Belgrade's Street Dogs and Cats: How You Can Help

An awareness feature on the street dogs and cats of Belgrade: the city's animal service, emergency vets and shelters, adopting from Rakovica and Udomi me, ne kupuj, sterilisation, volunteering and our advice, with a directory of verified numbers.

Spend a few days in Belgrade and you will meet them: a dog asleep in the sun on the grass at Kalemegdan, a cat keeping watch from a Dorćol doorway, a pair of strays trotting along the Zemun Quay as if they had somewhere important to be. Street dogs and cats are part of the life of the city, and you will often see a bowl of water or a little food left out for them by a doorway.

This is our short guide to how Belgrade looks after them, and what you can do to help, whether you live here or are visiting for a week: who to call for an animal in trouble, where to adopt, and the small things that make the biggest difference.

Feeding a street cat is a kindness; having her sterilised is the kindness that lasts.

How the city looks after them

The City of Belgrade's public veterinary company, JKP Veterina Beograd, runs the service for animals in public places, an animal emergency service and a network of shelters: Rakovica, Kovilovo, Zemun, Padinska Skela and Obrenovac, with a quarantine for dogs at Borča.

Rakovica, in the south of the city, is a shelter and sterilisation centre in one. Dogs that come in are examined, microchipped, sterilised, cared for after surgery and vaccinated against rabies, and an education centre on site introduces the dogs ready for a new home and advises the people who adopt them.

If you find an animal in trouble

For an injured animal, call the city's animal emergency service in Mali Mokri Lug on 062 80 90 333 (Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, weekends 8am to 4pm). Its vets and technicians have a mobile unit and look first of all after abandoned animals whose lives are at risk. Treatment follows the company's price list, so ask when you call.

For a stray or distressed animal in a street, park or other public place, call the city's animal service on 011 329 30 99 (Monday to Friday 7am to 8pm, Saturday 7am to 2pm, Sunday 7am to noon). At night the duty phone is 063 549 161.

A few things help the people who come out: note the exact address or a landmark, take a photo, keep a calm distance from a frightened or injured animal, and stay close by until help arrives if you can. If you don't speak Serbian, ask your hotel reception or the café on the corner to make the call with you.

Adopt, don't buy

The city's adoption website is called Udomi me, ne kupuj, “Adopt me, don't buy”, and it shows dogs and cats from Belgrade's streets and shelters looking for a home, with advice and happy endings from families who adopted. Adoption events run through the year.

To meet the dogs in person, visit the Rakovica shelter at Slavka Miljkovića bb on any working day between 10am and noon, or call 011 715 8100 or 062 412 436 in the same hours. The staff will introduce you to the dogs and talk you through what a new home needs.

Visiting from abroad and falling in love? Taking a dog or cat home across a border means meeting your own country's rules on microchips, vaccinations and blood tests, which can take several months, so talk to your vet at home before you promise anything.

Sterilisation: the help that lasts

Feeding a street cat is a kindness; having her sterilised is the kindness that lasts. If you look after a cat or dog in your street or a colony of cats in your courtyard, the city takes bookings for the microchipping, vaccination and sterilisation of stray cats and dogs from public areas on 062 80 41 090, Monday to Friday 8am to 2pm.

The Belgrade organisation ORCA builds one of its projects, Po meri čoveka i psa, on the same idea: that the question of abandoned animals has a lasting answer.

Giving your time

ORCA, which describes itself as an organisation for the respect and care of animals, runs programmes for schools and children and welcomes volunteers; write to info@orca.rs. If you would like to bring food or blankets to a shelter, call first and ask what is needed most.

And if you lose your own pet in Belgrade, call JKP Veterina Beograd on 011 276 43 66, extension 115 (weekdays 7.30am to 3.30pm).

Our advice

Be kind and a little careful: let a dog come to you rather than reaching out, give mothers with puppies plenty of room, and save the numbers above in your phone. And if there is one street cat or dog you see every day, the sterilisation line is the best present you can give it.