Animal lover Anca runs Speranta Shelter, which was founded by her mother more than 20 years ago. It was around this time Anca qualified as a veterinarian and, since then, she and the team have sterilised more than 100,000 dogs across Romania, saving countless puppies from life on the streets.
Anca’s animal rescue work has taken her across the world, from Europe to India, Myanmar, Sudan, and Lebanon, among others. For a long time, she was part of Vier Pfoten (Four Paws), leading teams in missions all over the world.
In the mid-2000s she started to coordinate her own national and international projects. During this period, she met many international dog lovers, many of whom also visited Romania.
She has founded several organisations and projects to improve animal welfare in Romania. One of these was Animal Society, which focuses on sterilisation and education. Animal Society and Speranța officially merged in 2025, joining forces to improve the situation for animals across the country.
They then launched unique project in Romania called ‘Dogs for People’. It was the only project like this in Europe, with the objective to demonstrate that former stray dogs are good companions and can be as valuable to society as any other dogs. This is how they become therapy dogs.
Speranta has always been part of Anca’s life. Her mother Florina started the foundation in 1996 before founding the shelter in 2001, when the mayor of Bucharest began the killing of stray dogs in the city. Her family, with help from friends, saved more than 300 dogs who faced euthanasia in a single night and began the shelter’s mission to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome.
Her father, a well-known engineer in Romania, also played an important role. Being a man of action, he worked hard to achieve all necessary authorisations in a period when a private shelter was something unheard of in Romania.
Anca’s own daughter, Sara, has always been close to her mother’s activity. In 2005, just a few months after Sara was born, Anca went to Comănești, a place struck by some of the most devastating floods in Romania’s history. She helped rescuing animals with baby Sara attached to her – continuing to do both parenting and saving animals! Now, Sara is also part of Speranta’s team.
Anca took over running the shelter in 2017 and by the time of the merger with Animal Society, she had already become the driving force of Speranta Shelter.
A programme close to her heart and unique in entire country is “The Messengers of Hope”. She founded it in 2020, with the aim to include traumatised dogs in a rehabilitation process. Trainers and behaviourists help them through desensitisation and preparing them for integration into responsible families.
Anca is also a graduate of the Faculty of Law. When she was young, alongside her passion for saving animals, she dreamed of becoming a forensic specialist, like those in movies.
She actually became a certified veterinarian much later, after making a bet with her friends: that with all the knowledge she had gained in the field through her rescue work, she could pass the entrance exam to the Veterinary Faculty. And she did!
Now Speranta is home to around 500 dogs, including elderly and disabled dogs, who have been rescued from situations including abuse, neglect and injury. Speranta is the first shelter in Romania to run a large-scale rescue, while also focusing on improving the dog situation across the country through sterilisation and education.
Seen a famous face here? Every month the shelter holds an event where locals, visitors, staff and even celebrities join forces to cook a meal for the shelter’s 500 dogs.
