Asociatia Toto si Pufi was originally founded to provide dog-assisted therapy and activities for children and seniors. 

We also focus on animal rights, emergency rescue, adoptions, communication and public education.  We work with several organisations, groups, volunteers and partners: together we cover all areas of animal protection.

Our main battles in Romania is to put an end to the mass euthanasia of healthy dogs, to stop cases of cruelty, to debunk animal-related myths, to combat the illegal pet trade and to promote adoption.

Our main activity is based in Romania, but we help any animal in need of support in any part of the world. Since the beginning of the war, we have worked for Ukrainian animals, both locally and in their own country.

I'm president of Asociatia Toto si Pufi. This association is a dream come true: working with and for animals.

When I became aware of the scale of the problems linked to animal abuse, I realised that I had to get involved professionally and expand my activities in order to have a greater impact and tackle the problem systemically. 

At the moment, we're a small volunteer organisation, but we're planning to go full time this year. We work with volunteers for specific actions, such as dog transport, dog care, non-violent direct action, advocacy and fostering.

We joined Eurogroup for Animals earlier this year, which is an honour and a great hope for dogs and companion animals in general. We have followed Eurogroup for Animals’ activities and policies closely, using the materials made available in our advocacy work for companion animals as well as in the live animal export dossier which we also support. 

The fact that we now have an official voice for Romanian dogs in Brussels is a great achievement. The situation in Romanian is so bad, impacting people, public funds and the environment, as well as animal rights and welfare.

In 2022 and 2023, in addition to a couple of successful adoptions, which are always great achievements for us, we had some small victories in our communication and advocacy work. 

We invited other organisations to sign a joint initiative and acted as a coalition calling for an end to mass euthanasia of dogs, the subsidisation of dog neutering and the implementation of responsible ownership. This has resulted in greater media coverage, but also in some positive political positions and measures implemented by a few municipalities to ensure the transition to humane dog management.

We also succeeded in temporarily blocking a law that supported the continued capture and killing of dogs by commercial companies.

Any help for the animals is more than welcome and needed in Romania. Whether it's campaigning, volunteering or making a donation to help us start our full-time activity or to support the current one. If at least one dog has an extra chance of a better life or a voice, we're delighted, because that's what we're here for.

Our motto is “We integrate dogs into society, as resources for therapy and service: every animal is a teacher and a therapist.”

Our favourite quotes are :

“Everyone thinks they have the best dog and none of them are wrong.”

“Everything I know I learned from dogs.”

“You can live without a dog, but it's not worth it.”