Romania
corruption, organized crime & stray dog business
What is corruption?
Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.
It hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.
Corruption is part of daily life in Romania, with almost half of Romanians admitting to paying bribes. Now the EC is putting increasing pressure on the Romanian government to end bribery.
It's almost become compulsory. "They no longer mention it, you know what's expected." Some officials struggle against the rampant corruption but it often results in their dismissal. It's an ongoing battle between the politicians exploiting corruption and those fighting it. But following a push from Europe a number of high profile politicians have been charged, to the delight of Romanians. "People want to see convictions."
(Video Uploaded by journeymanpictures on Jun 23, 2008)
It's almost become compulsory. "They no longer mention it, you know what's expected." Some officials struggle against the rampant corruption but it often results in their dismissal. It's an ongoing battle between the politicians exploiting corruption and those fighting it. But following a push from Europe a number of high profile politicians have been charged, to the delight of Romanians. "People want to see convictions."
(Video Uploaded by journeymanpictures on Jun 23, 2008)
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According to a statement from the European Commission, corruption is costing the European Union's economy about 120 billion euros per year! That's almost the size of the EU's annual budget!
Published on Feb 4, 2013 - by euronews.com - The European Commission rebuked Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Monday for failing to meet EU demands to uphold the rule of law and urged him to speed up reforms.
In a report published last week, the EU's executive said Romania's justice system and anti-corruption measures were not strong enough. It conceded the country had taken some steps in recent months to safeguard constitutional law.
Romania will remain under special European Union monitoring and be excluded from the passport-free Schengen zone.
President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barros said: "We need to see further progress on independence of the judiciary and appointment of two key-posts."
He added: "We will also look to politicians to set an example by stepping aside where integrity rulings or corruption charges exist."
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta insisted his government had addressed all concerns, including those about press freedom: "The freedom of media in Romania like in the whole of Europe is going to be respected and is going to be considered as a fundamental value."
Another European Commission report into the country's progress will be published at the end of the year.
In a report published last week, the EU's executive said Romania's justice system and anti-corruption measures were not strong enough. It conceded the country had taken some steps in recent months to safeguard constitutional law.
Romania will remain under special European Union monitoring and be excluded from the passport-free Schengen zone.
President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barros said: "We need to see further progress on independence of the judiciary and appointment of two key-posts."
He added: "We will also look to politicians to set an example by stepping aside where integrity rulings or corruption charges exist."
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta insisted his government had addressed all concerns, including those about press freedom: "The freedom of media in Romania like in the whole of Europe is going to be respected and is going to be considered as a fundamental value."
Another European Commission report into the country's progress will be published at the end of the year.
The EU should crack down on corruption in Romania,
the MEPs say!
Left video: "The European Commission should put anti-corruption on the security agenda", says staunch anti-corruption fighter Monica Macovei. The Member of European Parliament from the EPP group has been trying to encourage the EU to adopt standardised anti-corruption laws for years.
Right video: Mr Nigel Farage says (among other): "There is a disaster coming down the track, and I am afraid that at the end the whole thing is gonna break up! And I would also like to point out: you're in denial over Romania and Bulgaria! Those countries are racked with corruption and organized crime, they should never have been allowed to join the European Union!"
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Why corruption will last in Romania
The summer 2012 has shown up the nature of Romania's entire political class!
Corruption is part of daily life in Romania, with almost half of Romanians admitting to paying bribes. It's almost become compulsory. "They no longer mention it, you know what's expected." Some officials struggle against the rampant corruption but it often results in their dismissal. It's an ongoing battle between the politicians exploiting corruption and those fighting it.
Almost everyone cheats or accepts cheating. Bribery is widespread. Indeed, it may be that Romanian society currently needs corrupt politicians in order to function. An honest political elite working to reform society would lead to a collapse of the current system, since a significant number of leading business people, journalists, judges, teachers, academics, leaders of civic society and syndicates would have to be dismissed (and some imprisoned). The higher-educational degrees of many major politicians would have to be reviewed (and in many cases annulled).
