This article from occupyforanimals.org says everything you need to know :
Romania : A country cries out for revenge after the tragic death of a four year old boy, who has apparently been attacked by dogs
September 4th 2013 - today marks the beginning of a very dark time for Romanias' homeless animals. Following the tragic death of little Ionut , a four year old boy who was killed by dogs after he entered a private , fenced land, Romanian President Traian Basescu , urged the Government to elaborate and emergency ordinance that ALL dogs be killed.
Since the tragic accident , all Romanian televisions and newspapers are continuously talking about this tragedy. They do shows, tell stories, interview people who feel disturbed by dogs, they show false statistics, they distort the reality, and they inflame the entire population.
But too little is being mentioned that little Ionut was left too long unsupervised by his grand mother; they he and his 6 year-old brother had left the park; wandered very far away; and entered a private, fenced property where dogs were. And this last statement bears repeating "dogs". Of course, it was quickly said that it was 'stray dogs', but these dogs could as well have been 'guard dogs', perhaps even deliberately encouraged to be aggressive. Since no-one is compelled to identify and to register his/her dogs (only the pure breeds are being registered, but ONLY with the Romanian Kennel Club) nobody can be taken accountable even if someone is being attacked or killed on private ground.
But too little is being mentioned that little Ionut was left too long unsupervised by his grand mother; they he and his 6 year-old brother had left the park; wandered very far away; and entered a private, fenced property where dogs were. And this last statement bears repeating "dogs". Of course, it was quickly said that it was 'stray dogs', but these dogs could as well have been 'guard dogs', perhaps even deliberately encouraged to be aggressive. Since no-one is compelled to identify and to register his/her dogs (only the pure breeds are being registered, but ONLY with the Romanian Kennel Club) nobody can be taken accountable even if someone is being attacked or killed on private ground.
We do not know for sure... the dogs can have been guard dogs, and they can as well have been strays. But little Ionut's tragic death is sad beyond words, in any case.... and our hearts and thoughts go out to the family of the little boy.
But we know that the strays always take the blame because it is convenient for the politicians and it fuels the anti-stray propaganda machine... Because under the pretext of the “stray’s terror” generous budgets are being allocated and their biggest weapon is the manipulation of the population through mass-media.
A few years ago there was the case of a woman attacked by dogs in a private yard, because she entered the premises at night, without any authorisation, which had been presented to the public as a woman killed by strays. The same type of story happened again when a drunk woman was attacked by dogs who had owners, and they also blamed the strays for her death. There were other such cases...
The case of the 4 year old child killed by dogs is more than blurry and strange. There are things in the official version that just don't add up and many people have started to ask questions and wonder. Even Romanian MEP Corneliu Vadim Tudor had publicly expressed doubts on the official version of the boy's death. We have compiled the inconsistencies which have emerged days after the death of the little boy and a video can be seen at :
But we know that the strays always take the blame because it is convenient for the politicians and it fuels the anti-stray propaganda machine... Because under the pretext of the “stray’s terror” generous budgets are being allocated and their biggest weapon is the manipulation of the population through mass-media.
A few years ago there was the case of a woman attacked by dogs in a private yard, because she entered the premises at night, without any authorisation, which had been presented to the public as a woman killed by strays. The same type of story happened again when a drunk woman was attacked by dogs who had owners, and they also blamed the strays for her death. There were other such cases...
The case of the 4 year old child killed by dogs is more than blurry and strange. There are things in the official version that just don't add up and many people have started to ask questions and wonder. Even Romanian MEP Corneliu Vadim Tudor had publicly expressed doubts on the official version of the boy's death. We have compiled the inconsistencies which have emerged days after the death of the little boy and a video can be seen at :
(viewer discretion advised , several pictures WILL cause upset and distress the animal lovers)
Don't blame the dogs blame your corrupt politicians!
In 2001, Traian Băsescu, the then-mayor of Bucharest launched a campaign that led to the extermination of about 144,000 stray dogs in the capital alone, spending almost 9,000,000 Euros (62 Euros per dog) during the period from 2001-2007. The dog catchers in Brasov spent about 2 million EURO in 8 years. Between 2008-2010, 20,000 dogs have been killed in Constanta spending 1,500,000 Euros (75 Euros per dog). Overall it is estimated that Romania spent between 25 and 40 million EURO on strays from 2001 until 2008.
Between 2001 and 2011 the Romaniananimal control people have killed hundreds of thousands dogs by spending tens of millions of Euros in public funds, while the number of stray dogs only grew larger because the authorities quickly came to realise that the mere existence of the strays is a very profitable business!
Between 2001 and 2011 the Romanian
Fact is: the campaign started by Basescu, the then-mayor of Bucharest, led to the extermination of more than 144.000 stray dogs in the capital alone, spending almost 9 million euros on taxpayer's money between 2011 and 2008 with the result that the streets of Bucharest are again littered with dead and life animals.
