Our Work

OUR VISION

a world where animal suffering ends and living in harmony begins

K9 Rescue charity is focused on making a difference to the treatment of abandoned dogs in developing countries with our work primarily in Eastern Europe where dogs are seen as vermin by the majority and treated accordingly with poisoning, beatings and torture.

We run a Rehabilitation Sanctuary in the UK where traumatised former street dogs can decompress in a natural environment and release all the acquired, and often inherited, fears and anxieties from all of the horrors that they, and their mothers, endured whilst trying to survive in a hostile environment. Depending on how deep rooted their trauma is, it can take months, sometimes years, for them to accept even the slightest touch, and even something simple like gently throwing a treat in their general direction, can seem like a missile being launched at them. Being able to rehabilitate PTSD dogs in a peaceful, calm environment, where they can learn to trust again on their own terms, and in their own time, is an invaluable and integral part of the process of true street dog rehabilitation, as many suffer greatly if rushed into a domestic environment with all the demands that living in a home with a family places upon them. Only when they are truly ready to take that step, do we offer our traumatised dogs for rehoming.

In addition to running our Rehabilitation Sanctuary in the UK for traumatised street dogs, we supply food, medical supplies and veterinary aid to grass roots rescues in the poorest and hardest hit countries of Eastern Europe; currently the emergency animal aid that is desperately needed in Ukraine. Your invaluable support means you will be directly helping animals both displaced by the war in Ukraine, as well as the rescues in neighbouring countries who are taking in the displaced animals. Please help us make a difference today.

K9 Rescue Background

Michelle with K9 Rescue Patron, Lorraine Chase

Michelle with K9 Rescue Patron, Lorraine Chase

After moving to Bulgaria in 2005, Michelle Jones, co-founder of K9 Rescue, was saddened to see so many animals suffering as a result of cruelty and neglect. She soon fell in love with the large number of stray dogs many in desperate need of food and medical treatment, struggling to survive on the streets and decided to do what she could to help create a brighter future for them.

During the following six years, Michelle quickly became heavily involved in rescuing sick and injured street dogs and puppies, providing much needed veterinary care and then re-homing them both locally in Bulgaria, elsewhere in Europe and beyond. She witnessed so many critical injury cases from both abuse and accidents on the streets as well as the typical starvation and skin disease cases that are endemic in the street dog populations due to lack of food and stress of being homeless.

Michelle being interviewed by TV presenter Wendy Turner-Webster

Michelle being interviewed by TV presenter Wendy Turner-Webster

Upon her return to the UK, together with her husband Brian, Michelle formed our K9 Rescue organisation and registered with the Charity Commission. Together, Michelle and Brian have now taken the initiative to focus on the most difficult, neediest cases; the old, critically sick, traumatised, neglected and abused, or dogs that are simply not as attractive to adopters or problematic in some way, referred on to us by other rescuers or shelters; helping dogs that would otherwise by euthanised, deemed as having no future. As a result, unlike many other rescues, we do not re-home hundreds of dogs as these dogs often take months to rehabilitate at our sanctuary in the UK, making it very difficult to have a steady flow of income, and as a result we are rarely able to cover costs.

Today, based on everything we have learnt after starting as a grass-roots shelter ourselves in Bulgaria; K9 Rescue’s mission is to empower more independent rescuers and grass-roots shelters and foundations in developing countries, through encouragement, mentoring and development of their skills for self-sufficiency in animal welfare, with a focus on eliminating the future need of foreign NGO’s by creating the framework for better animal care and bio-security, through animal welfare education of the public as well as through veterinary education, as whilst veterinary skills in Eastern Europe have improved enormously in the last 15+ years, actual compassionate care is still in its infancy, as animal emotions are widely misunderstood, with the common misconception that animals don’t have feelings or feel pain in the same way as humans do; an indoctrination from the former Soviet Union teachings.

In 2013 we began supporting Mimi Mishevska of Macedonia’s Forgotten Dogs Sanctuary.  Mimi is very typical of the many independent rescuers and grass roots shelters in Eastern Europe.  Her basic shelter, in a remote mountain village in Macedonia, does amazing work literally on a shoestring, so we are helping fund the transport of her rescues to new homes in Europe, as well as help to fundraise for food and veterinary care. Having no land of her own, Mimi is constantly being evicted from the land she rents, and each enforced relocation erodes her limited resources further, so now in 2022, we are in discussion with her about finding a plot of land to buy on her behalf, and build a permanent shelter, so that she can focus properly on her true calling of rescuing.

Patron Lorraine Chase visiting us in Bulgaria

Patron Lorraine Chase visiting us in Bulgaria

Together with your support, we can continue expanding our work in Eastern Europe as well as developing projects within other countries to provide care and support where it is needed most and help to bring about lasting change by:

  • leading by example and helping people understand the critical importance of good dog welfare
  • encouraging nations to commit to animal-friendly practices
  • supporting the better treatment of animals in Eastern Europe through veterinary education
  • supporting spay/neuter programmes for the humane management of stray dog populations

rescue
Please check out our Social Media pages to stay up to date with our work and find out how you can help us change the fate and lives of dogs in need.

Holistic Rescuing

Through our work rescuing serious injury and sick dogs, we have become increasingly holistic in the care we give our dogs, as we’ve found natural methods aid in faster healing and also help with longevity and good health.

As a result of our positive experiences, K9 Rescue’s secondary mission is to also promote holistic care and rawfeeding for improved health and longevity to improve the welfare of all dogs, through leading by example and giving advice, support and education.

With much of our work originally focussing on critical injury cases, we learnt to utilise the very best in holistic care alongside veterinary medicine. We believe emotional healing is just as important as physical healing. Our mission is not just to heal broken bodies yet also to heal broken hearts, and this is very much at the forefront of our work at our Rehabilitation Sanctuary in the UK.

Our aim is to treat body and soul as one… holistically

Our integrated approach to the care of our rescues includes:

* Raw Diet
* Homeopathy
* Herbal / natural remedies & supplements
* Acupuncture
* McTimoney Chiropractic
* Bowen Therapy
* Physiotherapy
* Hydrotherapy
* Reiki
* Canine Massage Therapy
* Animal Communication & Distance Healing
* Low Level Laser Therapy
* Zoopharmacognosy
* TTouch

After rehabilitation, our dogs are offered for adoption to families who are open to continuing the holistic care of our rescues with our experienced guidance.  K9 Rescue believe in treating every adoption process individually, and that there is a dog for every family and a family for every dog, and encourage adopters from all walks of life to get in touch with us.

Our adoption package includes:

* Rawfeeding advice & support finding supplies

* Holistic care advice & vet recommendations

* Lifelong rescue backup

Michelle visiting Animal Rescue Sofia in Bulgaria

Michelle visiting Animal Rescue Sofia in Bulgaria

Saving Dogs ~ Inspiring Change

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