Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe

One of the Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe 's most valued and versatile helpers is Roma. With us for nearly 6 years now, he's learned how dogs and horses can be handled differently - with more sensitivity to their needs - than is customary in the community he comes from. His new knowledge is starting to spread among others making Ilia,  in effect , an ambassador for LIFE in several Roma communities so that more dogs and horses are experiencing more thoughtful handling.  As Ilia learns, others learn from him. This past week he acquired a new useful skill to pass on: how to file a horse's hooves between trims carried out by an expert. LIFE wants to thank trimmer Vanya Lavarova, who's also a qualified vet and a successful competition rider, for helping Ilia to learn how to file hooves. Vanya Lavarova demonstrating how to file hooves Supervising & Guiding Ilia Ilia learning to file his filly's hooves With Ilia, who helps translate my Bulgarian into Romanes when we...

  Todorovden, a day in Bulgaria dedicated to the celebration of horses, fell on 20th March this year. Elsewhere in the country events take place with well cared for horses on show.  Near where I live and where LIFE (Lucy Irvine Foundation Europe) operates, there are crude races at former airstrips with unfit Roma-owned horses competing. It was at one such event that I met a mare later confiscated from her violent and unstable owner in a joint operation with police. For safety reasons,  I can't discuss this further publicly but if anyone wants to know what happened please message me on my Facebook page. During the week we collected both feline and canine cases for sterilisation. But it seems that for every one we prevent from creating more puppies, another local dog produces a litter. Seventeen babies were reported born on Tuesday and twelve 4 week old pups found abandoned. We traced three of the latter and now support them in the community.  Wednesday brought a...