RayHouse 
This is our new, exciting and the most challenging project so far.
We have bought a plot of land in the Moscow region (through our Russian sister-charity RAY). And we would like to build a bespoke rehoming facility on that plot of land.
The facility will comprise a newly built house which will accommodate no more than 15 dogs and 20 cats at one time. The plot will be secure. The facility will be have experienced and trained staff 24/7. The animals will receive individual care, training and lots of TLC.
We aim to use this facility to improve rehabilitation and rehoming of rescued animals in Russia and also as a place where we can continue our educational work for children, families and volunteers.
The land was bought with a donation from one of our Trustees specifically for this project. We now need to raise funds for the construction costs.
Shelter support
We are making a contribution towards supporting 30 shelters in Moscow and Moscow region (both private and state owned). There are over 15,000 cats and dogs held in these shelters. All shelters need help with food, medication, building materials, household and cleaning products.
It costs on average £25 to feed 1 dog for 1 month in a shelter.
Donating to LAPA could not be easier. Here are various donation options to suit your preferences and lifestyle. However, if you are a UK tax payer, we would really appreciate it if you donated using donation methods which allow you to add Gift Aid to your donation or provided us with your contact details so that we can send you our Gift Aid form to sign.
Quick ways to Donate through PayPal for those on the run. Please choose Family & friends option:
- Direct to info@lapauk.org (via PayPal)
- Or by typing PayPal.me/lapauk into your browser
Neutering
Neutering is the only humane way to reduce the stray population. Both pets and strays should be neutered. Pets are often abandoned because they have health or behavioural problems which arise because they have not been neutered. Or their litters are killed or abandoned which could have been prevented by having the pet neutered. As a result, animals suffer and the number of strays continues to increase.
- A female cat can get pregnant twice or even three times a year from the age of 4 months. A female dog twice a year from the age of 6 months.
- A cat can give birth to 2 – 6 kittens in one litter. Dogs can give birth from to 4 – 12 pups per litter.
- If a female cat or dog was to mate every time she came into season, and all their kittens/pups were to survive and breed, then there would be up to 21,000 extra cats or dogs in just 7 years.
Neutering also prevents the risk of testicular cancer in males and uteris infetcions and cancers in females. Neutering eliminates urine marking and roaming in male cats. We promote neutering of pets and pay for the neutering of stray and shelter cats and dogs as well as rescued animals adopted by people with low income. This is one of our priority projects.
The cost of neutering ranges from £20 to £90 (2,000 to 8,000 Roubles). The cost depends on whether the patient is a cat or a dog, male or female, and if female, whether she is already pregnant. We only work with tested and experienced vets and clinics, on a discounted basis.
Veterinary treatment
Every rescued animal needs veterinary help of some kind after they have been rescued. Sometimes its just a check up, de-worming, flea treatment and vaccinations. Sometimes it is more serious. Living in the streets is tough – there are many infections, injuries and cancers which mostly arise from the lack of neutering.
We pay for the treatment of rescued and shelter animals when the shelters or volunteer groups who look after them cannot afford to pay for it themselves.
Every cat and dog deserves good veterinary care and should be spared from suffering.
- It costs on average up to £25 to de-worm, de-flea and vaccinate a cat or a dog.
- It costs on average up to £100 to carry out all the necessary veterinary checks and tests on a rescued dog or cat
- If a rescued cat or dog is ill, it costs on average up to £250 to treat them if the illness is not serious or complicated and the animal does not require hospitalisation.
We only work with tested and experienced vets and clinics, on a discounted basis.
Animal Taxi
Most shelters and volunteers who look after rescued animals in Russia do not have cars. When a rescued dog or a cat has to go to a vet for a consultation, tests, treatment or an operation, volunteers have to find someone with a car who will drive them there or get a taxi.
Neither option is satisfactory. Friends and family who have full-time jobs cannot help during the week days when the vet clinics are fully staffed and carry out the most important treatments. And taxis are expensive and not many accept shelter animals especially sick ones. Also, if an animal has behavioural issues or very ill, they require professional handling and safe transportation which volunteers or taxis cannot provide.
Under this project we provide animal taxi service to rescued animals for shelters and volunteer groups at no cost. The service is available for the trips from shelters or foster homes to a vet clinic and back again within Moscow and the Moscow region.
The taxi is a car which has been purchased with donations collected as a result of a crowd-funding project. The taxi has been fully fitted out and the driver has been trained to international standards for the safe transportation of rescued animals.
As far as we know, there is no other project like this in Russia. It will help many animals to receive timely veterinary care and it will provide much needed support to hard-working volunteers who spent their time, money and energy on rescuing and rehabilitating abandoned cats and dogs.
Education
In order to stop animals being abandoned and abused, it is essential to change people’s attitudes towards animals. We believe that education about humane, responsible and respectful attitude towards animals is key to achieving such changes. It will bring about a happier, more informed and safer relationship between people and animals.
We created a bespoke educational programme for children of all ages called “LAPA Druzhbi” which means “The Paw of Friendship”. The programme consists of several lessons for different age groups. During the lessons children learn where stray animals come from, how to prevent this, how to help stray animals in the streets and rescued animals in shelters, how to treat animals safely and how to take care of them properly.
The lessons are interactive and the children have a chance to debate, play games and older children work in groups on case studies and prepare presentations for their peers. There are lots of visual materials used at the lessons. Lessons can be held in Russian or English and are conducted by 2 teachers. At the end of each lesson children receive a gift and a certificate of completion.
Our programme is the first of its kind in Russia. It has been approved by a well-known UK charity Dogs Trust and our teachers have received their training.
It costs £2 to conduct 1 lesson for 1 child. In 2018/19 school year we conducted 644 lessons for 13,053 children.
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School for volunteers
There are still very few registered charities in the animal welfare sector in Russia. Those that exist are quite small in size due to the lack of resources. Therefore, the burden of rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing abandoned and abused animals is mainly carried by volunteers.
The purpose of this project is to provide professional training to the volunteers so that they have relevant knowledge and skills. This will make them more competente and efficient.
The School of volunteers provides training through group tutorials and online self-study modules. The current modules include:
- veterinary medicine and care
- dog and cat physocology
- what pet food is made of and good nutrition for cats and dogs
- communication skills
- how to deal with stress
The modules are created and taught by professional and experienced vets, dog and cat behaviourists, leading pet food manufacturers and phsycologists.
We hope that in time more modules can be added to the training programme.
UK Rehoming
On 20 July 2018 we brought our first Russian rescue dog into the UK – a dog called Marsha. This event marked the beginning of a very small but a very meaningful project for us. A project of giving some Russian dogs a chance of finding a happy forever home in the UK.
In the first year of running this project we helped 22 beautiful dogs and 1 cat find their loving forever homes which they would not have found in Russia.
Why do we do it? Because they deserve it, because it is their only chance to have a good life and because these animals are the best ambassadors for our work. These dogs prove better than any words can what wonderful companions, friends and family members they can be given the chance. And why it is our responsibility to help them.
All our dogs are healthy, fully vaccinated, microchipped, house trained and assessed. They are placed in foster homes when they arrive in the UK. This helps them adapt quicker and makes their transition into a new home smoother.
We are in the process of creating a fuller website page about this project. In the meantime, please follow us on Facebook to see our wonderful dogs available for adoption. If you would like to adopt, please send us an email to info@lapauk.org or send us a message on Facebook Messenger and we will send you our Adoption Application Form and Adoption Terms.