When visiting Romania, nobody can overlook the massive amount of strays roaming the streets for food.  Approximately 5 millions puppies are born each year in rural areas of Romania. And most of those dogs will never be sterilized nor will they all find a human companion. Most of them are born without a name, live a life of starvation, abuse, neglect and severe medical conditions and die within the first two to five years of their life. Some of them end up in shelters but all too often the condition in those shelters/camps leave dogs better off on the streets. Many shelter owners or volunteers don’t care about those countless of dogs and barely feed them. Basically they are left to rot.

For many years now the desperate need for a solution was seeked. And it didn’t take long for the government to come up with a solution.

Killing law

In september 2013 the so-called «Killing law » was passed by the Romanian government. With this law, the green-light has been given to the mass killing of tens of thousands of stray dogs all over the country. Every stray captured and unclaimed for more than two weeks is to be killed.

Basically- once caught- a dog has 14 days to live.

Despite protesters, petitions and a massive plea from animal organisations, other EU-countries and thousands of volunteers present in the country trying to help wherever they can, the law was passed and the fate of countless strays was sealed. All strays had to die in order to clear the streets again and make every city in Romania as free as possible of strays.

Animal organisation Four Paws challenged the court decision and their claim won. Thus from that day on, June 20, 2014, killing dogs is officially considered illegal again in Romenia. However, almost every city in Romania continues to kill strays. Legal or illegal, it doesn't matter... They continue to believe in these horrible practises!

All sorts of independant studies have shown that these mass-killing are not effective. Under the pretext of the “Stray’s terror” generous budgets were allocated. In a period of 7 years (2001-2008) Romania spent between 25 and 40 Million Euro on strays and in the end.. their numbers only grew larger. Yet, in 2013, the Romanian Government voted killing to be the only right answer. And even after their sickening law was ruled down by the court office, making killing dogs illegal again in Romania, they continue to brutally slaughter them.

That is probably the biggest proof of what seems to be the real problem with the stray dogs issue in Romania. There is a very lucrative business to be made out of these strays.

Dogs have to be caught, killed and cremated. In 2011, an average incineration cost of a 20kg dog was about 10€.

This is an overview of monies to be spent by the town hall of Bucharest for 65000 street animals:

Rounding up of the dogs:    3,211,000 euros

Housing of the dogs:         6,160,700 euros

Euthanasia of the dogs:        733,200 euros

Cremation of the dogs:         812,500 euros

TOTAL:                    10,917,400 euros for 65,000 dogs living in Bucharest or 167,96 euros/dog 

Out of a Total budget of 1.500.000 lei for 2008, the dog catchers in Brasov allocated only 5000 lei for dog food, less than 3%. About 100.000 lei were annually spent on tranquilizers and lethal substances but nobody ever checked facts against the number of dogs caught and/or euthanized. 

Every stray that is captured and killed in the streets, in shelters, on farms or elsewhere is brought to Protan, a rendering plant that takes all kinds of dead animals and reduce them into oils, fats and proteins used in cosmetics, paints and pet food.

The incineration of a 20kg dog costs 10€ but most shelters don’t have scales. The weight is thus being filled in at random and profits are being made on a large « scale ». In Brasov only, between 10.000 and 15.000€ was made in one year.

Other solutions

When looked at an adoption system, the first thing that strikes us is the very strict adoption rules making adoptions almost impossible. Not only do official rules make adopting difficult, there’s also a very active hinder management by shelter workers and big business companies. For every dog that gets adopted, there’s no profit to be made.

Knowing very well that euthanasia is not a solution, they all want that as it is a guarantee for more dirty money to be made in the future from "the stray business".

Obviosly for these reasons, an entire mechanism has to be maintained on a long term. Thus, animals have to kept on the street.

Cath-neuter/spay- release

The World Health Organization’s “Guidelines for Dog Population Management” (Geneva 1990) and various other academic studies show that killing dogs does not stop the problem but only offers a temporary “solution”. This was (and is) also true for Romania: despite mass extermination campaigns by misguided municipalities the street dog population grows. They ONLY solution to reduce the amount of strays in Romania and any other country is to cath-neuter/spay- release. And the best examples of both good and bad stray animal population control policies come from their own country:

The only towns in Romania that used catch/neuter/release programs were Oradea and Lugoj, and the results are showing!

ORADEA had a stray dog population of 4000 animals in 2006 which had been reduced to 270 animals until 2011 at a cost of 14 euros to spay/neuter one dog.  The program was run and funded by Robert Smith - FPCC/Dog - Project Oradea, UK, in collaboration with the city hall Oradea.

LUGOJ had a stray dog population of 2,500 animals in 2008 which had been reduced to 235 animals until 2011 at a cost of 12 euros to spay/neuter one dog. The program was run and funded by the city hall Lugoj in collaboration with the local animal welfare organization, Free Amely.

Neuter/spaying dogs is a successfull formula because it’s aiming at the cause of the problem: animal birth control. In 4 to 5 years time the effects will be clearly and effectively visible without having to kill masses and masses of innocent creatures.

How the EU can help

There’s another fact to be considered in the entire neuter/spay solution. There are simply not enough veterinarians in Romania, and even less who can do proper sterilizations. Often resulting in the death of many female dogs. So help from volunteering vets from all over the European Union will be needed.

Time and money has to be invested in proper schooling of vets and hygienic circumstances in which medical procedures must take place.

European help is of the essence. Luckily, lots of kind-hearted people from all over the EU have caught up on the problem and started building local shelters where dogs are treated as it should. They are cared for, there’s food and water, there’s shelter, medical attention is provided and some even offer an entire organisation of abroad adoption. Only to save a couple of dogs every month/year.

If all these small initiatives blend together with an ultimate willingness from upperhand, things can finally change.

Once the Romanian government takes this turn, allocated money can be used to provide sterilization material rather than paychecks for dog catchers and incineration fees and every dog in Romania will no longer be predestined for an anonymous life.

Conclusion

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

There really is a way out! Things can change, but we need to take action!

Please sign my petition and stop the mass-killing of strays in Romania! Spay/neutering is the only solution and people from all over the EU should make this statement heard.

There are already lots of petitions on this subject and one more probably won’t make the difference, but if every country in the EU starts to write, starts collecting signatures and openly disapprove of the inhumane treatment of animals of a fellow EU-member, than maybe all those signatures and voices will change someone’s mind, or makes one man doubt… and a collection of a hundred tiny little steps make for one gigantic footprint!

The petition –along with a letter underlining our motivations - will be send to the Council of Europe, the European Commision, the Romanian Constitutional Court, the European Parliament’s Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals, Belgian minister of animal rights Ben Weyts and the Board on Animal Welfare of Belgium.

 

Thanks to Occupy and Robert Smith for the provided information, statistics and photo.

http://sponsoradog.rolda.org/stop-romanian-street-dog-massacre/​

http://www.occupyforanimals.net/​

http://www.actionagainstpoisoning.com/reportrobertsmith/REPORTROBERTSMITH.html