A good deed every day – improving your hobby a little every day
We at JBL follow this guiding principle. Every day we receive lots of letters and unfortunately some of them are “cries for help”. Making a decision is really hard. Basically, we support projects that help more than one person, help advance interest in aquaristics, terraristics and pond care, and are of benefit to animals and people. For this reason we were very moved by a message from Veronika Šamajová from Slovakia.
She has been keeping turtles and tortoises for 15 years, having been particularly fascinated by their curiosity and large appetites. Over time she gained more and more animals from owners who had lost interest in theirs and she also continued to buy animals. She has managed to pass on some and others still live with her today. She always tried to give the animals a home and everything else they needed, which is not always the case with “foundling" animals. In addition, some were sick or in a bad condition due to incorrect keeping. They weren’t eating or were very weak. Through close contact with veterinarians and painstaking care, she has managed to save many of these animals and this was reason enough for us at JBL to put together a large food package for all her water and land dwellers.
Veronika told us that she pays for everything out of her own pocket and that she cares about the animals. She is ready to give the animals into responsible hands at any time and to provide advice to the new owners so that the turtles and tortoises will have a good home. But there is little interest and so she prefers to take care of the turtles herself. She finds it hugely rewarding.
Her newest girl "Bezzi", a tortoise, came to her only recently, having lived for 20 years on the floor of an apartment - completely without UV-B and heat radiators.
"Gucci", the turtle, lived in dirty water and without light for 5 years. The juvenile turtle "Viliam" was very aggressive until he joined Veronika’s "girl group", and found his peace as the "cock of the walk".
In the following gallery you can see pictures of some of the animals in their homes. For us this is proof that a turtle/tortoise rescue center is being operated with a big heart and good intentions and that it is worthy of support. Everybody involved in terraristics has spare equipment no longer in use. Don’t forget to donate these things to projects like this or to animal shelters. It’s a good cause!
Facebook: Turtles Diary
