Dear friends and supporters of StreetHeartsBG, you all give us so much in so many ways, and we would not post an appeal like this unless we really felt we needed to.

Last week our trusty old transit Frieda was in a road accident and is sadly a write-off with little residual scrap value. We simply do not have the money to replace her. We are devastated and desperate as this cuts off our transport lifeline that enables us to do our vital and lifesaving work helping the street dogs here in Bulgaria.

The lives and wellbeing of these street dogs depends on us being able to pick up and transport them to our shelter, to the vets for treatment and neutering and, for so many lucky ones, to their new homes across Europe. We cannot let them down as they do not have anyone else.

What is needed

We have researched extensively for an appropriate vehicle that both meets the specific transport needs of StreetHeartsBG and that will be reliable. The cost of a van that will sustain the charity's work for many years to come is around £20,000. Transport is integral to Street Hearts Bulgaria on several fronts:

1. Our neutering program is central to our mission and our work preventing unwanted puppies being born and therefore reducing the street dog population. We need a van that can carry multiple dogs and that is effective in both time and fuel consumption when we cover a major town and 68 surrounding villages. We need transport to travel around villages collecting multiple dogs for neutering and also to support neutering runs for multiple dogs to the vets. To date we have neutered nearly 700 dogs and there are many more waiting to be done in the Dryanovo municipality. We have already been approached by other areas to do neutering campaigns so a van is vital for this work.

2) Without a van we cannot legally rehome dogs. Frieda the bus was essential for transporting dogs to their forever homes. To date we have rehomed 376 dogs in Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. We are Type 2 animal transporters and all our dogs travel with a Traces Certificate. This is a legal requirement when rehoming rescue dogs. There is no other transporter able to do this for us. So without a van we simply will not be able to rehome dogs.

3) Dogs in limbo. We have 20 dogs that were due to make their forever journey to the UK on the 16th June but now we have no means to get them there. They had bright futures and now are stuck in limbo.

4) Abandoned dogs. At the moment we have 70 dogs: this is the maximum which we are licensed to have at our shelter. We are constantly having dogs abandoned on or near our premises: just yesterday 4 puppies were dumped in our village. Without a van we will have to turn many desperate cases away and cannot continue our outreach work.

5) Our van also brings much needed donations back from the UK. This includes bedding, dog crates, wet dog food and other items that, whilst essential, are a luxury we cannot afford. The dog situation here in Bulgaria is desperate and the work we do here at StreetheartsBG is proactively reducing the street dog population in the Dryanovo area of Bulgaria. Our priority is to buy a new van as soon as possible so we can continue our work. With the support of volunteers and supporters we have dedicated the last few years of our lives to improving the welfare and lives of dogs. Please help us to continue our labour of love and continue to reduce the dog population here in Dryanovo. We love these dogs so much. Please, please donate if you can – any amount is appreciated. We are a very small charity and ask our friends and dog lovers far and wide to please share this appeal to help give us a fighting chance.

With heartfelt thanks from

Emma & Anthony and the street dogs of Bulgaria

For more information about us and what we do please visit our website www.streetheartsbg.com