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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: July-August 2007

Fire hits Dubrovnik shelter

 

DUBROVNIK--Rescuers evacuated 200 dogs from the Drustvo Za Zastitu Zivotinja dog shelter just ahead of one of the worst of the midsummer 2007 forest fires that ravaged the Croatian/Serbian border region.

The shelter occupies a fort dating to Napoleonic times, used by Serbians who shelled the walled city of Dubrovnik in 1991-1992, killing about 250 residents. Little changed since the 13th century, Dubrovnik is a United Nations-designated World Heritage landmark.

"The fire damaged parts of the shelter, but no animals were injured," reported Vier Pfoten founder Helmut Dungler on August 8. Based in Vienna, Austria, Vier Pfoten has helped Drustvo Za Zastitu Zivotinja to sterilize dogs, and also aids a Dubrovnik feral cat project.

"They lost a certain amount of food," Dogs Trust chief executive Clarissa Baldwin added, citing contacts who helped to organize the 2005 International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in Dubrovnik, "but lots of people from the town have been donating food. I will see what we can do to assist."

The sheep of the Kornati islands off Croatia were less fortunate. "Major drought in July exhausted all reserves of surface water," dried out wells, and resulted in "weeks of no presence of even dew in the mornings," e-mailed Davorko Feil of the Association Life.

Feil estimated that up to 25% of the estimated 5,000 sheep who inhabit the islands died of thirst, even though they are "adapted to the dry conditions that usually exist there."

Kornati residents asked Croatia to use firefighting tanker aircraft to fill two dry ponds, Feil said, but all available aircraft were fighting the fires on the mainland.