On top of everything else, Ponta was proven to have lied about a master's degree and to have plagiarised much of his doctoral thesis. The accusation came from the camp of President Băsescu, who seems oddly unaware that himself exaggerated his own daughter academic credentials in 2009 when defending her nomination for a place in the European Parliament. (Some of Basescu's closest, and most powerful, allies are doctors in science without any peer-reviewed scientific publication.) Two of the ministers appointed by Ponta proved to have serious problems – one was dismissed as he plagiarised the other presented herself falsely as a graduate of a prestigious US university. Ponta resolved the issue by dismissing the governing body of the expert group that had accused him of plagiarism, claiming that it was staffed by Băsescu's supporters.
Most members of the political elite enter politics with a poor record: most of the older politicians were closely connected to the Communist Party before 1989; while most of the younger politicians have no experience of work beyond jobs that they received due to their political affiliations.
No political leader – Ponta, Antonescu, Băsescu and many others – can enjoy credibility in the eyes of the public when they inveigh against nepotism. Daciana Sârbu, Ponta's 36-year-old wife, had little on her curriculum vitae when she entered politics, but immediately became an adviser to the Năstase government – in which her father served as a minister. She is now a member of the European Parliament (and Vice-President of the European Parliament's Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals) – one of the best-paid jobs possible for a Romanian politician. So too is Adina-Ioana Vălean, Antonescu's wife.
The ascent of Băsescu's daughter Elena to a similar position in the European Parliament was appalling even by Romanian standards. In an incredibly short time, she moved from being a model to being leader of the PDL's youth wing and then to the European Parliament. (The job that Băsescu's other daughter, Ioana, has – as a notary – may to non-Romanians seem unlikely to raise suspicions, but in Romania being a notary is one of the best jobs and almost impossible to get without very good connections.)
In attacking politicians as corrupt, the media risk hypocrisy. Most advertising comes from the state or from companies connected, tightly or loosely, to politics. There is no truly independent media outlet in Romania and journalists are viewed as buyable.
The above text has been partially sourced from the following, very interesting article by 'European Voice' - please read it all, at: http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2012/august/why-corruption-will-last-in-romania/75032.aspx
December 2013
"CONGRATULATIONS"
to the Members of the Romanian Parliament for being awarded the...
"OCCRP 2013 Organized Crime And Corruption 'Person Of The Year' Award"
On 23rd of December, 2013, OCCRP award acknowledged those who promote Uncivil Society and wrote:
Extortion and smuggling. Counterfeiting, fraud, and money laundering. Hacking and bribery. Organized crime groups and corrupt persons have been wildly successful in 2013. They have trafficked and enslaved millions of people around the globe, hustled hundreds of billions of dollars through drug sales, corrupted countless persons and further cemented partnerships at the nexus of crime and politics.
Every year, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) acknowledges the efforts of those who work tirelessly to promote crime and corruption. For 2013, we give this dubious distinction to the Romanian parliament.
Honorable mentions go to Serbian drug trafficker Darko Šarić and to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the president of Uzbekistan.
Crime figures often work diligently to evade the law. This year, the Romanian parliament has won our annual award for its efforts to achieve that very goal—through legal channels.
Early this December, the Romanian parliament approved amendments to the criminal code that would give its members, as well as other elected government officials, immunity from corruption charges.
The amendments, which were voted on without debate, declared that the Romanian president, senators, lawyers, and members of the lower chamber are no longer “public officials.” Therefore, they could no longer be indicted for bribery, abuse of office, conflict of interest, and other corruption-related charges. Government officials already convicted of corruption could be exonerated.
“The Romanian Parliament has taken corruption to a new level in Europe by making it legal. Why now? It’s probably because they know what they have been doing and it’s not good,” said Drew Sullivan, editor of OCCRP.
The proposed changes in the law were “in flagrant contradiction with the international agreements Romania has ratified” according to the Romanian prosecutor’s office, which cited the Council of Europe’s 2002 Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the 2004 United Nations' Convention on Corruption.
