Sarajevo: Story of corruption and sad dogs from Gladno polje shelter

Written by: Jelena Paunović

If I said once again to the whole world that the situation in another B&H shelter was disastrous, what would you tell me? And here it is again. The same story all over again. And really – this is another sad story, just like many before and many yet to come.

Yes, dogs in shelters over B&H are starving to death, lacking food they eat those who failed to survive the torture, the authorities take dozens of thousands of Euros… All this is hardly news to anyone. Sometimes I think that I could actually write a text along these lines: on this particular day, in this particular shelter, activists faced the disaster… dogs eating each other, nobody does anything, employees are having a barbeque and don’t care about anything happening around them… in the mean time, manager hopped over to Spain with the family for a vacation. Using money meant for dogs.

Is it really news to anyone anymore?

This girl is looking for a permanent home

The new and the old, million times told story, this time comes from the shelter in Gladno Polje. Activists have reacted to desperate situation in the shelter countless times. Stories were published by domestic and foreign media (links can be found at the bottom).

The Veterinarian Office and Inspection Office of Canton Sarajevo have been informed on numerous occasions about the horrors that dogs captured there go through. The last time this inspection was in the field, the inspector would not go into the shelter. Words of the manager that everything was fine were enough for her. After she performed an inspection, she left an abandoned dog in that horror. She never asked about it again.

Sanela and Lejla – dogs angels in Gladno Polje

Whenever you come to this so-called shelter, unless there is absolutely no one there, it is not uncommon to meet just drunk employees stumbling around the yard with beers in their hands. One of the employees managed to get liver cirrhosis working at this “job”. It must be that the job of continuously getting drunk with regular salary and without caring about dogs is extremely difficult.

This shelter was opened in 2012 with a lot of media exposure. It was open as the part of Agrarian Association of Sarajevo’s municipality Ilidza. Judging by the state found in the Association, except for bankruptcy or pro-forma opening of the “shelter”, the other option certainly seemed more appealing to the manager. Dogs do not talk and they bring in a hefty sum each month! How could corrupt manager and corrupt municipality mayor who belongs to the party that brought sadness to the entire Bosnia ever resist to such a proposition. It all seemed like a VERY GOOD INVESTMENT AT THE START. Dogs in boxes, and they keep all the money.

At that time they did not count with those who have some soul! At the very start, when the “shelter” was first opened, many activists gathered around the idea. As the time moved along, the most persistent who stayed on that front to fight for suffering dogs were – Sanela and Lejla.
Often without money, without transportation to the shelter (15-20 km away from the city), with diminishing hope and faith, these two brave women were not giving up on poor and abused dogs. With tears in their eyes, wet feet and without hope it would ever get better, they were the ones making the life bearable for over 200 dogs that are now in the “shelter”.

Sanela and Lejla in Gladno polje shelter

All the big money that was sent from the budget to the coffers of the Association managed by the corrupt manager Almir Dzakovic, apparently went missing without a trace in the private pockets.
Regardless of dozens of thousands of Euros they are getting, there is no electricity in the “shelter”, there is no heating, roof is leaking, no veterinarians, no castrations, sterilizations are not done… Even the garbage the volunteers gather is not thrown away!

Since disinfection is not performed in the “shelter” either, rats’ nests are no news! When volunteers gather all the garbage, it stays there for more than ten days, on sun, rain, snow… When it all gets ripe, dogs drag it around the yard. Although officially called “shelter”, this budget money laundering machine reminds more of a horror settlement! Dogs are brought there by anyone and everyone, there are more dogs around than there are inside the “shelter”, residents complain… but this story has been shoved under the rug for years.

Powerful people buy the media, just like they built another hell for the man’s best friend in front of our faces.

Sanela and Lejla say they will not give up, but their strength is declining as well. When they do not go to the “shelter”, they say they are being haunted by those sad eyes, their souls hurt, and in their warm homes they feel the cold that goes through the bones of nobody’s dogs in this budget money laundering machine.

On July 23rd 2014 I’ve contacted the manager of this concentration camp and asked for an interview. He wouldn’t meet me. I think he was afraid of subtle, follow up questions. And these are the questions that Mr. Almir Dzankovic wouldn’t or couldn’t respond:

1. Abandoned and lost dogs shelter, that was built as the part of UPI Agrarian Association Ilidza and is situated in Gladno Polje, officially started working in May 2012. After two years of work, have the conditions from the Rulebook on Founding and Conditions that must be met in the animals shelters been met=
2. How did you come to an idea to turn one of the side objects of the Association into the dogs shelter?
3. When the shelter started working, you only had an Agreement with Municipality Ilidza. How many municipalities do you have an agreement about accommodation with today?
4. What is the capacity of the shelter? Is there enough space for new dogs that municipalities in cooperation with Hygiene Service bring to the shelter?
5. How is the work of the shelter financed?
6. What veterinarian stations do you cooperate with? Do you have non-sterile or non-inoculated dogs in the shelter?
7. How many dogs from the shelter have been placed in homes during past two years?

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Media about Gladno polje shelter:

http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/vijesti/bih/skloniste-ili-muciliste

http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/vijesti/sarajevo/uzas-u-azilu-za-pse-u-rakovici-u-boksovima-lesevi-stenadi-fekalije-i-leglo-pacova

http://inmemoryofvucko.org/tag/gladno-polje/

http://www.change.org/p/association-for-protection-and-welfare-of-animals-%C5%BEivot-bih-demand-investigation-into-horror-shelter-in-gladno-polje-sarajevo-bosnia

Please join this Facebook event if you want to help dogs in Gladno polje: https://www.facebook.com/events/380345598785866/?fref=ts

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