Save the Animals-Armenia has been an AKI Partner Organization since 2010. For AKI support to SAA after 2016, please read AKI Blog posts on AKI's SAA page here; before 2016, keep reading......
It's never easy to raise money in Armenia for Save the Animals-Armenia. But 2015 was especially difficult for Nune and the SAA shelter. So Nune was very grateful to receive AKI's 2nd disbursement of 2015. She bought dry dog food, rice (see 2 pictures), and meat, paid shelter workers' salaries, and bought meds. Nune told us that by now, many of the shelter dogs are old and need daily medicines, which can get very expensive.
Earlier in 2015-Save the Animals Armenia used half of AKI's 3rd disbursement of 2014 to spay a few shelter and street dogs (it costs approx. US$80 --and that's a good rate in Armenia--to spay a dog). SAA also used AKI funds for vet treatment of the dogs in the pictures below: the 2 with Elizabethan collars had skin problems, including raw feet from licking and needed meds; the black puppy was attacked by dogs and needed surgery and special food; and the dog in the 2nd picture below was spayed. Two other dogs were treated for cancer--AKI funds covered the chemo.
I love this sweet description that Nune wrote about the little black puppy in the 3rd picture below: "3-month-old female, very active and cheerful, very much like to play. Adopters will gain a lot of great treasure." (She was adopted.)
SAA rescued these puppies, pictured below. Along with the mama dog, they were dumped outside the SAA shelter. The puppies were taken into the shelter for safety. The puppies' vet care and special puppy food was provided thanks to AKI donors (2015). The mama dog was so afraid of people, she couldn't be approached, so SAA fed her until she began to trust and they were able to bring her into the shelter.
In addition to the above, SAA used AKI's 3rd disbursement of 2014 to buy dog food (see pictures--dry dog food and rice, which Nune mixes with meat).
In January 2014, with AKI funds, SAA bought dog food (1st picture below) and material to repair the roof of the large shelter building. In March, once the weather warmed up a bit, SAA started to repair the roof. And then, by the end of 2014, AKI had raised all the money needed for SAA to finish repairing the roof of the large shelter building (2nd picture below shows the work in progress).
These pictures show the damaged ceiling of the large SAA shelter building that needed to be fixed:
During 2013, SAA used AKI funds to purchase food for the shelter dogs (at that time, there were 220 dogs at the shelter), for SAA's street cat and dog spay/neuter and feeding program, and also used AKI funds to help some dogs whose owners don't provide the best of care (Nune used AKI funds to purchase food and for vet care and s/n) . Some pictures from SAA's community work are below:
During an August 2013 visit to Save the Animals-Armenia, I saw so many improvements; many can be traced to AKI's support to the shelter. The dogs looked healthy and well fed, and shelter infrastructure had been repaired. I met Vahe, an Armenian vet, recently returned to Yerevan from Barcelona, who is so willing to help Save the Animals with s/n and other vet care.
These pictures are from my August 2013 visit to the shelter: The wire on the pens and the gates has been repaired, the roofs of the pens are new (see below, thanks to Myra), and the the running areas have been subdivided so that now all dogs can be out running and playing like "normal" dogs for over 2 hours a day, instead of the 30-45 minutes they used to have outside their pens.
AKI Support to SAA pre-2013
SAA has been an AKI partner organization since 2010. AKI donors have provided funds for food and for infrastructure, including construction of roofs on the dog houses, a water tank (picture below), and drainage repairs, and fencing to divide doggie play areas. AKI has also helped Nune cover the costs of salaries for the shelter staff, veterinary fees, and dog food.
In 2011, an AKI donor, Myra (who sadly passed away in 2017), donated the entire amount needed for SA-Armenia to purchase material for the roofs and to pay workers to place them on the outdoor dog pens. Imagine if these roofs were not on the pens--the dogs would have been so cold during the notably snowy and cold winter of 2012. (Picture 2 is BEFORE the roofs were placed)
Also, when Myra found out that Nune had to travel to the shelter every day to bring meat-she had no freezer to store meat there and keep it fresh-Myra donated the funds for Nune to purchase a deep freeze for the shelter.
One donor can make a huge difference; together our donors, have come through for Nune, Save the Animals-Armenia shelter, the shelter dogs, and community cats and dogs of Yerevan for 8 years and we plan to continue as long as Nune needs our support.
These are pictures of some of the dogs at the SAA shelter in 2014 when there were about 220 dogs at the shelter. Now (2018) there are 160-170, a much more manageable number, allowing Nune to spend more effort helping community dogs and cats.