Although the problem of the aggressive dogs is supposedly the number one priority, the animal control folks rarely catch aggressive dogs. Instead they almost always take puppies and little, friendly dogs that are easy and safe to catch. This approach has the double benefit of keeping the dangerous dogs on the streets in order to perpetuate the “terror of the strays” while making the dog catchers appear as heroes and saviours in the eyes of the people.
Some dog catchers catch everything they can get their hands on, including dogs with owners or protectors and dogs that are sterilised and returned to their territory according to HG 955/2004. There were cases where dogs were taken while walking next to their owners or where the dog catchers went into people’s yards and took their dogs. A lot of the owners tried to negotiate a return fee smaller than the official one and eventually, especially in Bucharest, a “protection fee” paid to the dog catchers became the norm.
Some dog catchers catch everything they can get their hands on, including dogs with owners or protectors and dogs that are sterilised and returned to their territory according to HG 955/2004. There were cases where dogs were taken while walking next to their owners or where the dog catchers went into people’s yards and took their dogs. A lot of the owners tried to negotiate a return fee smaller than the official one and eventually, especially in Bucharest, a “protection fee” paid to the dog catchers became the norm.
Several mayors with business “abilities” transformed the local animal control departments into businesses that made money by catching and killing dogs from small towns that didn’t have their own shelters or by catching the dogs in a town without shelter and “hosting” the dogs in a different city, tens of km away. The corrupt mayors became so addicted to these profits that they imposed quotas on their dog catchers: the Brasov dog catchers hunted in 4-5 counties, bringing over 120,000 lei to Brasov’s budget. Most of the dogs were exterminated in the Stupini shelter and a small number were handed over to other cities that had shelters.
The whole operation was made profitable at the price of torturing the animals and breaking the Romanian animal protection laws. After loading up the dogs and before heading for Brasov, the Brasov dog catchers would be paid per number of dogs for capture, transportation, sheltering and euthanasia.
Since they were already paid and everyone saw them leaving with the dogs, nothing (certainly not their conscience) stopped the dog catchers from releasing most of the dogs on their way back to Brasov, to make sure that the problem continues and they are called back to “help”. Any animal lover would be happy to hear that, if they didn’t know that the dogs would be caught again and again, sometimes injured in the process, and would most likely continue to multiply.
The chief dog-catcher, Flavius Barbulescu, even got to buy his own jeep, a Mitubischi L200, for about 30,000 EURO, under the pretext of helping large animals, such as cows, pigs, bears, rhinoceros or giraffes that might have wondered into the public roundabouts build by mayor Scripcaru. Rumour has it that the jeep is used in certain weekends by two local authorities in their hunting trips.
The whole operation was made profitable at the price of torturing the animals and breaking the Romanian animal protection laws. After loading up the dogs and before heading for Brasov, the Brasov dog catchers would be paid per number of dogs for capture, transportation, sheltering and euthanasia.
Since they were already paid and everyone saw them leaving with the dogs, nothing (certainly not their conscience) stopped the dog catchers from releasing most of the dogs on their way back to Brasov, to make sure that the problem continues and they are called back to “help”. Any animal lover would be happy to hear that, if they didn’t know that the dogs would be caught again and again, sometimes injured in the process, and would most likely continue to multiply.
The chief dog-catcher, Flavius Barbulescu, even got to buy his own jeep, a Mitubischi L200, for about 30,000 EURO, under the pretext of helping large animals, such as cows, pigs, bears, rhinoceros or giraffes that might have wondered into the public roundabouts build by mayor Scripcaru. Rumour has it that the jeep is used in certain weekends by two local authorities in their hunting trips.
Thankfully, some Romanian media are becoming increasingly critical
In an excellent report by STIRILE PRO TV, the enormous amounts of public money that are being spent on the supposed management of the stray animals are being questioned! The article states that, according to official data, the authority who's in charge of the management of stray animals claimed the city's total budget of 14.5 million lei - that is almost 3.3 million Euros!
And that interventions only come with great delay, despite desperate requests of citizens.
"At the moment we have an average response time between 30 and 40 days. I mean the "action on the field". But to be effective you need to get somewhere in less than 2 weeks," says Razvan Bancescu, coordinator of ASPA.
So if you have an aggressive dog erring around your property and your playing children, you can be assured that the ASPA will "help" you in 30 to 40 days from now...
BUT what people do not know: they don't come so late because they are so busy, or because they do not have enough staff, they come intentionally so late to make you believe so! ...And to have even more budgets being allocated!
And that interventions only come with great delay, despite desperate requests of citizens.
