Bubu wasn't really sure how old he might be, but he was sure that he is a mixed breed, he was a stray dog.

It wasn't really easy for him, but he though his luck has finally changed when he was brought to a dog shelter at Pokupsko Cerje.

He was counting his days knowing that if no one adopts him in 60 days, his life is over. Than came Mladena!

"They immediately told me that the dog is gone! What do u mean gone, I said???"

"He is terminally ill." - "I said what is wrong?" - "Pneumonia" - "So I said: OK, I'll take him and take care of him!"

He said: "No, we don't give away sick animals!" "OK, I will call u every day until he gets better and than I will take the dog."

The guy said there were many people asking for that dog...

At least there were two people asking for that dog. The second person asking for the dog was told that the dog was put to sleep already and that was the day before the 60 day limit.

We also wanted to check what happened with Bubi but the owner of the shelter Mr. Baraba never responded to our phone calls

and as soon as we arrived to the location of the shelter one of his employees tried to chase us away.

-"You cannot shoot here" -"We are on public property"

A few minutes after the phone call we were allowed to enter and shoot the animals who were waiting for the adoption, but Mr. Baraba was still unavailable.

None of the neighbors were willing to go in front of the camera because of the fear of retaliation since Mr. Baraba is well connected to Mayor of Velika Gorica.

Off the record the told us they are also fear for their own dogs since there were cases when Mr. Baraba would take their dogs and blackmail them for the money or he otherwise he would put them to sleep as well.

In the meantime we were contacted by many animal-protection groups accusing the owner of the shelter of receiving 100.000,00 euros

to remove dogs from the streets and take care of them for the period of 60 days.

Many people that we spoke with also told us that this shelter is also a cover-up for the dog trade market and many other illegal activities like dog fights or worse.

After she couldn't adopt Bubi, Mladena attempted to adopt any other dog and she was swiftly turned down with the explanation that they have to come and check the conditions at her place

which she agreed to and signed the papers but they never came to visit her or contact her ever again. So Mladena was left without a dog and at least 2 dogs from this shelter were left without a home.

Alternative is to put them to sleep after 60 days in the shelter. There might be bad adopters and checkups are necessary and welcome, but in case of these dogs any adopter is better than death.

There are Ericas babies. Puppies, advertised as "ready for the adoption". Maria has already adopted a dog from this shelter befre, so when she saw that

60 day limit is almost up she notified her friends who were ready to adopt.

"My friend told me already that they were not willing to give the dogs away so I called them, introduced myself, informed them that I was there a week already and begged them to give me the dogs.

They were extremely unpleasant, telling me that we all know that these dogs times are up!" Although they promised they will keep them till adoption.

-"What happened with the dogs afterwards?" -"I think they were put to sleep even before we spoke!"

Heavy accusations in the name of the person in charge of the shelter who never even replied to any of the phonecalls or emails.

But we got the official statement from the Mayor of Velika Gorica city that pays 100.000 € per year to the same shelter.

"We are shocked by there reports and accusations where Pokupsko Cerje is mentioned and if we find any irregularities in their work we're gonna take all legal measures and make some cuts."

Baric says that despite the rumors he's not in any way related or associated with the owner of the shelter and he has no idea whats going on with the dogs there.

But somehow he knows that Barabas contract expires tomorrow and they applied for the new contract.

Since we didn't get any answers from the shelter, we asked institutions how many dogs have been adopted or euthanized,

but we're still waiting for any answers just as these dogs are waiting for their home or their death.

"He let me in the cage in with around 6 or 7 dogs and then he locked me in. I somehow overcame my fear and sat among them." Then it got even worse. "I have spent around 15 minutes in this cage

and I became scared and uncomfortable because I couldn't physically get out. He was standing in front of the cage and at some point he started talking about how he was in the war with diagnosed PTSP

and that he might throw a bomb at any time. He was not talking directly to me but to some other people that were on his list."

Before that incident everything seemed fine, Baraba was pleasant and even waited for her after his shift.

-"Why did you report this incident?" -"I was just thinking about the dogs well being!"

So despite her fear she came the next day and Baraba gave her 2 dogs for the adoption, obviously aware of potention consequences from from the day before.

"No one checked me or the conditions of my accommodations!"

Why did he threaten her and why did he later give her the dogs without any checkups - we still don't know even though he is obliged by the law to give all the information to the public.

