Facts from the Children and Animals Foundation, Romania
Due to the new urban architecture policy led by the ex-dictator Ceausescu, a lot of houses with backyards had been demolished. The demolition took place in the majority of the Romanian big cities, but in Bucharest - the capital of the country - its effects are amplified. Whole sections of the cities went down, and their former inhabitants went to blocks of flats, or retired to the countryside.
The result of this policy was the abandonment of a considerable number of pets (especially dogs) in the streets of the cities; their owners couldn’t host them in the small flats where they had moved.
Subsequently, in a period of 10-15 years, due to the rapid rhythm of reproduction of the dogs, the situation totally got out of control and in the streets of the city there are now approximately 250,000 stray dogs (according to the official statistics), and this number it's growing up, due to the fact that now the mating period is on.
At this very moment we are confronted with this disastrous situation in which the Bucharest City Hall, willing to solve the problem of the big number of stray dogs, and considering the 20,000 of dog bites in the year 2000 only, concluded that these animals should be gathered and sterilized.
A number of Romanian and foreign associations and foundations signed an agreement with the City Hall, in order to help and monitor the activity.
Debates took place everywhere; the whole media got involved, with various approaches.
After 2-3 months of sterile debates, interviews, polls, statistics, TV shows, the problem of stray dogs could not be solved.
The City Hall issued an order to kill all dogs, sterilized or not, using the euthanasia method.
A violent reaction raised among animal lovers, foundations, associations, newspapers.
Another round of endless debates, polls, TV shows and so on is currently taking place.
The City Hall and mainly the Mayor Basescu blame the lack of efficiency of the adoption programs, the foundations' activity, even the embarrassing situation of false adoptions, when dogs, taken out of shelters and ponds for declared adoption, were released in the streets again, at the city limits.
The reality proved the fact that a 2-year program for solving the problem of stray dogs, considering the poor economic situation, the lack of civil education and means of action, is, essentially, a utopia, a nice dream, that turned into a nightmare for both poor animals and the citizens, which are divided (some turned into violent animal right fighters, while others got their hunting rifles out to kill the dogs).
The fact is that nobody was really prepared to deal with this situation.
There are some strange statistics, that fueled the pro-killing mass of people: the costs of collecting the dogs, sterilizing and vaccinating them are around 25-30 $ per dog, while the amount of money approved for a child hospitalization day is 5 times less. The costs for the medical care spent for the treatment of more than 20,000 people attacked in the year 2000 are enormous.
The only viable solution is, still, the involvement of the civil society.
Today, the killings of the poor animals are performed, the numbers are unknown, because the City Hall forbids the presence of any intruders.
All that period, The Children and Animals Foundation and the Biovet company provided medical care, vaccines, surgery and specialists for the first part of the
City Hall project. We were not interested in sterile debates, TV shows, violent actions, but in caring out our mission through work well done.
Under these aggravating circumstances, our Foundation decided to begin earlier and accelerate the Shelter for Stray Dogs project, to extend our activity and to include this project in a more comprehensive, extended one.
The first action that took place was the 24 hours hot-line "Save the stray dogs". Informations to the citizens were provided, emergency situations were identified and data was collected also about abuses. The Clinic worked hard, every day;
Please let us give you some details of what is happening right now.
The members of the Foundation were mobilized and a group of volunteers, with useful professions, came to set up the Animal Shelter. The idea is to build a good quality shelter, with (desired) low costs. Beginning with the 1st of March 2001, we started (as programmed) arranging the land that we own. The land has an area of 5,000 m2 and will be set up for the following modules:
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The animal shelter;
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The park;
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The annexes: veterinary clinic, kitchen, the food store room and the garage.
A. The animal shelter will have a hosting capacity of 100 dogs (both males and females). In principle, the living space for a dog will consist of a covered room (closed) and heated during the cold weather and of an open area necessary for the free movement of the dog. All the spaces will consider the physiological standards necessary for the good health of the animal. Also, the park that we intend to arrange will complete the movement and playing needs for the dogs. The costs per capita will be around 2 $/day.
The policy of the Shelter will be that the dogs brought in this place should stay as shorter time as possible (around 30 days - in order to improve their health). This period will be used also for an intense activity to encourage adoptions.
At this time we are in the position of finalizing the setting up of the first 30 places. So, the birth of the Shelter will take place next week, with a small ceremony, together with our wonderful volunteers.
B. The park will constitute a special point in our policy of adopting dogs.
The Foundation, through its employees but mostly through its volunteers will develop a widespread activity of sensitizing people with respect to the animals of the Shelter.
This action will proceed in 2 main directions:
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Through the ANTENNA 1 TV broadcast station - there will be presented weekly images with the animals of the Shelter;
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Through a campaign developed in schools, which will have in view the some class lessons related to the nature, biology, animals or other inside the precincts of the Shelter.
The children will come to the Shelter and, assisted by the members of the Foundation, will take the animals for a walk in the park, play together, take part in the actions of taking care and feeding the animals. Open courses will be held and shown on TV and so that the interest of the children and generally of the people will be stimulated in order to adopt the animals.
The children who will adopt animals will receive gifts from the Foundation, books about nursing the animals and helpful accessories for their tending.
Through the children and not only, this problem will also reach to the adult people - their parents, who will became more receptive to the animals in need.
We are convinced that in this way the number of adoptions of animals will increase significantly and there will be developed an important change and improvement in education of the people, regarding animals and their needs.
C. The maintenance costs and the daily functioning of the animal shelter, is still a very serious problem, sponsors being urgently needed. The plan is to create a suitable material base, which will include hosting spaces, animal’s kitchen, warehouses, with all the necessary arrangements and the required medical-veterinarian personnel.
Also, a car for transporting the animals is necessary. This car will be bought second-hand, in order to decrease the expenses of the investment.
We want to point out that it is difficult to present all our intentions and plans in this way.
It is also impossible to reproduce the disastrous situation of the animals of our country, where the unexpected change of the social order led to noticeable changes in the economical field and also in our minds.
Anyhow, we wish to express our content that in this world there still are people who care about the animals in need, who love animals and are ready to make sacrifices for helping them.
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