Dogs roaming without supervision, attacked Száva and her visually impaired owner twice in the city of Győr. It was down to luck that they got over of them without severe injuries. The guide dogs value a lot therefore our Foundation makes a call to the dog owners’ society.
Our Fondation’s guide dog Száva and her owner step onto the street with fear in Győr due to the two dog attacks in the past four months. A. H. the middle aged, visually impaired lady allowed us to use only the initials of her name.
The first attack happened near the area of Szabadhegyi new public cemetery. The German Sheppard dog escaped from a garden which gate was left open and attacked the guide dog playing free nearby. The aggressive dog bit and held Száva’s back just above her tail.
“Fortunately, my dog was not injured, but was frightened very much. I can not see at all therefore, I became so frightened of the attack and the growl of the strange dog, the sound of the fight and that I felt the fear of my dog. There is no aggression at all in the guide dogs, they never fight back, and I was not able to help as I am blind, we were both vulnerable.” – said A. H.
It happened three weeks ago, when they stepped out of their home gate, a German Sheppard ran to them and growled and another similar type of dog came as well. (The description of the dogs was given by witnesses able to see.) It was a very natural reaction of Száva that she ran away of those dogs, as none of the guide dogs are allowed to fight back. This resulted that she got separated from her owner. The blind lady asked for help from her sister who can see and they started to search for Száva. “I was afraid a lot that Száva got lost and what will happen to her. It was horrible.” – said the owner of the two-and-a-half-year-old, yellow female Labrador. Finally, the frightened dog was
found at the building of the nursery where she was hidden in fear.
“Luckily there is no mental effect of the attacks, Száva has been working nicely, but it could have been worse. I kindly ask the dog owners to take better care of their dogs.” – said A.H.
It is important to mention that Száva guides this blind lady to her work as well, therefore we generally can tell that the guide dogs support their owners in making their living and in carrying out an active lifestyle.
Gyömbér (Ginger) had to be operated on twice
Our Foundations yellow Labrador was attacked two years ago in Abaújszántó of Borsod- Abaúj-Zemplén county. Gyömbér had to be operated on twice, unfortunately the end of her tail had to be amputated both times. Luckily our guide dog recovered without complication after the second surgery. He has since processed the trauma, and guides his owner to his work as well with confidence.
Public summons!
The Foundation of Baráthegyi School for Guide and Service Dogs call the attention of the dog owners’ society not to let their dogs roaming free without supervision! The guide dogs and their owners are completely defenceless against dog attacks.
“We ask the owners to take care of the physical integrity of the guide dogs for blind because they are a real treasure for their visually impaired owners, and our Foundation can only replace the permanently retired dogs at the cost of lot of money and work. The total cost of a guide dog is more than 5 million Forints!” – said Piroska Komondi, theprofessional leader of our Foundation.
The main reason of the retirement of our dogs is their age first of all, as they need the well-deserved rest after serving for 8-10 years, on the other hand it happens due to some unexpected health problem. Therefore, we strive to train as many dogs as possible, but it is very important that the human negligence should not be among the reasons of retirement, because that makes the time of waiting longer for the visually impaired people who count on the help of a guide dog. The waiting list is long at our Foundation, there are 40-50 people waiting for a guide dog annually.
How much does a guide dog cost?
All expenses, covering the lifetime of a guide dog is more than 5 million Forints. This period of time is about ten years. Expenses of covering a lifetime includes: breeding dogs, breeding, raising up the puppy, veterinary cost, supply, facility, training (1,5 million for salary), training the owner, handing the dog over, examination, follow up and aftercare for 10 years, replacement of the facilities, veterinary cost of the aging dog, costs around the retirement, overhead expense, using of vehicles, etc. This makes the total expenses of 10 years more than 5 million Forints.
We have good news!
You can offer the 1% of your income tax for the training of a guide dog already today, if you sign in to your costumer portal via this link
It takes only five minutes and you can feel proud for sending support for a faithful guide dog!
Another good news! If you give your mailing address, we are going to send you our annual guide dog calendar together with our letter of thanks!
Please support the training of the guide dogs for blind by offering 1% of your income tax!
Our tax number for 1% is 18449149-1-05. You find our short information here
There is a great need for more guide dogs for blind in Hungary. Many visually impaired people have been waiting for a such loyal mate. In average, there are 40-50 people on our waiting list. At this stage 12 of our dogs are in training and if our plan will be successful, there will be 30 puppies born this year, who may become guide dogs in the following year.
