Our mission the brochure

Millions of Friends
www.ampbears.ro
The first NGO for animal protection in Romania
„We're rescuing animals since 1997”
AMP Page 1
History & Mission
„Millions of friends Association (AMP) was
founded in 1997 by Cristina Lapis, a former journalist from Brasov who dedicated her life to serving
animals. With the support of her husband, Roger Lapis, the French Honorary Councilor, they developed
one of the first animal welfare NGO’s in Romania.
During this time, they gathered a strong team of specialists in veterinary medicine, animal transportation
and animal care.
They managed to save thousands of animals, from
cats, street dogs, to horses, foxes and bears.
"We are “Milioane de Prieteni” (Millions of Friends)
– the oldest animal protection association in Romania.
During the last 17 years, we have rescued from
suffering and death, over 20,000 animals, most of them
stray dogs, cats, horses, but also bears, wolves, foxes
and deers.
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Location & facilities
Brasov Public Dog Shelter from Stupini
AMP has worked with Brasovs
Municipality since its begginings, but
only in 2011 the association signed
a partnership for administrating
the Public Dog Shelter, situated
in the neighberhood of Stupini, in
North of Brasov. This ment putting
an end to cruelty and euthanasia
and a beggining for
promoting volunteering
and adoptions.
The shelter is
located in Stupini
neighbourhood of
Brasov, on Merilor
Street nr.6.
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Location & facilities
Victory Dog Shelter
Established in 1999 in the West Side of
Brasov, Victory is one of the first dog shelters
from Romania. Key facility for stray dog
management, the shelter has the merit of
treating, guesting, caring and rehoming more
than 15.000 dogs în the last 15 years. More,
this is the only social center that hospitalize
injured stray dog and also permits sterilizations
of pets from low income families.
The shelter is located in Triaj
neighbourhood of Brasov, on 10 Fundatura
Harmanului Street.
Specs:
100 kennels
1 vet clinic
1 puppy nursery
3 walking gardens
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Victory Dog Shelter
With 100 kennels and more than 400 dogs, Victory
is a medium size facility that offers complete
services for stray animals and for community.
The heart of this rescue center is the vet practice,
attended by two permanent vets and a vet assistant.
The center attends more than 500 dogs/year, from
rescue, to treatment, caring and accomodation, and
finalizing with transportation and adoption. Over
500 dogs and cats are transported to Germany, Uk
and France each year.
Most common intervention (more than 1000/
year) are pet sterilization and stray dog injuries.
Nr of interventions/year
Open wounds treatment
Hernia
Amputations
Mamry tumour removal
Ocular ball removal
Uretrostomy
Enteroanactomosis
- 300/year
- 200/year
- 15/year
- 50/year
- 5/year
- 5/year
- 3/year
Walking garden at Victory
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Location & facilities
Created in the memory of Maya, today the “Libearty”
Sanctuary is home to 82 European brown bears, all of them
have been rescued from a cruel life of abuses in captivity.
Recognised by many captive bear specialists as probably the
best bear sanctuary in the world, it consists of 69 hectares
of lush forests, streams and pools, graciously provided by
the City of Zărnești, located at the foot of the Carpathian
Mountains near Brașov, Romania. Most of the bears were
rescued from a miserable life in tiny cages providing
“entertainment” to restaurants, hotels, factories, petrol
stations, circuses, and even monasteries. Several bears also
came to the sanctuary after Romania’s EU accession led to
the permanent phasing out of some of the worst zoos in the
country. Libearty is the biggest animal welfare project in
Romania and the largest bear sanctuary in Europe.
The sanctuary is located near Zarnesti, at 200 km from
Bucharest, on an oak tree forest hill.
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Libearty Bear Sanctuary
Europe's largest bear sanctuary
The reservation represents the results of a partnership
between WAP charity organization, “Millions of friends”
Association (AMP) from Brasov and Zarnesti Municipality,
signed in 2005. This sanctuary was the only solution to
ensure the effective application of The Convention on the
Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats
in Romania. In 9 years, Libearty achieved the rescue of 80
bears, mostly kept behind restaurants, tourist guest houses,
circus, bad managed zoos. They enjoy the freedom of a
natural environment on 69 hectars, being the largest space
anybody had dispose for bears.
The sanctuary has 11 enclosure, 13 swiming
pools, 3 large enclosures for long therm care
for bears.
