Fortunately, a petition signed by thousands of people has led to the authorities giving up, and although the matter is not permanently settled, Pesic is grateful that his dogs still have a home. The shelter is overcrowded, as Sasha himself admits, but for now, he has no better alternative.

“The problem here is in the system and the institutions that should be taking care of this,” Sasha told. “They are broken and corrupted and cause even more damage rather than actually helping the situation.”

“The other problem is in the irresponsibility of the owners who don’t neuter their dogs and leave them outside when they don’t want them anymore. Reasons vary from ‘I got a baby and I can’t take care of the dog’ to ‘I don’t need it anymore.'”

“There is confusion and carelessness towards animals here that causes a lot of problems of these kinds.”