“How heartless can you be?”
Sonia Antonela Costas hates to see animals living on the street. That’s why she started Sonia’s Safe Animal Haven, a rescue organization that she runs out of her home in Romania. With help from her son, Alex, and partner rescue groups, including Inge2TheRescue, Costas has saved hundreds of lives.
Recently, Costas got a call from her town’s mayor about a group of baby animals struggling near a dumpster. When the rescuer arrived at the scene, she found seven newborn puppies, just 2 days old, huddled together in the trash.
Costas couldn’t believe her eyes.
“How heartless can you be?” she later wrote in a Facebook post.
Unfortunately, animal abandonment is a common occurrence in the area where Costas lives, and many residents will pass by needy dogs and cats without a second thought.
“People tell us that we are crazy because we save animals,” Costas told The Dodo. “But we don’t care.”
Costas gently grabbed the puppies and piled them safely into a blanket-lined box, where they nestled against a warm water bottle. Then she took them to the vet, so they could be treated for hypothermia.
With help from local law enforcement, Costas identified the person who dumped the pups and located the dogs’ mom. The rescuer was amazed to learn that the puppies had an eighth sibling who’d been living with the mama dog. She reunited the whole fuzzy family, allowing the grateful puppies to return to their mother’s care.
Thankfully, this dog family won’t suffer any further neglect. Officers allowed Costas to gain custody of the dogs, and today they’re safe with their rescuer, waiting to find permanent families.
“[Their] future will be nice,” Costas said. “We will try to [find] them a forever home.”