When a young Italian advertising executive saw images of massacred dogs in Romania more than 20 years ago, she could not have imagined she would build an animal shelter on a windswept hill in eastern Romania that has earned international praise.
Ad executive-turned-philanthropist Sara Turetta who has fought for the rights and dignity of abandoned animals in Romania since 2001 established probably the best-run animal sanctuary in Romania.
Footprints of Joy
Her “Footprints of Joy” shelter looks after 250 dogs, 60 donkeys, 15 horses and many cats in the deprived Danube town of Cernavoda near the Black Sea. It raised just short of 1.5 million euros last year from companies, foundations, partners and ordinary people.
Not only does it offer dignity and a good life for abandoned animals, it is, by example, slowly changing old attitudes of the communist era when animals were habitually neglected and abused.
Journalists visited the shelter this weekend ahead of the launch of the Romanian translation of her memoirs- “Footprints of Joy,” published by Humanitas, Romania’s premier publishing house.
Challenges
“You witnessed the suffering of animals and you offered them a haven,” said Vincenzo Tamarindo, first secretary at the Italian embassy. Paying tribute to the challenges_ physical, financial, human and bureaucratic that she encountered_ he called the shelter “a miracle.”
Ms Turetta is charismatic and naturally elegant, even when dressed casually_ and a natural leader. She first arrived in Romania after reading a news report about stray dogs killed in Bucharest. But rescuing the dogs was not her only challenge.
She was hit by indifference, dishonesty, and suspicion about her motives even from people she worked closely with and thought she knew well, a legacy of the communist era.
Setbacks
But her drive, professionalism and love for animals were the fuel that cut through setbacks and obstacles and saw the creation of ‘Footprints of Joy.’
“We have a lot to learn about doing good ,” said Lidia Bodea, the general manager of Humanitas publishing house speaking about the memoirs on Saturday. “We can’t be kind to people and nasty to animals.”
As the coronavirus spread across the world in 2020, Ms Turetta, who lights up the room with her dazzling smile and sparkling hazel eyes, used her spare time to finish her memoirs in Italian ahead of the Romanian translation.
The 247-page book describes how she came to Romania, her struggles and triumphs right up to rescuing dogs from Ukraine this year after Russia invaded.
Volunteers
Her Save the Dogs and other animals charity, registered as a non-governmental organization, has 50 staff_ 45 local hires and five employees and volunteers from Italy, Switzerland, Britain and Canada.
Many years ago in another life, Ms Turetta, worked as an account manager at Saatchi and Saatchi in Milan. In 2001, she found stray dogs who were suffering and literally “dying on the streets.”
Even when she lived in Milan full-time, she worked as a volunteer at dog kennels, but found the situation in Romania far more distressing.
Pounds
She decided something needed to be done to end the situation where dogs are kept in “miserable pounds and killed after 14 days.”
The following year, Ms Turetta resigned her job and moved to Romania in where she set up the charity.
Helped by Italians who were working at the nuclear plant in Cernavoda, she started to rescue stray dogs, who were being poisoned at the time.
“I convinced the mayor to start a trap, neuter and release program and I moved here on my own for 4 years, starting from scratch,” she said in an interview with Universul.net in 2020.
‘Catch and kill’
One mayor supported the initiative, but another two launched a “catch and kill” program using private companies.
The shelter stretches for over 7 hectares on the rolling hills of Cernavoda. It has a sprawling social vet clinic, where 1,300 dogs and cats are neutered for free every year, and veterinary assistance is offered for free to social cases, enabling first aid to more than 200 dogs and cats a year.
Rehomed
Some 41,000 dogs and cats have been neutered for free, and 8,000 have been rehomed internationally, especially in Sweden and Germany.
“We are different to other animal welfare organizations; we have a holistic and special approach to the territories where we step in with the project,” she said.
“This is a deprived community and we care a lot for the people as well. We help beyond our mission, we believe a more compassionate society includes people and animals.”
On Twitter: @SavetheDogsSTD, @sara_turetta