The amendments will not become law unless signed by Romanian President Traian Basescu, who has voiced concerns about them. Nonetheless, damage to rule-of-law and government accountability has already been done.
After the Romanian parliament passed the amendments, media outlets marked the day as the “the Black Tuesday” of Romanian democracy.
The Romanian Parliament has also proposed giving amnesty to those with a jail sentence of less than six years, allegedly to ease overcrowding in prisons—but more likely to free former ministers who are serving time.
At present, 28 members of the Romanian parliament have been convicted or are on trial for corruption. More than 100 Romanian mayors are on trial for abusing their offices.
The OCCRP award in 2012 went to Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, whose family has illegally taken a cut of many large businesses in the oil-rich country.
Darko Šarić, representing Serbian and Montenegrin crime groups, was considered for his work in building a massive new drug trade to Europe, transporting drugs from Africa and South America through the Balkans, and turning the region into the new Mexico. Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov, is under investigation for her alleged schemes to take hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes for granting a telecom license to Swedish giant Teliasonera, and then spending the money that should have gone to her impoverished people through proper licensing on a historic chateau in France and other properties
About OCCRP
OCCRP is an award winning consortium of 19 commercial and non-profit investigative centers and hundreds of journalists spanning from Europe to Central Asia. Founded in 2006, its centers work together on cross-border investigative reporting projects spanning the world. OCCRP is probably the world’s largest investigative reporting organization by active reporters and stories produced. OCCRP, a non-profit, has innovative programs in Europe, Eurasia, North Africa and Latin America working in investigative reporting, crime and corruption issues and new technology. It is funded by the Open Society Foundations, the United States Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy and other donors. It developed the Investigative Dashboard, a leading tool for online investigative reporting, with Google Ideas. This year, OCCRP was a winner or finalist in five international awards including the Global Shining Light Award and the Daniel Pearl Award for investigative reporting. Each year, OCCRP’s more than 140 reporters vote for the person of the year award.
Source: https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/press-box/2269-occrp-announces-2013-organized-crime-and-corruption-person-of-the-year
Extortion and smuggling. Counterfeiting, fraud, and money laundering. Hacking and bribery. Organized crime groups and corrupt persons have been wildly successful in 2013. They have trafficked and enslaved millions of people around the globe, hustled hundreds of billions of dollars through drug sales, corrupted countless persons and further cemented partnerships at the nexus of crime and politics.
Every year, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) acknowledges the efforts of those who work tirelessly to promote crime and corruption. For 2013, we give this dubious distinction to the Romanian parliament.
Honorable mentions go to Serbian drug trafficker Darko Šarić and to Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the president of Uzbekistan.
Crime figures often work diligently to evade the law. This year, the Romanian parliament has won our annual award for its efforts to achieve that very goal—through legal channels.
Early this December, the Romanian parliament approved amendments to the criminal code that would give its members, as well as other elected government officials, immunity from corruption charges.
The amendments, which were voted on without debate, declared that the Romanian president, senators, lawyers, and members of the lower chamber are no longer “public officials.” Therefore, they could no longer be indicted for bribery, abuse of office, conflict of interest, and other corruption-related charges. Government officials already convicted of corruption could be exonerated.
“The Romanian Parliament has taken corruption to a new level in Europe by making it legal. Why now? It’s probably because they know what they have been doing and it’s not good,” said Drew Sullivan, editor of OCCRP.
The proposed changes in the law were “in flagrant contradiction with the international agreements Romania has ratified” according to the Romanian prosecutor’s office, which cited the Council of Europe’s 2002 Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the 2004 United Nations' Convention on Corruption.
The amendments will not become law unless signed by Romanian President Traian Basescu, who has voiced concerns about them. Nonetheless, damage to rule-of-law and government accountability has already been done.
After the Romanian parliament passed the amendments, media outlets marked the day as the “the Black Tuesday” of Romanian democracy.
The Romanian Parliament has also proposed giving amnesty to those with a jail sentence of less than six years, allegedly to ease overcrowding in prisons—but more likely to free former ministers who are serving time.
