![Photo: To the ROMANIANS who come to our page telling us that we SHOULD STOP TALKING AND ADOPT A ROMANIAN STRAY DOG and to those who suggest that KILLING THEM IS THE SOLUTION: We do absolutely agree with you that having thousands of stray dogs (although most are docile, nice and gentle) on the streets, is NOT a]()
http://vimeo.com/74578670 : Here are ten reasons why this new law may not solve the problem of dogs on the streets – and two reasons why it might. 1. In a massive city, with a mass of dogs, mass-killing is rarely effective. The more dogs you kill, the more space and food there is for new dogs. The
World Health Organisation backs this up. As long as people dump dogs on the street and let dogs loose on the street to breed, there will be more dogs. When dogs disappear, other dogs appear. 2. To kill the animals, cities need vets. Vets must want to kill the animals. But many vets don’t want to murder. People did not study for six years to swap the surgery for the slaughterhouse. Last month in southwest city of Timisoara the vets voted not to collaborate with
City Hall to kill the dogs. More could follow. 3. All dogs must die – except mine. When Romanians are surveyed, they say they want to kill strays. But if you ask the same Romanians, if they want to see the charming, big brown-eyed mutt which greets them every day with a cocked head and a wagging tail, killed by lethal injection, they will refuse. Because this dog is kind to children, friendly to strangers and he never bites – and, when he does bite, it’s because he’s scared. It is always other people’s dogs who are dangerous. The dogs in the other block. In the other yard. In the other city. 4.
Bucharest tried mass-murder. As Mayor of Bucharest,
Traian Basescu ordered the killing of around 100,000 dogs between 2001 and 2003. It failed. 5. The wrong dogs will die. The dog catchers will pick up the quiet, old, sad and castrated dogs – the ones that can’t breed. The problem is not just stray dogs. The problem is loose dogs. I’ve followed dog catching around the housing areas of the Bucharest suburbs. When the residents leave for work in the morning, they let their dogs out on the street. If they are caught by dog catchers, the owners pick them up from the shelter and pay a fine. These are virile dogs. They breed with strays. They create new puppies. The problem persists. 6. People will hide the dogs. There are a lot of old, single and idle people in Bucharest. Often they love dogs. They will be watching for the dog catchers and, if they come for their strays, they will conceal them in their flat, basement, garage or yard. 7. No-kill could become a black market. In the past, dog catchers in Bucharest took money from residents in blocks to leave their stray dogs alone. This could happen again. 8. It is hard to catch a dog. There are around 15 trained dog catchers for three million people of Bucharest and its suburbs. They catch dogs by shooting them with a tranquilizer gun loaded with sedatives such as ketamine. The city will need a batallion of trained marskmen who can be trusted with a gun and a litre of a party drug with a high street value. 9. Bucharest is a metropolis run by a village council. It can’t cope with grand projects and grand challenges. Or even small ones. I live on
Piata Unirii – a square at the centre of the city. An international showpiece. In one year, they have not finished re-surfacing the pavement. It is a building site of dust, mud, rocks and holes. If Bucharest cannot lay a few paving stones in its city centre, it cannot manage the mass-murder of over 50,000 lives. 10. The capital never gave other solutions a chance. Councillors will argue back that the
NGOs’ favoured idea of the sterilisation and the return of dogs to the streets does not work, because stray dog attacks on people keep rising. But
the City never tried a mass-scale programme to see whether the dog numbers would fall. If, over a five year period, many NGOs could co-ordinate professional sterilisation in conjunction with all seven City Halls of Bucharest and the surrounding county of
Ilfov, alongside comprehensive adoption and education about responsible ownership, while giving the authorities the right to euthanize sick, old and aggressive dogs, the problem could stop. And two reasons why it might work… 1. Under the new law, in a small city in Romania, it will probably be possible to round and kill up to 1,000 stray dogs. But in Bucharest, this needs an unprecedented effort. The city needs to declare war on dogs. It needs a militia to go block by block, possibly forcing residents to leave their homes, while police carry out searches, removing every dog they suspect of being a stray. There must be no exceptions. They must enforce the 14-day rule before murdering the dogs. Killing 60,000 dogs means a massacre – and a massacre can only be effective if is ruthless and mechanical. 2. Politicians enlist citizens to be vigilantes. Using the media, politicians demonize all dogs as violent. The Government passes a new law allowing dogs to be killed. This sends a signal to citizens that they have the liberty to beat, poison, run over or lynch any loose dog. Anecdotally, friends are telling me of how bodies of dogs are appearing more often on the outskirts of Bucharest. If the nation’s leaders keep up the rhetoric, this may continue. The streets will be running with blood and poison and the blocks will be echoing with the sound of bats against brains until the last stray in Bucharest is dead – while the authorities bear no responsibility. Source:
http://michaelbirdjournalist.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/ten-reasons-why-romanias-proposed-mass-kill-of-millions-of-stray-dogs-wont-work-and-two-reasons-why-it-might/ ————————- The video ‘Man’s Best Friend’ – a documentary filmed between 2011 and 2012 in Romania – is an excellent documentary that everyone (not only those who believe that killing ALL homeless animals will solve the problem) should watch.
