Tehran Dog Names

Maryann Sanei studied at the Civil Aviation Technology College in Tehran with the goal of becoming a flight attendant. It turned out, however, that her love for animals would change her path. In April 2012, Saneil was living with family in Mazandaran, a northern province, when she began taking care of injured animals. She had no resources and no shelter so she set up a Facebook page to get the word out about each dog and seek funds to help cover the pup’s particular needs. After a few months, she moved to Tehran and decided to more seriously focus on rescuing dogs. She stated, “I decided to focus on dogs with terrible problems, for example badly injured or handicapped ones, those nobody would get close to and were therefore doomed to die”.

Sanei explained that people would call her and let her know about dogs in that sort of situation and she would take care of their initial treatment and then use her Facebook page to get the word out about the money needed to treat the particular animal. Initially, Sanei did not have a shelter and so would ask her Facebook followers for a temporary home for a pup being assisted. People would offer a basement or empty room and “host” the dog, while Sanei would take the pup for medical care and raise the funds for the cost. Before long, Sanei had more dogs than homes for them to stay; with the donation of an American woman, Sanei was able to rent a piece of land in Chahardangeh, located in the south west of Tehran province and open a hospice for dogs. While she started with seven dogs on the property and has the capacity for 40, she wound up with 60 dogs. Sanei’s initial plan was to take care of injured dogs until they had recovered, then setting them free so that there would be space for more dogs. As municipality workers have been killing stray dogs, Sanei has decided not to let the dogs leave until a home has been found for them.

Shaazdeh, a blind eight-year old dog, was helped by Sanei and ultimately adopted by Liussa Kiani and her husband-to-be, who lived in Montreal. Kiani’s mom brought the pup with her from Iran, as well as another dog who was to be adopted by another family. Kiani reports that she has taken thousands of photos of her beloved pup, who she says “became our life partner”.