Hundreds of thousands of street dogs have been killed in whole Romania at a cost of tens of millions of Euros.
Despite legislating improvements such as catching dogs by civilized methods, good shelter conditions, killing the dogs by euthanasia etc, in general reality on the ground is:
- - legislative provisions were not respected
- - most dogs were hunted, tortured, beaten to death, stabbed, strangled, being dragged over the streets often bleeding from mouth and nose and treated like rubbish. After that the common fate of all: a pitiful and miserable prison, where they waited, exhausted by fear, hunger and thirst, until they were finally killed by the cheapest method possible after 7 days, despite these killing methods being illegal.
In general Romanians are tolerant towards animals; hence most community dogs are deliberately fed by compassionate people or kept as guard dogs for businesses. However, most people lack the money, property and education to care for dogs responsibly as is normal in Western Europe.
Both dog haters and dog lovers have the same aim: to make the streets of Romania like those of Western Europe, with no unsupervised and unwanted dogs. The only question is: how can this common aim be achieved? Killing does not work and is in any case barbaric and now illegal. Removal and incarceration, with or without euthanasia, is futile, never-ending and unaffordable. Therefore the problem of surplus dogs must be solved logically in an effective and civilised way. For decades dog elimination policies have been an expensive failure. Control of reproduction, combined with education in responsible dog ownership, is the only practical solution: free neutering and returning of all dogs, with and without owners, to the territory where they were found or to their owner or keeper. ‘Neuter & Return’ is the only practical and permanent solution, but it requires central finance, political will and efficient implementation.
Although these shelters were publicly financed and were officially public places, and the law permitted the access of the press, animal foundations and the public, access to these “shelters” was usually denied. Visitors were often only allowed access if the mayor agreed to an advance request in writing, which he would not do if he feared there was something to hide.
Residents living close to such extermination centres were distressed by the moans and howls of the dogs.
The methods for catching dogs were cruel. Some dogs died long before they were taken to the extermination camps, they were strangled in the street by the catching teams or suffocated in unventilated vans in summer.
“Euthanasia” in practice meant starvation, poisoning, strangulation, being burnt alive or injected with magnesium sulphate. Thousands of dogs have been poisoned. Others were shot. Sometimes dogs were thrown into deep pits from which they could not escape. Most publicly financed shelters were illegal extermination camps managed by untrained, poorly educated, underpaid and brutalised personnel.
Until the year 2001, there was neither an animal protection law nor an arrangement concerning street dogs in place in Romania – everything was unprohibited
Since January 15, 2008 the killing of cats and dogs was forbidden strictly and by law – at least on paper. Cruelty agains cats or dogs was put under penalty – fine as well as imprisonment.
But on February 3rd, 2010 the Prefect of Bukuresti, Mr. Mihai Atanasoaiei, declared his intent to again legalize the killing of street dogs in an interview. Allegedly, the Mayor and citizens alike felt disturbed by the street dogs, he explained.
It was only after massive protests on the Internet that on February 8th, 2010 he corrected himself and declared that he was going to act in accordance with the law and would not want to kill dogs. Instead, the street dogs were to be barracked in large camps as currently practiced in Italy. However, this announcement is not a solution, but an immeasurable agony for the dogs, pent-up by the thousands.Cruelty to a street kitten beaten to death and shown on television shocked Romania. This was the start of a television campaign (Stop torturing animals!) and citizens started to object openly to what they had already been seeing for many years, sending movies and information showing the cruelties to animals. This “wave of revulsion” has contributed to recent improvements in animal welfare legislation.
Thus euthanasia of healthy dogs and cats has now become illegal and cruelty to animals has become a criminal offence.
The Romanian authorities will achieve nothing for as long as they address only the symptoms, rather than the causes, of the problem.
One fertile pair of dogs can produce tens of thousands of offspring in a few years. That is why killing has no effect on the street dog population.
- - There is nothing to prevent abandonment of dogs, nothing to hold the irresponsible dog owners liable for the costs they cause to society and for the suffering they cause to animals. Most dogs of breeding age on the streets are the offspring of dogs with owners or feeders.
Source:
http://de.strayanimalrights.org/en/europas-laender/rumaenien
Send protest mail to:
http://www.eu-protest.docs4dogs.org/
