BUILDING OUR FLAGSHIP SHELTER

The first of our Cage-Free Natural Shelter projects, Macedonia Freedom Shelter, will be established in a country where purpose-built shelters for stray animals are almost non-existent. Despite a stray animal population exceeding one million, Macedonia has only a handful of public shelters. Most rescue work is done by compassionate individuals and communities, providing care to animals while they live on the streets. With few sheltering options available, many rescuers rely on their own homes, which quickly become overwhelmed.

For over 10 years, we have been working with Mimi’s sanctuary, located in a remote mountain village above Skopje – Mimi does amazing work literally on a shoestring. She is an active participant in the local animal rescue community, often squeezing in dogs and cats found by the community, who need extra one-to-one care, despite being full to overflowing, Mimi’s heart just can’t turn them away.

We see in Mimi, a heart that is so pure and full of love, we simply must help her, so whenever our own funds allow, we support her sanctuary with help for her huge vet bills, feed bills, kennel bills and more. Having no land of her own, Mimi is constantly being evicted from the land she rents, and each enforced relocation erodes her limited resources further, so now in 2024, we are in discussion with her about finding a plot of land to buy on her behalf, and build a permanent environmentally sustainable Biodiverse Eco-Shelter, with its own bio-secure spay/neuter clinic, so that she can focus properly on her true calling of rescuing and helping the local community invest in the protection of the stray animal population and in turn, environmental sustainability for the local community in the long term.

This Macedonia Freedom Shelter will be a transformative step toward addressing the stray animal crisis in Macedonia. It will be a purpose-built, state-of-the-art, biodiverse eco-friendly facility, designed to accommodate homeless dogs and cats in a spacious, natural environment that encourages their recovery and rehabilitation. The shelter will include a small veterinary clinic and a recovery room specifically for spay/neuter procedures, essential for managing the stray population and ensuring the long-term welfare of these animals. By leading with this model, we aim to inspire a shift toward modern, humane animal welfare practices in the region.

This shelter will offer a peaceful, cage-free space where animals can decompress, recover from trauma, and ultimately prepare for adoption. It will serve as a blueprint for others across Eastern Europe, showcasing how careful planning and a focus on the animals’ well-being can transform sheltering into a compassionate, effective solution for abandoned animals.

The Macedonia Freedom Shelter will not only serve as a beacon of hope for stray animals but also as a blueprint for the future of animal sheltering worldwide. Every aspect of this project, from the architectural plans and project strategy to the detailed breakdown of build costs and materials used, will be shared openly. Our experiences—both what went well and the challenges we overcame—will be compiled into an “open source” resource that any NGO, anywhere in the world, can download and utilize.

This comprehensive toolkit will empower other organizations to replicate our success, adapting our methods to their own local needs. By offering a fully transparent, easily accessible guide, we hope to encourage others to follow our lead, raising the global standard of animal sheltering. Through this collaborative approach, we can work together to create a future where more animals are housed in humane, environmentally conscious facilities, improving their well-being and their chances of finding forever homes.

Our flagship open-space, cage-free and therefore stress-free shelter, will lead by example how true animal welfare can be achieved with some creative planning of the shelter space

Through a stress-free, peaceful natural living environment, the traumatised dogs and cats can start to relax and enjoy life again, with a restoration of faith that they are safe from harm and the hardships of living on the street

MICHELLE JONES • DIRECTOR

The Shelter at a Glance

  • sleeping accomodation for up to 6 compatibility assessed companion animals, to loosely create the family groups mother nature planned for dogs and cats

  • sleeping accomodation created as ‘lounges’ with different sleeping options, sofa’s, beds and rugs, to help residents become accustomed to living in the style of a human home

  • each accomodation lounge to open out into a large sensory garden with trees for shade, rain shelters and raised platforms to add variety to the residents enjoyment of their space

  • the whole shelter site to be landscaped in harmony with nature, with play areas and water park for accompanied rehabilitation dog walks and training to introduce dogs to the high expectations of living within society.

  • cat lounges to open out into secure outside sensory spaces to offer climbing, raised platforms and play areas for peaceful, stress-free enjoyment

The Concept

  • Natural, open-space, cage-free living, to reduce the stress typically generated by traditional shelter housing

  • Large landscaped acreage with trees and grassy areas with large open spaces and distance between each animal housing module

  • Accommodation pods set up as close to a home environment as possible to ease the stress of rehoming into a home

  • Accommodation pod interiors will be finished in non-porous anti-bacterial easy wipe down material to aid in biosecurity measures

  • Self sufficient utility services with alternative wind and solar energy and artesian well for water

  • ‘State of the Art’ modern Veterinary Centre for neutering and all medical care

  • Separate quarantine area for all new admissions, with modern bio-security provisions

  • Dog adventure park  and water park for accompanied exercise, enrichment and stimulation

  • Accredited training centre for rescuers, micro-shelter staff and grass-roots establishment volunteers to learn about shelter management with our International Training Programme

  • Centre of Excellence training centre for Veterinarians to take masterclasses in cutting edge surgery techniques and core disease treatments

Our desire to buy land for Mimi’s Forgotten Dogs Sanctuary may seem like a pipe dream, yet we are ever hopeful that a kind benefactor may one day sponsor the financing and building of a new environmentally sustainable Biodiverse Eco-Shelter, with its own bio-secure spay/neuter clinic, bearing the name of the sponsor as primary benefactor and patron of the new sanctuary. If any Donors or Corporate Sponsors would like to discuss the sponsorship of Mimi’s new Eco-Shelter and becoming a part of the mission to radically reshape the way rescue animals are sheltered and rehomed, please contact Michelle Jones on +44 203 866 1229

Change a life today

Ever since the first animal shelters opened in the 19th Century, dogs and cats have been housed in cages.  Our open-space natural shelter concept is based on cage free housing because dogs and cats are social animals.