At present, 28 members of the Romanian parliament have been convicted or are on trial for corruption. More than 100 Romanian mayors are on trial for abusing their offices.
The OCCRP award in 2012 went to Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, whose family has illegally taken a cut of many large businesses in the oil-rich country.
Darko Šarić, representing Serbian and Montenegrin crime groups, was considered for his work in building a massive new drug trade to Europe, transporting drugs from Africa and South America through the Balkans, and turning the region into the new Mexico. Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov, is under investigation for her alleged schemes to take hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes for granting a telecom license to Swedish giant Teliasonera, and then spending the money that should have gone to her impoverished people through proper licensing on a historic chateau in France and other properties
About OCCRP
OCCRP is an award winning consortium of 19 commercial and non-profit investigative centers and hundreds of journalists spanning from Europe to Central Asia. Founded in 2006, its centers work together on cross-border investigative reporting projects spanning the world. OCCRP is probably the world’s largest investigative reporting organization by active reporters and stories produced. OCCRP, a non-profit, has innovative programs in Europe, Eurasia, North Africa and Latin America working in investigative reporting, crime and corruption issues and new technology. It is funded by the Open Society Foundations, the United States Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy and other donors. It developed the Investigative Dashboard, a leading tool for online investigative reporting, with Google Ideas. This year, OCCRP was a winner or finalist in five international awards including the Global Shining Light Award and the Daniel Pearl Award for investigative reporting. Each year, OCCRP’s more than 140 reporters vote for the person of the year award.
Source: https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/press-box/2269-occrp-announces-2013-organized-crime-and-corruption-person-of-the-year
The Romanian stray dogs
The street dogs of Romania are hated, poisoned, beaten, stabbed, shot, run over by cars, burned, and dumped in pits to starve to death. Some who are killed have their ears cut off by people who are able to turn them in for “rewards”. Hundreds of thousands of innocent dogs condemned to death every year, their only crime is being born.
Animal advocates say the pointless deaths will never cease, as long as Romanian authorities fail to address the cause of the stray problem, and fight only the effects. Dog owners have little responsibility for their pets. Many are not compelled to identify, register, or spay and neuter them.
Romanian dog population grows into millions
The stray problem in Romania began in the late 1980s. Before the communist regime of Dictator Nicolai Ceausescu, most Romanians worked on farms with their companion animals. But Ceausescu’s policies changed agricultural Romania into an urban society complete with overcrowding and food shortages.
When communism took hold, many rural families were forced to work in urban areas and weren't allowed to take their pets with them into the apartments where they lived. Thousands of dogs were left to fend for themselves in the countryside. Since Ceausescu's execution in 1989, the dog population has gown into the millions.
Animal advocates say the pointless deaths will never cease, as long as Romanian authorities fail to address the cause of the stray problem, and fight only the effects. Dog owners have little responsibility for their pets. Many are not compelled to identify, register, or spay and neuter them.
Romanian dog population grows into millions
The stray problem in Romania began in the late 1980s. Before the communist regime of Dictator Nicolai Ceausescu, most Romanians worked on farms with their companion animals. But Ceausescu’s policies changed agricultural Romania into an urban society complete with overcrowding and food shortages.
When communism took hold, many rural families were forced to work in urban areas and weren't allowed to take their pets with them into the apartments where they lived. Thousands of dogs were left to fend for themselves in the countryside. Since Ceausescu's execution in 1989, the dog population has gown into the millions.
Stray dogs killed en masse
A law has been in place to formally prohibit the killing of strays since 2008. But the law only prevented large scale killings, such as those seen when strays were killed en masse in the streets. In 2001 the then-mayor of Bucharest launched a campaign that led to the extermination of at least 100,000 stray dogs in the capital alone.
However, a few years later the streets were again littered with live and dead dogs. It was impossible to drive from the Hungarian border to Romania without seeing scores of stray dogs foraging for food and without seeing several dead bodies on the road, according to SOS Dogs.
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.
Advocates blame media for hysteria
Without a formal sterilization plan, the number of dogs has increased exponentially. Animal advocates say the atmosphere of hysteria and intolerance was crafted by the media to undermine sterilization programs.
