A new book reveals how a couple from Yorkshire started a dog rescue in Bulgaria called Street Hearts. Northern Soul’s Rob Martin collared them for a chat.

In the bitterly cold winter of 2019, a young puppy, just a few months old, was found with his siblings freezing and starving to death in a garden in rural Bulgaria. Like so many others, the litter had been left to fend for themselves, scrabbling in the snow with little chance of survival. In a country known for its lack of education around dog neutering, and a society in which dogs have traditionally had practical uses rather than being seen as household pets, this is a common occurrence.

But on this particular day, and for this particular puppy and his siblings, a much-needed lifeline changed their lives. They were rescued by dog charity Street Hearts, where the newly named Spike and his family became known as the Hi-de-Hi dogs.

Spike? Hi-de-Hi? How on earth does an abandoned litter in Bulgaria come to be named after characters from a classic 80s UK sitcom?

A remarkable story

Originally from Yorkshire, Emma and Anthony Smith fell in love with each other and Bulgaria, setting up home there in 2013 after friendship blossomed into romance. They shared a desire to take a career break, start a vegetable garden, launch a yoga retreat, and live a different life. Everything was going to plan. There was just one niggling thing.

“I was really settling into life in Bulgaria,” says Emma. “We’d moved over with our one dog, but I kept seeing abandoned puppies. Dogs weren’t being sterilised so they were fighting, mating, having litters, starving, getting injured. I’d taken an interest in volunteering at a local hospital and there were 27 dogs outside there. It was horrific. Going out to restaurants in town there’d be dogs all around. It was something I just didn’t want to see.”

Then, a chance encounter with a local politician set Emma and Anthony on a different path.

Emma explains: “He was interested in what we’d change as foreigners living there and I said that the dog problem was horrific. As it happens, he’d been on a Dog Trust course in London so he had a different attitude towards the stray dog issue and said that, if he got elected, he’d like to work with us to try to solve the problem.”

Once in office, he made good on his promise and started working with Emma and Anthony, offering a small sum from the state to start a sterilisation programme.

Anthony recalls: “At the time, my work in the oil industry literally dried up and our dream of a yoga retreat collapsed, so we decided to try to make this work. We knew nothing. We did fundraisers and car boot sales to help us out with the small amount of funding we were getting.”

Emma continues: “It was a struggle because we started realising there was a need to rescue rather than just neuter and put them back on the streets. What started as one injured puppy staying with us quickly became 17 dogs so things needed to change.”

Luckily, an impromptu chat with Call The Midwife actress Kate Lamb, herself a dog trainer, resulted in a profile-enhancing fundraising cycle ride from Bulgaria to London, the proceeds of which allowed Emma and Anthony to create Street Hearts. Today, they have a clinic, secure fencing, and a legal license to operate as an official shelter.

“It was hard but, within 18 months, despite the levels of bureaucracy, we’d done it,” says Anthony. “Now we’re funded by our supporters, a very loyal group of people via social media who donate and keep us going. We get a small amount from the state but it’s about 5 per cent of what we need each year.”

Part of Battersea Dogs’ Academy, Street Hearts benefits from the home’s training and grant funding, including staff support for management of the shelter and education work.

The indomitable spirit of street dogs

To date, Street Hearts has neutered more than 4,000 dogs, helping to end the cycle that resulted in the abandoned Hi-de-Hi puppies. But its outreach programme in schools and shelters is changing attitudes, too, encouraging a more compassionate view of dogs. Gradually, things are progressing.

Anthony says: “By working with children, we can see how that impacts on the older generation and shifts the way people think about dogs. Also, many of the poeple who left Bulgaria when the country joined the EU back in 2007 in search of a better life are now coming back. They’re bringing their different ideas and experiences and they’re the future adopters, teaching their own children not to be scared of dogs. It’s an interesting process.”

Having collaborated with writer Lisa Cutts on a book about Street Hearts, what are the couple’s hopes for it?

“We want to raise awareness whilst trying to expel some of the myths behind foreign rescues, “says Anthony. “We know other rescues from all over the world and we want people to know the reality of the situation and encourage support.

Emma continues: “There’s a stray dog population of over 60 million in the world. We can all do a bit. So many dogs are put to sleep every week in the UK in pounds because of overbreeding, so we want to educate people about population control, and responsible dog ownership. But also, we want to remind everyone about how amazing and wonderful dogs are. They are incredible. There’s a lot of humour in the book but some of it is pretty gritty too. We want it to entertain and inspire.”

Think of Spike, dumped in a garden, riddled with worms and fleas, a week away from death. Where is he now?

Well, in June 2020, Spike had a trial visit with a Manchester couple and their English Bull terrier to see if they would all get along. Despite being fans of Hi-de-Hi, the couple decided on a name change to Sidney. Four years on, Sid’s still here.

With me.

Sid and Rob

By Rob Martin

All images of Sidney and Dusty by Rob Martin

 

Street Hearts: An Extraordinary Story of Saving Street Dogs is published by HarperNorth and available to buy now. For more information, click here.

To find out more about Street Hearts, click here.