How many dog have been adopted and how many dogs have been put to sleep - we asked at the place that should have the information since they are paying for it - The Town of Velika Gorica.

However, they claim they have no such information so they directed us to the Ministry of agriculture from which we received the explanation that they cannot release that information since it might compromise

the investigation or image of the shelter that apparently works according to rules. So we're not sure if threats and blackmail is part of the rules or the shelter actually is under investigation.

Another story, another nightmare:

One evening Rex disappeared from the backyard of their family house and the next morning they received the phonecall from the owner of Pokupsko Cerje.

"He told us that he was treating the dog the whole night but the dog didn't survive and his treatment is gonna cost us a lot of money.

According to him, the dog was apparently hit by a car ad the police of Velika Gorica were called and intervened on the spot.

The Police station however denies this and informed them that they were not called or informed about any accident."

When the owners asked for the release of the dogs body - he claimed that the body has already been transferred to the veterinary morgue. The owners went to the morgue

and asked to see the body and they got the permission to search for the body and take it for an autopsy which revealed that the dog wasn't treated at all apart from fractured skull and bullet in his head.

When they informed Baraba about the results he told them that they don't have to pay for any treatment.

Another bad experience was also reported by their friend who claimed that they entered her backyard and took the dog away however their neighbor witnessed everything.

The next day they have received a note from the shelter that their dog was found wandering the streets but when they confronted them with reports from witnesses the shelter just gave the dog back.

She never recovered from the trauma of losing her dog, but hides her identity out of fear for her safety.

"Why didn't you report it then?" - " At that moment we were in a state of shock since that dog was a part of our family for 10 years,

but now that other stories about the shelter started coming out we are sorry that we didn't speak up before because we might have saved other dogs".

Finally we got the information of how many dogs could have been saved if this shelter didn't operate without any control or supervision. "Around 500 dogs are registered as dead and around 250 as adopted."

Ministry of Agriculture has no track record of how these dogs died, but they said said they will inform us what happened with the rest after the official investigation is over.

The math s clear - around 50 enter the shelter per month and 10 of them leave the shelter dead. Most of the deceased dogs had the potential to be adopted. Now they have nothing.

These dogs are still waiting for their potential home - that is, if they're still alive by then. After our story about Pokupsko Cerje where the dogs will sooner meet euthanasia then their owners -

a few of potential adopters came today trying to save them.

"Following your story and media coverage - I refuse to believe that such a thing is possible and trying to put story on some rational level

so I came with a friend wanting to adopt a dog that we saw featured on their official pages."

"We wanted to adopt a dog for a long time and we came today during the work hours, I even organized a babysitter so I could be here, but today no one is here."

Nobody was answering the doorbell, no one answered the phone listed at the entrance.

The official work hours of the shelter are 10am - 2pm. At the moment it's 11:15am. We've been here for half an hour and no one was here to meet with us."

"If this was a clean honest situation the doors wouldn't be locked. During the working hours the shelter paid by taxpayers money should be open to public.

We are here to adopt a pet which is officially the purpose of this institution and the doors are closed.

"Are you frustrated?" "Yes, very much!"

Diana is angry as well, because she called them yesterday and ask to adopt the dog named Vito which is the name of her brother also.

But personnel told her that this time she will have to be satisfied with having a brother

and he's in a lot of hurry since he has two dogs to put down.

"If we don't forbid the euthanasia the whole system makes no sense. Are we gonna prepare the dogs for the adoption, sterilize them and then put them to death?"

"I don't see the point in spending the taxpayers money just so the shelters or their owners could profit."

The costs of the dog care is covered by local authorities and Željka and Luka know well what they're talking about - again about Pokupsko Cerje.

"Pokupsko Cerje shelter has received 6 million kunas in the last 3 years so there's a lot of money in question and they still kill animals for it."

Once the dog is gone it's hard to confirm if he was marked, sterilized or treated so the money was either wasted or went directly to the shelter owners pockets. This is the case of Pokupsko Cerje

where they did everything possible to make the adoption impossible - you have to fill outs some form that they invented but have no legal right on it.

You have to meet the animal before you adopt it, leave your personal information, even your salary records and a list of owned properties and possessions and at the end they wouldn't even contact you back."

Ad at the end there was a shocking sentence "Dogs time has expired - 60 days"

Against the owner of Pokupsko Cerje are pressed many charges. He lost the contract with Velika Gorica, but got the new one with Sisak!