There has been a harsh campaign against stray dogs in the Romanian media. Newspapers and television are flooded with images of dangerous packs of stray dogs roaming the streets with evil intent.
read the entire article
A law has been in place to formally prohibit the killing of strays since 2008. But the law only prevented large scale killings, such as those seen when strays were killed en masse in the streets. In 2001 the then-mayor of Bucharest launched a campaign that led to the extermination of at least 100,000 stray dogs in the capital alone.
However, a few years later the streets were again littered with live and dead dogs. It was impossible to drive from the Hungarian border to Romania without seeing scores of stray dogs foraging for food and without seeing several dead bodies on the road, according to SOS Dogs.
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.
Advocates blame media for hysteria
Without a formal sterilization plan, the number of dogs has increased exponentially. Animal advocates say the atmosphere of hysteria and intolerance was crafted by the media to undermine sterilization programs.
There has been a harsh campaign against stray dogs in the Romanian media. Newspapers and television are flooded with images of dangerous packs of stray dogs roaming the streets with evil intent.
read the entire article
The Romanian dog-mafia
For years, animal rights advocates from all over the world have sought to save dogs in Romania. But it seems their good intentions are being exploited by an unscrupulous mafia, states a German (short) documentary which also available in English. Please click here to watch it.
The stray dog business in Romania
by Codrut Feher, FNPA
Between 2001 and 2011 the Romanian animal 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.
For example, in Brasov, although there were only 4,000 stray dogs in 2001, the dog catchers managed to “kill” about 20,000 in 8 years. The only noticeable result of the “final solution” was the emergence of a classic mechanism of siphoning off public money, put in place by the local authorities and animal protection services in Bucharest and many other cites and towns (Brasov, Arad, Constanta, Timisoara, Ramnicu Valcea, Braila, etc.), authorities that came to realize that the mere existence of the that strays is a very profitable business for the following reasons:
Budgets
Under the pretext of the “stray’s terror” generous budgets were allocated. The Bucharest dog catchers spent about 13 million EURO in 7 years. The dog catchers in Brasov spent about 2 million EURO in 8 years. Overall it is estimated that Romania spent between 25 and 40 million EURO on strays from 2001 until 2008.
The flexibility of the budgets
Contrary to the popular belief that fuels the anti-stray protests, the money spent on food for the strays was just a infinitesimal part of the budget, as the dogs were being fed “subliminal” quantities, to quote the so called specialists from DSVA Brasov. Out of a total budget of 1,500,000 lei for 2008, the dog catchers in Brasov allocated only 5,000 lei for the dog food, less than 3%. Instead enormous gas quotas were approved. In Brasov, 4 rundown old cars with easy to tamper with mileage tracking systems were each allocated about 350-400 l of gas per month, which means each car did about 100 km/day. Land was rented for the municipality shelters, despite that fact that local authorities had land they could build on. In Brasov, the municipality paid in 8 years more than 1,500 EURO/month (170,000 EURO in total) to the owners of a former swine farm that was in really bad condition and it also invested in modernizing the farm. All of this while it could have built a brand new shelter with 15,000 EURO on a land it owned.
About 100,000 lei were annually spent on tranquilizers and lethal substances, but nobody ever checked that against the number of dogs reported caught and/or euthanized. These substances were bought illegally (without prescriptions), used illegally (because the dog catchers got lazy and started to catch all dogs with tranquilizers, committing two felonies and one?) and may have even been used or sold as drugs (Vetased, the most used tranquilizer contains ketamine, which is used as a drug and is legally considered drug since 2010).
In Brasov, the chief dog-catcher 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. Rumor has it that the jeep is used in certain weekends by two local authorities in their hunting trips.
