LARA - 1 year old female Labrador crossbreed - on death row in Croatia

This is beautiful, gentle Lara.

Lara is a children's dog, a people's dog, an all animal's dog. She is a friend and a companion - good for young people, old people, all people. She is calm, assertive, but not pushy. She only seems big, but actually she is quite thin, more like a pointer then a lab. She only stands on tall thin feet, like a heron.

Being in a death row shelter is affecting her, she is a gentle spirit, not meant to live in such conditions, although shelter staff do their best to help and re-adopt every dog there.

PLEASE help us get Lara out of there and put her in a more homely environment. Everybody who spends time with her, will fall in love with her character. Please make her seen, visible, provide Lara with the security she never had.

Lara's life story till now: "they mutilated me, because i was female".

Don't let the expression of smile on her face fool you. Don't let the fact that she is standing on her long black legs mislead you. Don't let the size of her body misguide you. This dog has suffered tremendously. She was a victim of several individuals that claimed that they were helping her, when in fact they only endangered her body and life.

She was just one of the abandoned dogs, living by a local store in the rural areas. Her ribcage was completely visible, but so was her gentle temperament. Calm, submissive and warm hearted - Lara found comfort in being fed by locals in the village, and having an improvised shelter. A rescue organisation was contacted about her, and they made an awful desicion not to help her find a safer location, or a real home, not to take her in at their shelter, but instead they thought just castrating her at the worst and the cheapest vetcare they could find, they somehow did something important for her. But they didn't!!!

A family took her in an effort to adopt her, but from an awfuly performed sterilisation, she suffered bleedings and troubles, and their effort ended up in them leaving her in the next village, so she could not find them, so she could not come to that new home, she was getting used to. NOBODY LOOKED AT LARA. Not the people who abandoned her first, not the organisation who mutilated her for no good reason, and not the people who abandoned her after that.

After being through all that, Lara is now placed at an overcrowded shelter, and she has two painful letters, written on her body, and they are - DR - Death Row. Are those the last letters this beautiful long legged slim girl, will deserve as her markings?

Lara may not have much time left as her death date is fast approaching.  Stray and abandoned dogs in Croatia are often brutally treated and abused.  A life on the streets is a miserable existence with the danger of starvation, being run down by cars (frequently deliberately), violence at the hands of people or other dogs and and suffering due to disease and lack of treatment but the dog who is picked up and taken to the pound has only 60 days and then by Croatian law they must be killed. 

However, we are fortunate enough in this kill shelter to have a resident vet who is also the manager as part of our network of animal rescuers.  He tries to get the dogs adopted and extends their time to do so but if the local city hall should order him to kill those who have reached their 60 days in the pound the law can't be resisted. This law is not the only danger of death in this pound, overcrowding is sometimes the cause of death and injury due to fights.

The vet does his best with the limited resources available, local volunteers are recruited to come and walk the dogs on a Saturday afternoon. This is the only time of the week the dogs can leave the pens and there can be long periods when the walks are not possible and due to the ratio of dogs to volunteers some will not get exercised at all.

These dogs have basic care but they suffer in the pound from stress, boredom, fear and sadness. They are all desperate to get out of their prison and be loved and part of a family.

DEFRA compliant for travel
Vaccinated: yes
Neutered: yes
Treated for fleas and worms: yes
Microchipped: yes
EU passport: yes
Weight: 22kg
Age: 1 year 
Located: Beli Manistir pound