http://vimeo.com/74578670 It outlines how this battle has played out before, and reveals all the options for dealing with this complex and emotional zoological disaster. It will give you also an idea not only about the incredible work that our Romanian friends do, but also about the hard fight that they have to fight in a country where stray dogs are seen as ‘verminous’ and which justifies their mass-eradication. We have friends in Romania helping stray dogs who have been “advised to leave their village”, and others who had ALL animals that they had rescued being poisoned – and all this long BEFORE the new ‘legislation’. There are very many good people in Romania.. and it had to be expected that millions of animal lovers would seek to protect their own animals or the animals they ‘protect’ on the streets. Millions! Half a country would seek to defend and protect and the other half would seek to aggress. How strongly this will be enacted, will determine Romania’s future… So we have a government introduced policy which at best is ill informed, historically proven to be unsuccessful with previously proven successful strategies dismissed. And on top of all, a strategy which will polarize society resulting in violence between citizens and almost as if to reinforce the evidence that the strategy is ill advised, ill considered and incompetent, the children will be psychologically damaged. One cannot conceive of a more counter productive, societally destructive direction taken by any European Union Member Government in recent times. (said Malcolm Plant) —————————————– OFA claims that: keeping dogs on the streets is a DESIRABLE CONDITION! Romania has killed an incredible 10 million stray dogs during the period from 2004 to 2009. That IS a ‘genocide of dogs’ that has never happened in Europe – and the entire world – before. Romania has killed almost as many dogs as the entire population of Romania with the only “result” that the streets of Romania are again (still) littered with live and dead dogs. Overall it is estimated that Romania has spend between 25 and 40 million euros between 2001 and 2008 for the ‘management’ of the stray animals, while their numbers only grew larger! If the Romanian government was interested in solving the stray animals issue, they would have started mass sterilization campaigns long time ago. BUT: fact is that the stray animals business is a profitable dirty industry in which many people profit from: the collecting of dogs — the construction of unnecessary shelters (including research and design) — the housing of animals, including supposedly feeding and caring of the animals — the incineration of the deceased animals. Solving the stray animals issue would leave all those who make big money with it (including mayors and other politicians who accept bribes) without their huge profit! But… as long as the Romanians keep dumping dogs on the streets, the sad cycle is being kept alive and there is no risk for them to run out of work, to run out of money… Compiling ALL dog owners in Romania to sterilize their owned animals and to stop breeding would simply be counter-productive and that is why it has never even been suggested! Approximately 5 million puppies are born in Romania in rural areas every year, some of them being killed by their owners and the others being abandoned in the streets and the woods, and as long as the dogs with owners will not be sterilized, through coherent programs, Romania’s streets will never be free of dogs !!! MARK OUR WORDS: in a few years from now Romania’s streets will be littered again with life and dead dogs. All those who have already died, and those who will die, will have died for nothing! And we’ll be here again, having the same discussions on the same sad topic that we are having since 2008! In the same context, please read this post:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=524369960964387&set=pb.152547194813334.-2207520000.1380462576.&type=3&theater Please WATCH: ‘Man’s Best Friend’ a documentary filmed in Romania during 2011-2012, at:
http://vimeo.com/74578670 Then read:
http://www.occupyforanimals.org/romania—on-the-greatest-animal-genocide-in-european-history-government-initiated-anarchy-violations-of-human-rights-and-children-rights.html Then SIGN:
https://www.change.org/petitions/european-union-please-take-action-regarding-romania-a-european-country-challenging-europe Thank you (at all those who have already signed, and at those who will sign) ————————— About the PICTURE that we have used: A stray dog mommy – a pregnant mommy – probably poisoned with Carbofuran (commonly know as FURADAN) a poison banned in the entire European Union, seen a few days ago. The picture was originally published at:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=303005509837559&set=a.112211235583655.14642.100003843375131&type=1&theater ROMANIA seems to have enormous quantities of FURADAN – dogs are being poisoned with it all over Romania. And this is not just us, OFA, saying it, no, there are necropsy reports that confirm it:
http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/verdict-furadan-zeci-de-caini-ucisi-cu-aceeasi-substanta-care-i-a-adus-sfarsitul-madal-1059328.html OFA will make “the use of CHARBOFURAN in Romania” the object of a separate petition to the EU calling for an investigation, and it will be released within shortly. Please stay tuned! .” src=”
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Playing with stray dogs pups in Bucharest while a woman brings them food and water.
k-9 welfare campaigners Pola, left, Anneka and Victoria [PH]
Shocking scenes like this of dead dogs lying in skips are far too common in Romania [PH]
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