For example, in Brasov, although there were only 4,000 stray dogs in 2001, the dog catchers managed to “kill” about 20,000 in 8 years. The only noticeable result of the “final solution” was the emergence of a classic mechanism of siphoning off public money, put in place by the local authorities and animal protection services in Bucharest and many other cites and towns (Brasov, Arad, Constanta, Timisoara, Ramnicu Valcea, Braila, etc.), authorities that came to realize that the mere existence of the that strays is a very profitable business for the following reasons:
Budgets
Under the pretext of the “stray’s terror” generous budgets were allocated. The Bucharest dog catchers spent about 13 million EURO in 7 years. The dog catchers in Brasov spent about 2 million EURO in 8 years. Overall it is estimated that Romania spent between 25 and 40 million EURO on strays from 2001 until 2008.
The flexibility of the budgets
Contrary to the popular belief that fuels the anti-stray protests, the money spent on food for the strays was just a infinitesimal part of the budget, as the dogs were being fed “subliminal” quantities, to quote the so called specialists from DSVA Brasov. Out of a total budget of 1,500,000 lei for 2008, the dog catchers in Brasov allocated only 5,000 lei for the dog food, less than 3%. Instead enormous gas quotas were approved. In Brasov, 4 rundown old cars with easy to tamper with mileage tracking systems were each allocated about 350-400 l of gas per month, which means each car did about 100 km/day. Land was rented for the municipality shelters, despite that fact that local authorities had land they could build on. In Brasov, the municipality paid in 8 years more than 1,500 EURO/month (170,000 EURO in total) to the owners of a former swine farm that was in really bad condition and it also invested in modernizing the farm. All of this while it could have built a brand new shelter with 15,000 EURO on a land it owned.
About 100,000 lei were annually spent on tranquilizers and lethal substances, but nobody ever checked that against the number of dogs reported caught and/or euthanized. These substances were bought illegally (without prescriptions), used illegally (because the dog catchers got lazy and started to catch all dogs with tranquilizers, committing two felonies and one?) and may have even been used or sold as drugs (Vetased, the most used tranquilizer contains ketamine, which is used as a drug and is legally considered drug since 2010).
In Brasov, the chief dog-catcher 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. Rumor has it that the jeep is used in certain weekends by two local authorities in their hunting trips.
The business of gathering dogs
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 counting of the dogs
The audit of the activity of the dog catchers was a chimera. Nobody was really counting the dogs. Nobody knew how many dogs actually went through their hands, from capturing through incineration, especially since the documents for Protan (the incineration company) were filled out by the dog catchers themselves who approximated the weight of the bodies, filling in numbers with a lot of digits and even decimal points, and tried to make it match the number of dogs they claimed to have caught. It was very easy for them to claim for example they caught 5,000 dogs while in reality they caught half of that number. The dogs that (fictionally) entered the center were also supposed to (fictionally) leave the shelter. On June 25, 2009, according to the official documents, between 131 and 154 dogs were killed in Brasov. A witness and several documents point to the fact that only 90 animals were killed and that those dogs were from Victoria, Fagaras and a few other towns. In November 4, 2009, the Brasov dog catchers captured 46 dogs in Covasna. People from Covasna were told that the dogs were in the Brasov shelter and people from Brasov were told they were in the Covasna shelter, but the dogs were not found in either shelter.
On June 1st 2010 the Brasov dog catchers caught 48 dogs in Sangeorgiu de Mures and transported them to the Reghin shelter. The Reghin shelter received and registered only 25 dogs.
Another way to make money was to manipulate the adoption numbers, especially the adoptions towards private shelters: adopted dogs were also counted as euthanatized. In 2008 at least 400 dogs were adopted from the Brasov dog catchers by the “Millions of friends” rescue association. In the official documents that number is 0!
Finally, another way was to modify the number of deceased dogs, by recording a smaller number than the real one and accordingly increase the number of euthanized dogs. For 2008, the shelter mortality as it resulted from official records was of 79 dogs, meaning a dog died every 4 days. In the first months of 2009, the mortality was of only 23 dogs, meaning a dog did every 8 days. In reality, the number of dogs that died in the shelter is much higher: at least 300-400 in 2008 and at least 150 in 2009. And there were also the dead dogs that were found in the city and which had to be, of course, euthanized.
