barking Mad now rehomes on average around 250 dogs a year in the UK and Germany, and feeds another 850 a day in Romania. The dogs at its main and biggest shelter are cared for by a remarkable young woman, Gea Caineanu, her father Ion and Ion’s best friend, Romeo.
And a team from the charity returns to Romania every two months to visit Barking Mad’s shelter in Constanta and when possible its supported shelter in Calarasi.
Kim continued: ‘At the ceilidh there will be a small information table on the work of Barking Mad and hopefully we can encourage other people considering getting a dog to think about one from Romania or possibly sponsoring one instead.’
‘Many dogs in shelters in Romania will be killed quite horrifically’