Testimonial of Marilena Ganea

Testimonial

of

Marilena Ganea

I, Marilena Ganea, hereby declare and take full responsibilities for my declaration that I was part of the team which organize the RAA transport from Romania, Bucharest to UK, London on 28th of May 2011.

This transport included 26 dogs, 10 of them came from Galati-ROLDA, 3 of them from Ploiesti – Public Shelter , 1 from Craiova-private rescuer, 8 from Bucharest-my rescues, another 1 from Bucharest-private rescue as well and 3 from Timisoara-private rescuer.

I was the coordinator from Bucharest, checked all the transport documents for all the dogs and took the responsibilities over the dogs from the moment they arrived at the meeting point in Bucharest. So, the transport was due to start at 10.00 from Bucharest on 28th of May 2011. In that morning I was at the meeting point waiting for the dogs from Galati, Craiova and Targoviste. Was a cold foggy, windy morning, arround 6-10 degrees Celsius. Around 8.00 o’clock my mobile started to ring and I gave the directions to the drivers which bring the dogs to Bucharest.

The first transport which arrived after a 4 hour journey was the one from Galati followed in very short time by the one from Craiova and later on the one from Targoviste. I remember like it was yesterday the shock and the horror which took me over when I realized how the 10 dogs from Galati was transported in that cold windy morning! I saw a pick-up car which contained 3 cages in which was shoved all the 10 dogs as followed: 5 dogs in one cage, 4 dogs in another cage and only the biggest dog, called Tata, was alone in one cage but not even him was not able to stand-up in the cage because was to small for his size. The 5 dogs from the first cage was not able to stand up all together or sit down in the same time. In this cage one of the dogs was in distress, he was laying down between the legs of the other 4 dogs, crying. In the other cage where 4 dogs was shoved the situation was the same, they could not sit or stand-up all together. The only luck was that the dogs did not showed any sign of aggression otherwise we could end-up with a lot of casualties. The pick-up car which transported the dogs to the speed over 60 km/hour was not covered so they did not had any protection against the wind or cold air currents.

Immediately I started to call the drivers of the car which had to do the international transport, hoping that they will be able to arrive sooner then the hour which we agree in order to be able to clear the dogs from the overcrowded cages. Unfortunately my kennels were at the full capacity and even if I was trying my best I could not see any other way to decrease the stress of the dogs. I called as well the rest of the RAA team in UK and I let them know what situation I had in my hands .

Finally at 10.00 the transport van which was hired to make the international transport arrived. First dogs which went into their own private kennels was the ones from Galati. I was not thinking about anything else! The well being of the dogs was the main goal. After all the dogs was loaded in their own crates we feed them and give them water and the transport finally was able to go.

This is my testimony and I hereby take the full responsibilities for it.

Marilena Ganea

07.08.2011