Dear All,
To update you and keep you in the picture, here is a short account of how the inspection came about, so you can see exactly what happened, in case it wasn't clear.
It was an unexpected inspection. Unannounced. The last equivalent inspection took place at the end of 2011.
First the inspector checked our permit and license and all
other documents. These were all tiptop.
Then, the inspector spent at least 3.5 hours going around with our vet
and Dirk. He felt that our dogs were very well cared for and looked after. He even paid us compliments (and even commented that some were maybe a bit overweight!). He also complimented our vet Rafael about the way he was taking care of the sick dogs. It was
all positive. He also made several random checks on the dogs themselves: the
chip, rabies vaccinations, medical records .... He even checked the chip of a poor dog who had sadly died and its rabies
vaccination! Here everything was still all positive and we got another compliment! The number of dogs per cage was also acceptable.
The only thing he found fault with was in our old facilities, most of
which are now 30 years old, especially the old cages, the old fences surrounding the
refugio, the rusty bars around the cages, the old outdated systems, the
old clinic ... Daily cleaning with bleach leaves its traces. The refugio does of course have electricity but not in each cage and there he had more complaints. The
plumbing, water supply and sewage systems were found to be fine ... but of course they have all recently been renovated. We have had no night watchman since the end of December 2014 but there will shortly be a new one (which was already scheduled before the
inspection). But all the points above were unacceptable to him.
The inspector said that he had to apply the new European
standards and within this framework the old systems were not acceptable and he
would not deviate from the standard. So no wood or wooden fixtures, no rust, all floors tiled and tiled walls up to 1.5 metres high. In recent years we have worked hard and when in 2008 the killing station was finally transformed and converted into our refugio, a rescue home for our dogs, we took
over the existing structure. It's all old today, worn and rusty, which is
true - that is how it is. However, we make daily improvements and are currently rebuilding but we can not do everything at once. It is simply not possible either financially or in
terms of manpower.
But for them to give this hard sentence - get it done in 30 days. That's inhumane!
The fences in the killing stations are rusty, the structures and installations, if there are any, absolutely don't work properly. There are never any night watchmen - yet that was no argument as far as he was concerned because were were not allowed to speak. It causes us enormous stress and anxiety, because we do not want anything to happen to our
dogs. I will go all out to solve this, I will pull out all the stops. I just cannot contemplate closure. I need your
help for our dogs to protect them, from my, from our, worst nightmare. Let us therefore
continue to join forces to alter this hopeless situation.
Today we have certainly not been idle. Everything was quiet all around us, the inspection report is not available yet, everywhere is closed because today is the 1st May. We continue to receive a lot of support ... and that helps
us more than we will ever be able to tell you ... we need you all so desperately. All of you, so thank you so much.
Tomorrow we will begin to make purchases in order to put up the
provisional cages where we can place our dogs and start the work.
Warm greetings,
Fabienne
Fabienne
Fabienne
Fabienne
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