Solar power for our animals

Who we are

We are the Rubino family, consisting of Martina, Gianni and our two boys Damiano and Jayden and of course we also have countless animals.

We founded the non-profit association «Pfotenhilfe Mogli» 9 years ago with the idea of living animal welfare instead of just watching where help is needed. Six years ago we decided to emigrate from Switzerland to Romania after we had bought a house with a lot of land. Thanks to your valuable support, we were able to build a new sanctuary including a puppy hall and cat rooms in 2022 and 2023. This means that we can now provide better care for the animals. Since our move to Romania, we have been providing direct help to all the street animals and also the owner animals in our neighbourhood.

We have already had two successful crowdfundings for our sanctuary. A huge thank you to everyone who has actively participated and supported us! Only together can we manage to minimise this suffering in Romania in small steps and give the left-behind and helpless animals the chance of a second chance.

What we do

Our fields of activity are broad and range from free medical care and neutering of the owner’s animals, to the care of street animals or animals from the killing station, to the placement in new families. Sometimes it is almost unimaginable what cruel suffering we encounter here every day. The animals on the streets are often mistreated or neglected and we then collect them severely injured. Almost every day we are on our way to the clinic with sick, injured or malnourished cats and dogs. The methods in the killing stations are unimaginably cruel, it is hell on earth. We, too, will never get used to these sights and so, in addition to acute help, education and sustainable neutering programmes are also part of our tasks, because this is the only way we can stem all the suffering in the long run. We are well integrated in our village and our work is appreciated and gladly taken up. Thus, when we visit the vet, our boxes are always full of our own animals and those brought to us from the neighbourhood.

For this we need support

The animals in the sanctuary should not freeze in winter and so we spend an average of 4000 Fr./€ per month for the 6 winter months alone. These electricity costs literally eat us up! Unfortunately, it also happens again and again that the power lines freeze or break. Electricity is supplied via the power pylons. During a period of 1-4 weeks, depending on how quickly the workers repair the damage, we have no electricity. During this time we have no heating, no hot water and no running water. With so many animals, a power cut is devastating. How can we maintain the care and hygiene?

With a solar system, we could drastically reduce electricity costs and the cost savings of normal electricity would go back to the animals in need.

For us, however, solar power also means massive independence! Some communities demand one day a week without electricity in summer. Also our community is striving for such an electricity-free day. The residents in the village who are connected to the water supply are now only allowed to use water for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. In this way, the municipality saves on electricity costs, at the expense of the residents.

We urgently need continuous electricity, even in summer. Without electricity there is no running water in summer. How are we going to clean the rooms and kennels? Even the water animals in the pond would then be left to «live on dry land». The air-conditioning would also break down and our animals in the rooms could get a heat stroke.

But solar power also means a GIVE and TAKE for us: In the summer months the sun shines a lot and we could produce a lot of electricity. So much, in fact, that we can give the previous solar power to our electricity provider. In the less sunny months, we would receive the solar power we have already supplied back to our electricity provider on a 1:1 basis. We assume that we would not have to pay for electricity in the summer and would have massively costs in the winter.

These are the FACTS:

Our current electricity consumption:

• Expenditure for the winter months (November - April) are about 4’000.- Fr./€ per month
• Expenditure for the remaining 6 months is around 1’500.- Fr./€ per month. Fr./€ per month
• Total electricity expenditure per year for both buildings with underfloor heating are around 33’000.- Fr./€.

What we need:

• 46 solar panels, which cost us around 16’720.- Fr./€

The company we like to hire gives us 12 years warranty on the work, 25 years on the panels and 10 years on the inverter. The complete solar system would be completely amortised within 2 years.

With the 16’720.- Fr./€ we can make ourselves almost completely independent and save a lot of electricity costs. Please help us diligently to reach this goal. Every single one of you contributes to the fact that we can continue to do good for the suffering animal souls in Romania.

Many thanks to each and every one of you, for your valuable support.