1 enclosure for long therm care for wolves
3 training areas
1 post-trainig area
5 enclosures for bears with special needs
1 administrative building
1 info center for visitors
1 chapel
1 underground observation point
1 Wild Photography platform
1 conference room
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Stupini 2011
Between 2000 and 2011 more
than 30000 dogs were killed
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Ending cruelty and stopping euthanasia
The sinister echo of 35.000 dogs killed from 2000
to 2011 has forced AMP to take action. În 2011, the
shelter was cleaned and 360 dogs were relocated to
AMP shelter. Since 2013, the shelter has been coadministrated by AMP. The medical services were
improved, the kennels where modernized, while
adoptions and sterilizations level has visibly rised.
AMP managed to stop legal euthanasia and provided
food, medicine, employees and volunteers. The
medium number of dogs accommodated is between
250 and 300 dogs.
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Stray dogs. Adoption
AMP focused on rising the number of indigen
adoptions for puppies and dogs. Creating awareness
on the problem of stray animals and organising events
in the facilities had been boosting the number of
indigen adopted animals to 500/year in 2014. This
number is larger than the stray dog population of
Brasov. The adoption process is strictly controlled,
the attendants being passed trough a routine check for
optimal welfare condition. The dogs are vaccinated
and receive an health certificate, and the new owners
are conciliated to ease the insertion into their home.
A program of virtual adoption alows animal lovers to
care for a dog in the shelter without taking it home.
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Stray dogs. Sterilization
Sterilization is a key factor in stray
animal management and for more than 10
years, we have practice it. Cats and dogs
neutering is processed on daily bases up to
15 animals/day, in both shelters. Each year,
with support from local administration and
foreign NGOs, AMP is organizing mass
sterilization campaigns în Brasov and
nearby towns, alowing pet owners to neuter
their companions în a convenient way.
Our efforts have been repayed as the
stray dog number has been settled to a
minimum of 400 dogs – one of the lowest
in Romania.
Sterilization campaign in Sacele 2014
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Stray dogs
Volunteering
We have involve the community in solving the problem of stray dogs. Brasov became a role model
and a good practice example on the private–public colaboration. Stupini Public dog shelter became
one of the few in Romania that alows local volunteers to walk and pet the dogs each weekend.
The Victory dog shelter has a regular flow of foreign volunteers who helps also with food
preparation and cleaning. In 2014, AMP has runned an pillot voluntering project for testing children’s
skills on caring and peting stray dogs in the public dog shelter. Also, the World Animal Day was
celebrated in 2014 with a contest for constructing dog houses, that have been attanded by 15
volunters.
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Wild animal protection
AMP has stand for protecting wild animals since its begginings. Over the years, we had an simnifiquant role in
managing human-bear conflicts by a multi-role aproach: bear rescues, lobbing against abusive killing and offering
expertise and creating awareness. Collaboration with Romanian National Environment Guard, the Environment
Protection Agency, forestry departaments and the Institute for Forest Research has been essential for this activity.
We are offering the only Emergency Vet Service in Brasov County, as an integrated service of 112 National
Emergency Service. Wilst the most common interventions are car accidents, the service also rescued deers, storks,
owls, bats and all kind of wild animals.
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EDUCATION
For more than 20 years, stray dogs, human-bear conflicts, captive bears, poorly managed zoos, and abuses against farm
animals were fairly common in Romania and were neglected by public opinion. The lack of education postponed the
initiation of mass action in the field of animal rights and welfare. AMP believes it’s important to educate children so they
can understand why these actions are needed.
During the 2013/2014 school year, AMP conducted the first study on animal welfare in the Romanian schools. The
level of interest was enormous!
In the sanctuary, all the tours are guided and the visitors can understand the mistakes that humans make regarding
wildlife. Seeing bears playing, eating, listening to their stories, watching documentaries about the rescue missions,
is changing something in the way children think about bears!
In 2014, Libearty Bear Sanctuary was awarded with the „certificate of excelance” by TripAdvisor.
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Education
During the 2013/2014 school year, AMP conducted the first
study on animal welfare in the Romanian schools. The main
objective was to establish the level of knowledge and interest
in the 10- to 14-year-old school population, considered to be
the age that provides the highest interest for animal welfare.
After 7 month of studies, we have registered that over 80% of
the children are interested to study the welfare and protection of
animals in school.
Over 60% of the children
own a pet!
For the 2015 school year, AMP is preparing to launch a pilot
course, ”Animal welfare and protection,” in at least two schools
in Brasov. The pilot course will follow the curriculum of 22
lessons and will also include some extracurricular activities
— visits to the sanctuary, zoos, farms, etc. The experience
will allow us to test some other instruments for teaching —
questionnaires, video lessons, and meetings with a vet.
Improve your future! Invest in AMP
education projects!
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Why should you help animals?
