frankaAnimal Friends Croatia continue last year's campaign "Family to the Seaside - the Dog to the Street?" aiming to raise public awareness about the problem of abandoned pets, increasingly visible during’the summer holidays. Its second goal is to appeal to the citizens to adopt abandoned animals and lowering their population on the streets in Croatia.

Each year we see a rising number of abandoned pets during the summer holiday season, which is unacceptable. We need to take measures to prevent such behaviour by pet-owners and for pets to pay the price of human negligence, Animal Friends say.

This year's face of the campaign is pop-singer Franka Batelić, who sent a message that we should not stop caring for our pets when we leave for the seaside. Campaign posters, photographed in Zagreb Animal Shelter, will be posted on prominent locations all over Croatia.

"I can’t fathom the fact that somebody would be so heartless to leave their pets, creatures totally dependent on people care. I belive that we should introduce much stricter sanctions for such behaviour, which is immoral and cowardly action", Batelić said at the acceptance fo the role of the face of the campaign.

Abandoning house pets is subject to fines of up to 15,000 Kuna (2,000 Euro approximately). However, it is important for citizens to be aware of the burden and responsibility they accept when they decide to take a pet.

Again, the campaign is supported by the Zagreb Office of Agriculture and Forestry and Cro A Porter company. The campaign is supported by number or pop stars and public personalities, like Maja Vučić, Tatjana Jurić, Nikolina Pišek, Anđela Ramljak and Gala Svilan.