The municipal animal shelter in the Polish city of Kraków has been left stunned by the unprecedented response to its appeal for residents to provide temporary homes during a winter freeze for those of its dogs that are kept in outdoor enclosures because of a lack of space inside.
Huge crowds of people appeared at the shelter over the weekend, and within two days all the animals in need of temporary homes – over 120 of them – had found one.
One was even taken in by local police, who had initially come to the shelter to give parking tickets to some of the huge number of cars gathered there but, after learning what was happening, instead ended up taking a new companion back to their station.
After Krakow's dog shelter appealed for people to temporarily host dogs because of cold temperatures, this weekend huge queues of people have come to help pic.twitter.com/16Tru8q0Q1
— Daniel Tilles (@danieltilles1) January 7, 2024
On Friday, the shelter launched its appeal, noting that temperatures in Kraków were soon set to drop to -20°C (-4°F).
The following day, it announced on social media that a queue of people had begun to form even before the shelter opened. By the end of the day, over 100 dogs had been given temporary homes.
“We don’t know if any words can reflect what we feel,” wrote the shelter. “The word ‘thank you’ is not enough. You have changed the fate of our animals. You are beautiful people.”
The shelter told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that every year they receive a positive response to such appeals ahead of cold snaps, but that this year’s interest was unprecedented.
They also thanked Łukasz Litewka, a member of parliament who had promoted the campaign. Litewka shot to national fame ahead of October’s parliamentary elections, when he used his campaign posters to advertise dogs who needed adoption from a local shelter.
While visiting Kraków’s shelter on Saturday, Litewka posted a film of the queue of cars that had formed outside.
Despite the shelter announcing on Saturday evening that only a dozen or so dogs still needed to find temporary homes, a large queue formed again on Sunday morning.
By 1 p.m. the shelter had announced that all the dogs had been housed and suggested that anyone still willing to provide a home could visit the shelter in Borek, around 40km east of Kraków, which has also issued a similar appeal.
Employees of the Kraków shelter told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that a total of 123 dogs had been adopted over the weekend. Broadcaster Polsat reports that half of them have been found permanent homes.
Kraków’s shelter also still has over 100 other dogs that did not need temporary homes during the cold snap or are not suitable to be temporarily housed but are still in need of permanent adoption.
Among those who took in a dog on Saturday was Kraków’s municipal police (straż miejska). Its officers had arrived at the scene due to the huge number of cars gathered there and started issuing tickets to those that were illegally parked.
However, after staff from the shelter explained what was happening, the police not only withdrew the tickets but also offered a temporary home to one of the dogs.
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Main image credit: KTOZ/Facebook
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
