Of Politics and Poison, Pandora and Hope

Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - ROMANIA

"Soon she began vomiting blood, her limbs were convalesced and her pulse slipped.  She began to scream horribly, cursed the poison and implored it to be quick... she began to laugh, an atrocious, frantic, despairing laugh.

" 'The wind is strong this summer's day,
Her petticoat has flown away.'

"She fell back upon the mattress in a convulsion.  They all drew near.  She was dead."

Wow, that strychnine is some pretty mean stuff.  The above text was published in 1853 by Gustave Flaubert, vividly describing a death by poisoning.  Now, one-and-a-half centuries later, the same agony still holds true.

BUCHAREST — In Romania's capital city Bucharest it has been confirmed that stray dogs are being fed strychnine-laced meat, allegedly by City Hall employees moonlighting to decrease the capital city's dog population.  Horrid images were aired on Romania's Antena 1 News late last week.

This whole Romanian stray dog story is beginning to read like a Tom Clancy novel.  Complexities of politics and dogma take root well beneath the surface of what had seemed to be a simple, resoluble situation.

But now imagine a civil war fought at night, in the alleys and in locked, restricted buildings, with clubs, poison, rifles and all the preferred instruments of a crude mob.  Above it all, somewhat like the Parisian guillotines during the 1794 Reign of Terror, mechanical incinerators operate non-stop, processing dead dogs and pumping their ashes into the atmosphere.  And of course, feeding the hysteria are many of the TV crews, continually airing stories of wild animal attacks, causing paranoia and stirring up implacable human wrath.

It can be described no other way; how else can one explain 2,000 dogs killed in under 2 weeks, vicious assaults on dogs and dog-sympathizers alike and the political unrest caused by a nation divided?

Earlier this month, The Scoop interviewed Mayor Basescu, who presented a conservative description of his program:

"I assure you that the killing of the stray dogs has been done according to the international standards and to our national legislation.  In order to inform you, the procedure we use is as follows:

"In the initial stage, the dogs are put to sleep with an injection and during this sleep they are injected with a lethal injection. This procedure implies very high costs, which the Municipality, so far, can afford."

But no matter how the official processing of dogs is carried out, there lies an undercurrent of brutality amid the city, where clubs, knives, rifles and poison figure prominently.

Editor's note: Perhaps the best, most objective assessment of the situation is "Facts", a surprising analysis recently published by the Children Love Animals Foundation, Bucharest.  This is required reading for anyone who wishes to learn more.

A few hungry mutts receive some goodwill from the
Brigitte Bardot Foundation

For up-to-the minute news coverage of the dog situation in Romania, click the following:

• www.paw-europe.com News (& petition)

• Bioethics News (WARNING: graphic photos)

• On the lighter side, Pet Stories from CLA Romania.

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