Gretel Eleazar, who created Saving Strays Cebu on Facebook, saves a stray dog in Cebu City. | Contributed photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A Facebook page, Saving Strays Cebu (SSC), became an avenue for animal lovers to save stray and abandoned animals around Cebu City.
This project is a brainchild of Gretel Eleazar, a 40-year-old Industrial engineer, who recently left her job in Thailand to focus on her passion in saving animals here in Cebu.
Eleazar got the idea to save stray animals here in Cebu when she was still working in Thailand and was an active member for animal shelters.
After seeing online the situation of some of the dogs and cats inside a certain city pound, she decided to seek the help of her fellow animal lovers online to start forming a group who would rescue and give these animals a better home.
Read more: Stray dogs for adoption
What makes SSC unique is that they do not have a number of fixed members.
“We don’t have a fixed members, everyone here is a member, our activity here is volunteer based, and community participation is encouraged. This is because I was not yet in Cebu when I started this so what I do when there is animal in need I post it here (SSC Facebook page) and ask who can respond and go to the location and transport,” she said
“So thats how the community becomes a member, if someone is near the reported case a volunteer will message me and say I can go there…and then another one will say I can drive…from there I then instruct them what to do, which clinic to go..and then I network for donations,” she said.
She admits that it is really hard to not have fixed members or a place they can call their home, but it is also very beautiful of how strangers react to the posts in their group page and lend a hand to help.
This dog is one of the stray dogs saved by Eleazar in Cebu City through her Saving Strays Cebu FB page. | Contributed photo
“We’ve already rescued hundreds of animals, and if dili sila maadopt pa they go to my private house for safekeeping until they find their new home” she said.
(We’ve already rescued hundreds of animals, and if nobody will adopt them yet, they go to my private house for safekeeping, until they find their new home.)
Now that she is based in Cebu, Eleazar said that she would be aiming to register SSC as a non profit organization this year to welcome members and animal lovers alike./dbs