United in their love for canines, an unlikely Albanian and Serb duo have teamed up in Kosovo to run a shelter for abandoned dogs, in a rare example of cooperation in a country still deeply divided along ethnic lines more than two decades after a devastating war.
Distrust still undercuts relations between the Albanian and Serb communities, without a common language and with ethnic tensions never far from the surface.
However, the lingering distrust has done little to separate Mentor Hoxha, 55, the Albanian founder of the Pristina Dog Shelter, and Slavisa Stojanovic, his 57-year-old Serb counterpart.
Photo: AFP
Their operation provides shelter to about 40 dogs in a handful of kennels sitting near farmland in Gracanica, a Serb-majority town near Kosovo’s capital, Pristina.
“We are connected by our love of dogs,” Hoxha said.
The two have helped more than 1,000 canines since they joined forces in 2010.
Typically, the dogs are vaccinated and sterilized before being released back into the streets, while puppies and other more vulnerable canines remain at the shelter.
Hoxha and Stojanovic place about 80 dogs a year with families across western Europe.
Animal shelters are rare in the nation, where stray dogs have long been a scourge in cities and villages.
The numbers soared after the conflict pitting Serb forces against Albanian guerrillas in the late 1990s, with abandoned pets pouring into the streets as the internecine fighting displaced their owners.
To combat the problem, Kosovo authorities offered bounties to hunters to gun them down — until a public outcry spurred on by celebrities including French actress Brigitte Bardot stopped the culling.
However, abandoned canines still roam Kosovo’s streets, lounging near traffic roundabouts and sleeping in public parks.
Following a string of dog attacks on children in 2017, the Kosovo government released 1.3 million euros (US$1.5 million) for a four-year sterilization program.
However, an estimated 10,000 canines have yet to be neutered, leaving a persistent population of dogs on the streets.
With few willing to help the strays, Hoxha and Stojanovic channeled their love of dogs into creating one of the few shelters working with street dogs — and outsiders marveled over their ability to overcome their ethnic differences.
“I find it strange when people ask about us,” Hoxha said. “It’s completely normal for people to socialize. The war ended 20 years ago.”
An estimated 13,000 people were killed in the 1998-1999 war, which ended after a three-month-long NATO bombing campaign forced Belgrade to withdraw its troops and leave the governance of the region to the UN.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, with about 100 countries recognizing it as a sovereign state — with the exception of Serbia and its allies, Russia and China.
Hoxha suggested starting the shelter after a chance meeting with Stojanovic in the street, discovering that they shared a passion for helping the abandoned dogs in their area.
“Mentor and I are alike in heart and soul, and in our love of animals,” Stojanovic said.
The shelter relies mostly on donations and an army of volunteers, with the lion’s share of their funds helping to cover the costs of vaccinations and sterilizations.
“Our project has had a lot of impact on the situation, and the awareness and attitude of society towards abandoned dogs — primarily the importance of sterilization,” Hoxha said.
Kosovo filmmaker and animal rights advocate Hana Noka said that more needs to be done in the country to raise awareness about the issue of strays.
“There are stray dogs that live in horrific conditions and left alone on the streets all year round,” Noka said. “Most passers-by don’t even look at them.”
Despite the hardships and perennial lack of funding, Stojanovic said that he has no regrets about dedicating himself to stray dogs.
“If I started again, I wouldn’t change anything. I feel at home with animals. I’m with the dogs nonstop,” he said.
“They show great love — they just don’t talk,” he added.
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