Construction of the new shelter for Patinhas sem Lar (Paws Without a Home)

Friends, we have the land, the project, and the contractor. The €245,000 funding from ICNF is not enough to allocate all the animals. We need another €130,000 (construction VAT = 23%).

The Patinhas sem Lar Association, based in Espinho, was created 12 years ago. We have a dog shelter with capacity for 100 dogs, and a cat shelter with capacity for 80 cats. All animals are properly vaccinated, dewormed, and neutered/spayed if they are over 6 months old. In addition to the funds spent to maintain the sheltered animals in the best sanitary conditions, there are also the high costs of animals rescued from the street needing urgent veterinary care: animals hit by cars with bone fractures, animals with parasitic diseases and others, litters of abandoned puppies and kittens. Requests for help are daily. We created this campaign with the goal of raising €130,000 to build a new shelter, as our animals are in very precarious conditions.

About the author

My name is Ana Paula Castro, I am 59 years old, I am a doctor specializing in Clinical Pathology, and a full professor of Medical Microbiology at the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS) in Porto.

My passion for animals led me to create the Patinhas sem Lar Association 12 years ago in Espinho, in collaboration with other people who, like me, are sensitive to animal welfare. At the time, the purpose of creating the association was to care for 70 dogs that were abandoned on an isolated plot of land in Paramos, Espinho. Since then, we have rescued and placed more than 3,000 dogs and cats for adoption. Our aim is for the rescued animals to spend as little time as possible in shelters. After basic veterinary care, including deworming, vaccination, and sterilization, they are advertised on various platforms to promote responsible adoption. The motivation for this project is to raise the necessary funds to build the new Patinhas sem Lar shelter.

Budget and due dates

With the €245,000 in funding from ICNF, we managed to build the cattery, the services, and half of the dog kennel by December 2025. There are still 28 kennels to be built and about 50 dogs without shelter.

We need €130,000 to build the missing fence and storage boxes (see video).

Images