Ekostraz

The mission of Wrocław's EKOSTRAŻA is the humane protection of domestic, wild, and free-living animals, which we implement through:

I. Intervention in cases of suspected animal abuse by humans.

II. Providing veterinary aid and care to sick, injured, and weakened wild and free-living animals, with particular emphasis on small mammals and birds.

III. Running a program of humanitarian protection of wild Lower Silesian hedgehogs, the aim of which is to care for hedgehogs temporarily unable to live independently in the wild and to popularize the species - its biology and protection.

IV. Legal protection of animals - we defend the interests of animals as victims/prosecutors of a meal in criminal proceedings regarding the abuse of animals and entities with party rights in administrative proceedings. We provide advice to citizens on the legal protection of animals.

With all of this, we are DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS.

1. We are LOCAL, we are ON THE SITE - we focus all our activities in Lower Silesia. We are not a branch, branch, district of anything. We operate mainly for Lower Silesian animals in need.

2. We are ONLY IN ITS KIND as the first local animal protection association in Lower Silesia, which deals with helping all animals, both wild and domestic, responding to signs of human abuse, as well as helping wild animals. 

3. We are OURSELVES - we do not copy the methods of operation of any foreign or Polish animal protection organizations. We have our own value system to which we subordinate all our actions. It derives from the ethical utilitarianism of preferences, hence we are "welfarists" and not "abolitionists" in the use of animals by humans. We are legal legalists: we believe that strict enforcement of a well-developed law is an essential tool to improve animal welfare in Poland.

4. We are INNOVATIVE - we develop and constantly learn to discover new possibilities of helping animals. We try to set trends, change the world around us, using the latest strategies for managing people and projects. Hence, We are OPEN - we support the idea of ​​an open association that positively motivates its members and provides them with extensive opportunities for personal development. Our social work is not based on any official subordination that distorts the very idea of ​​association, but on a partnership of people determined to work together to protect animals through their own development.

As the first animal protection organization in Poland, we introduced Animal Protection Inspectors to the Statute (Chapter 5)in order to give them a clear and independent of someone's humor legal authorization to act as "an authorized representative of a social organization whose statutory purpose is to protect animals" and to ensure the possibility of development and partnerships in social action for the protection of animals. 

We focus on the high qualifications of our volunteers, which is why we offer them an extensive series of training courses, conducted by lawyers, veterinarians, philosophers, and psychologists, covering such thematic blocks as Polish animal protection law, criminal and administrative proceedings in animal protection, psychology of intervention, animal welfare assessment, principles of intervention in animal protection.

We want to share our knowledge and experiences, which is why we have launched an open free Virtual Legal Clinic, where everyone can benefit from the advice of our experts.