There are many advantages to redirecting 20%: you don’t spend
anything extra, it’sa simple procedure, and it doesn’t take any of
your time. We’ll send you the completed sponsorship form, and all
you have to do is to hand it over to your accountant. He’ll know
what to do with it!
You’ll also benefit from your connection with the Millions
of Friends Association, showing the world that your company is
socially responsible. We’ll promote you on www.ampbears.ro
(over 4.000 unique visitors/month) and at the Libearty sanctuary in
Zarnesti (over 15.000 visitors/year). If you don’t direct up to 20%
of your profit taxes, the money will go directly to the government,
and you won’t be able to track it. But if you direct the money to
AMP, you’ll know that your money will really change the world for the animals.
The Romanian governmental lows businesses to support NGO
swithout having to spend extra money. Under the updated
Tax Code 571/2003, Title 2, Ch. II, Article 21 (4), point
p),“taxpayers who make sponsorships, according to Law no.
32/1994 regarding the sponsorship, can subtract from their
payable income tax the relatedamounts, if the total of these
expenses meet the following conditions: - It is within the limit
of 3 ‰ the turnover; - It does not exceed more than 20% of the
payable tax.”
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Save the captive bears project
AMP has cared for bears fom the late 90’s, but the official fight was intensified in 2005,
once the construction of the sanctuary has started. „Saving the captive bears” has turned into
a succes in less than 8 years, saving more than 90% of the Romanian captive bears contained
in inhuman and/or ilegal conditions.We’re running 5 rescue mission/year, based on continuos
zoo welfare monitorisation, field visits on private properties, complains and notifications
received from animal lovers, requests from authorities or zoo administrations, etc. To get the
bears in our bear ambulance, we make lobby and jump trough beurocratic steps which can
take years.
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Rescue missions
Restaurants: 12
Zoo : 34
Individuals : 8
Forestry departments: 5
Foreign countries: 4
Before 2006
Circuses: 3
Gas stations: 2
Factories: 3
Monasteries: 1
Museums: 2
Reservations: 1
Max held by his owner for tourist attraction
After 2006
Max in his enclousure at Libearty
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ADOPT A BEAR
http://www.ampbears.ro/en/adopt-a-bear
Who`s
my daddy?
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Campaigns
No pet without a tag!
Main objectives, important for the community
- implementation and enforcement of the
law 258/2014
- facilitate the identification and microchipping of dogs and cats
- creating an unitary database
Secondary objectives important for the community
- reducing the abandonment by identifying
the dog and the owner
- reducing the multiplication of stray dogs
- less stray dogs, more civilized streets
- provide guidance to sterilize dog
We put «normality» in society. Support our campaigns!
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ONLINE
We keep in touch with animal lovers trough
our monthly newsletter that you can subscribe by
accesing www.ampbears.ro.
Join our thousands of fans from the online
community by searching „Libearty” and „Milioane
de Prieteni” on Facebook!
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Our activity is reaching over 70.000
persons from all around the world, each
month. www.ampbears.ro is the most visited
virtual animal welfare site from Romania
with over 7 million hits in 2014. Our
database has more than 3.000 contacts from
all around the world, and its doubling its
size every two years.
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Celebrities
Many stars love animals and
during last couple of years, some
of them visited this sanctuary.
Celebrities like Natalie Imbruglia,
Jaqueline Bisset, Peter Maffay,
Alesha Dixon, Asher Keddie,
and Pierre Brice have visited the
sanctuary and some of them even
helped rescue some bears and raise
money for them. In fact, Pierre Brice
is the godfather of the sanctuary!
Pierre Brice (Winnetou) and Cristina Lapis
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Jacqueline Bisset and
Cristina Lapis
Alesha Dixon
Brigitte Bardot and
Cristina Lapis
Peter Maffay and
Cristina Lapis
Alain Delon and Cristina Lapis
Natalie Imbruglia
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Community Awareness
With over 100 media news and
articles each year, AMP is the animal
welfare NGO with the highest visibility
from Romania. Most of the media
follows the rescue actions performed
by the staff from the sanctuary.
For raising awareness, we develop
and run campaigns, events and action
trough the entire year, in all 3 locations
of the asociation.
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It’s not easy to help animals in Romania, but everyone can give a hand. Keeping all the facilities and
the servicies running requires food, gas, electricity and salaries for the employees.
Any support will be appreciated!
Banca Transilvania / Sucursala Brașov
RON: RO95BTRLRONCRT0V16889401
EURO: RO80BTRLEURCRT0V16889401
GBP: RO48BTRLGBPCRT0V16889401
Count Owner : Asociația de protecție a
Animalelor Milioane de Prieteni Brașov
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„Anima” means „soul”. Animals and humans have souls!