Sándor Buz started walking with his dog on April 4 this year on the Mary’s Way pilgrimage route (also known as Via Mariae) from Austria to Transylvania, with the noble plan of collecting donations for the Robin Hood Animal Protection Foundation. He started his walk from Sankt Pölten, and after going first to Mariazell, he kept walking on Mary’s Way all the way to Transylvania; after 1,300 kilometers, he arrived in Szászrégen (Reghin in Romanian and Sächsisch-Regen in German) on June 17, where the mayor of the town, Endre Márk, welcomed him and thanked him for his efforts. The collected donations will be spent on the maintenance of the Fiducia dog shelter in Szászrégen and on the neutering of stray dogs.
Sándor Buz was not walking alone, but together with his dog, Gyangó. The young man pulled the essentials — his tent, raincoat, blanket and dog food — on a small cart behind him.
“When I left, I had no money at all. I slept outside, in the tent or under the open sky. I was often freezing; we even had some nights of minus 20 degrees, but I kept sleeping outside all the time with my dog as originally planned. Then later, we had to deal with the extremely hot temperatures too.”
– he told Székelyhon.ro, adding that he was born in Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș) and moved to Austria with his parents during his childhood. He originally got in touch with the Fiducia dog shelter when he adopted his dog Gyangó from them. Sándor decided to make this long journey last December and started two months of training with his dog in February.
The goal of the walk was to collect 5,000 euros for the dog shelter in Szászrégen, which was surpassed, as
more than EUR 8,000 (RON 40,000) was collected.
According to Sándor Buz, the money will be used to renovate the dog shelter’s roof, for better living conditions for the dogs, and to neuter the stray dogs in the area.
“I already had a walk two years ago, without a dog then, to the Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela. I said to myself if I could do that, then I can walk to Transylvania too. And I made it, and I would do it again. I don’t regret it, and I reached the goal I set for myself”
– said Sándor Buz, who besides collecting donations also wanted to use the walk to raise awareness of stray dogs and encourage people to help and adopt them.
Title image: Sándor Buz and his dog, Gyangó, walked 1,300 kilometers on Mary’s Way from Austria to Transylvania to collect donations for a Transylvanian dog shelter and to raise awareness of stray dogs. (Photo: Endre Márk Facebook page)