"At the moment we have an average response time between 30 and 40 days. I mean the "action on the field". But to be effective you need to get somewhere in less than 2 weeks," says Razvan Bancescu, coordinator of ASPA.
So if you have an aggressive dog erring around your property and your playing children, you can be assured that the ASPA will "help" you in 30 to 40 days from now...
BUT what people do not know: they don't come so late because they are so busy, or because they do not have enough staff, they come intentionally so late to make you believe so! ...And to have even more budgets being allocated!
The killings have already started
The first dogs that will have to pay are the ones that are already incarcerated in the public shelters - those who are vaccinated, sterilised and that constitute no danger to the public...
The mayoress of Craiova, Lia Olguta Aliescu, who hates dogs and who is well known for allowing horrible suffering to go on in the local public shelter over which she has the responsibility, did not waste any time and was the first Romanian mayor to announce that she had ordered the killing of all dogs in their local shelter. The killing of the more or less 500 unfortunate souls have started today, September 4, 2013. The next unfortunate souls will probably be the dogs at the public shelter in Râmnicu Vâlcea.
Next week, it's the turn of the dogs in Bucharest's public shelters. Followed by those on the streets. Razvan BANCESCU, head of the Authority for Supervision and Protection of Animals (ASPA) said that a lot more dogs will be taken from the streets, the aggressive ones - or better said: deemed aggressive - will be killed immediately and the others will be thrown in one of their shelters. The number of shelters in the capital will be increased from actually 8, to 50. And given that one shelter has only a capacity of more or less 160 dogs, and considering that there are around 60.000 stray dogs in the capital alone, those for whom there will be no place, will also be killed. Those who will not be killed immediately, will be killed if not adopted within a few days. In fact, ALL will the killed, some sooner, others a bit later.
The fate of the 13,000 homeless dogs of Timisoara is also already determined: mayor Nicolae Robu did not waste any time to sentence them all to death!
For the unfortunate animals who have the misfortune to enter such a public shelter, or publicly financed animal shelter, of which most are nothing less than illegal extermination camps run by untrained, poorly educated, underpaid and cruel shelter workers, and where they are being left to starve or to freeze to death, where they die of the consequences of diseases and injuries (often inflicted during the catching) and left without veterinary care, death will come as a welcome relief... because there are many things worse than death. But sadly, very sadly, death won't come swiftly. And it won't be fear nor painless...
Although the euthanasia of healthy animals had been deemed "unconstitutional" by the Romanian Constitutional Court, it seems to be 'okay' now... And there goes our trust in the Romanian Constitution, and in the authority and credibility of Romania's Courts and their Judges!
In addition to the mass killings happening right now in public shelters, the angry, murderous populace has got a free ticket to kill and dogs and cats are being bludgeoned, shot and poisoned in villages and towns all over Romania. Pregnant bitches, little puppies and socialised gentle dogs, none are being spared!
While crying out for revenge over the tragic death of little Ionut, they kill dogs and cats right in front of the children that they claim they are wanting to protect, not knowing that the uncontrolled exposure of children to uncontrolled animal abuse has serious ramifications on the psychological health of these children resulting in a serious psychological disturbance.
The mayoress of Craiova, Lia Olguta Aliescu, who hates dogs and who is well known for allowing horrible suffering to go on in the local public shelter over which she has the responsibility, did not waste any time and was the first Romanian mayor to announce that she had ordered the killing of all dogs in their local shelter. The killing of the more or less 500 unfortunate souls have started today, September 4, 2013. The next unfortunate souls will probably be the dogs at the public shelter in Râmnicu Vâlcea.
Next week, it's the turn of the dogs in Bucharest's public shelters. Followed by those on the streets. Razvan BANCESCU, head of the Authority for Supervision and Protection of Animals (ASPA) said that a lot more dogs will be taken from the streets, the aggressive ones - or better said: deemed aggressive - will be killed immediately and the others will be thrown in one of their shelters. The number of shelters in the capital will be increased from actually 8, to 50. And given that one shelter has only a capacity of more or less 160 dogs, and considering that there are around 60.000 stray dogs in the capital alone, those for whom there will be no place, will also be killed. Those who will not be killed immediately, will be killed if not adopted within a few days. In fact, ALL will the killed, some sooner, others a bit later.
The fate of the 13,000 homeless dogs of Timisoara is also already determined: mayor Nicolae Robu did not waste any time to sentence them all to death!
For the unfortunate animals who have the misfortune to enter such a public shelter, or publicly financed animal shelter, of which most are nothing less than illegal extermination camps run by untrained, poorly educated, underpaid and cruel shelter workers, and where they are being left to starve or to freeze to death, where they die of the consequences of diseases and injuries (often inflicted during the catching) and left without veterinary care, death will come as a welcome relief... because there are many things worse than death. But sadly, very sadly, death won't come swiftly. And it won't be fear nor painless...
Although the euthanasia of healthy animals had been deemed "unconstitutional" by the Romanian Constitutional Court, it seems to be 'okay' now... And there goes our trust in the Romanian Constitution, and in the authority and credibility of Romania's Courts and their Judges!
In addition to the mass killings happening right now in public shelters, the angry, murderous populace has got a free ticket to kill and dogs and cats are being bludgeoned, shot and poisoned in villages and towns all over Romania. Pregnant bitches, little puppies and socialised gentle dogs, none are being spared!
While crying out for revenge over the tragic death of little Ionut, they kill dogs and cats right in front of the children that they claim they are wanting to protect, not knowing that the uncontrolled exposure of children to uncontrolled animal abuse has serious ramifications on the psychological health of these children resulting in a serious psychological disturbance.
Killing is NO solution!
The killings that have already started and which will continue throughout Romania and which will end the lives of hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of innocent creatures in the most gruesome ways, WILL NOT solve the problem for the following reasons:
Technically and logistically speaking, it is simply impossible for the dog catching services to capture all the stray dogs.
Owned dogs who are not sterilised also contribute to the stray animal population but they won't be killed. Most owned dogs in Romania are not sterilised and allowed to roam freely and to mate as they wish. They will continue to reproduce litter after litter which will then simply be abandoned by their owners and so the sad cycle will continue year in, year out, with new puppies replacing the dying or killed adult population. Just one unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in only six years. In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can produce an incredible 370,000 kittens. Male animals contribute to the companion animal overpopulation crisis even more than females do. Just one un-sterilised male animal can impregnate dozens of females, creating dozens upon dozens of unwanted offspring.
If the Romanian government was interested in solving the stray animals issue, they would have started mass sterilisation 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 from the "stray business" (including mayors and other politicians who receive bribes) without their huge profits!!!
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!
Catch-Neuter-Return is the only proven humane and effective method to reduce stray animal populations. Statistical studies indicate that in order to fully control a stray population, you need to achieve a 70 percent sterilisation rate of the animals within a particular community. Once you reach the 70 percent threshold, the probability that an unsterilised female comes into contact with an unsterilised male is sufficiently small, and the population stops growing.
Killing stray animals, however, does not stop the problem and only offers a temporary “solution”. The World Health Organization’s “Guidelines for Dog Population Management” (Geneva 1990) and various other academic studies show that killing dogs is ineffective. Despite mass extermination campaigns by misguided municipalities the street dog population grows, and the best examples of both good and bad stray animal population control policies come from your own country:
Catch-Neuter-Return is the only proven humane and effective method to reduce stray animal populations. Statistical studies indicate that in order to fully control a stray population, you need to achieve a 70 percent sterilisation rate of the animals within a particular community. Once you reach the 70 percent threshold, the probability that an unsterilised female comes into contact with an unsterilised male is sufficiently small, and the population stops growing.
Killing stray animals, however, does not stop the problem and only offers a temporary “solution”. The World Health Organization’s “Guidelines for Dog Population Management” (Geneva 1990) and various other academic studies show that killing dogs is ineffective. Despite mass extermination campaigns by misguided municipalities the street dog population grows, and the best examples of both good and bad stray animal population control policies come from your own country:
In 2001 the then-mayor of Bucharest launched a campaign that led to the extermination of about 144,000 stray dogs in the capital alone, spending almost 9,000,000 Euros (62 Euros per dog) during the period from 2001-2007. Between 2008-2010, 20,000 dogs have been killed in Constanta spending 1,500,000 Euros (75 Euros per dog). As you know, both the city of Bucharest and Constanta are again littered with live and dead dogs.
The only town in Romania that used catch/neuter/release programs was Oradea, and the results are showing: in 6 years the population of strays decreased 8 times. "
So in clarification (if you don't want to read the whole article) a young boy was attacked on private grounds by a dog who may or may not have been a stray and as a result of this the Romanian Government have decided to kill every stray (and in some cases owned) dog that they can.
The dog catchers are rounding up dogs that are easy to catch ,therefore not necessarily aggressive dogs and they are not killing these dogs in a humane way , many are beaten to death or poisoned .
No dog , aggressive or otherwise deserves to die like this . Please could you help by signing this petition against the cruelty.
I personally know of 3 gorgeous dogs who were rescued by The K9 angels who can be found at http://k-9angels.org/ .
These dogs have proved to be gentle , loving and beautiful dogs but many , many dogs exactly the same will never have the chance to live a happy life with new families in the UK.
And yes , you may argue that there are plenty of dogs in this country that need rescuing , but luckily the majority of dogs in shelters in the UK are not euthanized unless there is a specific reason for it xxx
Cara , Spot & Jewel , rescued by the K9 Angels and enjoying loving homes in the UK