Through all of these manipulations the animal control folks were gaining about 25-30 lei per dog, by either selling the substances for euthanasia or by writing fictional invoices, in complicity with folks from the veterinary supply deposits.
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 counting of the dogs
The audit of the activity of the dog catchers was a chimera. Nobody was really counting the dogs. Nobody knew how many dogs actually went through their hands, from capturing through incineration, especially since the documents for Protan (the incineration company) were filled out by the dog catchers themselves who approximated the weight of the bodies, filling in numbers with a lot of digits and even decimal points, and tried to make it match the number of dogs they claimed to have caught. It was very easy for them to claim for example they caught 5,000 dogs while in reality they caught half of that number. The dogs that (fictionally) entered the center were also supposed to (fictionally) leave the shelter. On June 25, 2009, according to the official documents, between 131 and 154 dogs were killed in Brasov. A witness and several documents point to the fact that only 90 animals were killed and that those dogs were from Victoria, Fagaras and a few other towns. In November 4, 2009, the Brasov dog catchers captured 46 dogs in Covasna. People from Covasna were told that the dogs were in the Brasov shelter and people from Brasov were told they were in the Covasna shelter, but the dogs were not found in either shelter.
On June 1st 2010 the Brasov dog catchers caught 48 dogs in Sangeorgiu de Mures and transported them to the Reghin shelter. The Reghin shelter received and registered only 25 dogs.
Another way to make money was to manipulate the adoption numbers, especially the adoptions towards private shelters: adopted dogs were also counted as euthanatized. In 2008 at least 400 dogs were adopted from the Brasov dog catchers by the “Millions of friends” rescue association. In the official documents that number is 0!
Finally, another way was to modify the number of deceased dogs, by recording a smaller number than the real one and accordingly increase the number of euthanized dogs. For 2008, the shelter mortality as it resulted from official records was of 79 dogs, meaning a dog died every 4 days. In the first months of 2009, the mortality was of only 23 dogs, meaning a dog did every 8 days. In reality, the number of dogs that died in the shelter is much higher: at least 300-400 in 2008 and at least 150 in 2009. And there were also the dead dogs that were found in the city and which had to be, of course, euthanized.
Through all of these manipulations the animal control folks were gaining about 25-30 lei per dog, by either selling the substances for euthanasia or by writing fictional invoices, in complicity with folks from the veterinary supply deposits.
PROTAN and how to incinerate public money
The incineration of a 20 kg dog costs 10 EURO (0.5 EURO/kg). Since most shelters don’t have weight scales and Protan reception documents specify that the quantity column should be filled out by the customer, the weight was eyeballed by the animal control folks. If you fictionally kill between 40 and 60 animals, you also need to approximate their weight and fictionally incinerate about 1,000kg, which brings Protan about $500 EURO.
If you extrapolate this schema to a whole year between 10,000 and 15,000 EURO were embezzled in Brasov only.
It was obvious that this whole embezzlement mechanism was accompanied by a long term strategy to keep the animals on the streets. When they were out hunting in other cities the dog catchers were catching everything they could get their hands on, especially dogs with owners or protectors and dogs that were sterilized 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.
Although the problem of the aggressive dogs was supposedly the number one priority, the animal control folks rarely caught aggressive dogs. Instead they almost always took puppies and little, friendly dogs that were easy and safe to catch. This approach had 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 saviors in the eyes of the people.
If you extrapolate this schema to a whole year between 10,000 and 15,000 EURO were embezzled in Brasov only.
It was obvious that this whole embezzlement mechanism was accompanied by a long term strategy to keep the animals on the streets. When they were out hunting in other cities the dog catchers were catching everything they could get their hands on, especially dogs with owners or protectors and dogs that were sterilized 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.
Although the problem of the aggressive dogs was supposedly the number one priority, the animal control folks rarely caught aggressive dogs. Instead they almost always took puppies and little, friendly dogs that were easy and safe to catch. This approach had 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 saviors in the eyes of the people.
Quarrels... in the "dog catcher's paradise"
At the end of December 2007 the Deputies Chamber voted a modification of the Animal Protection Law ( 205/2004 ) also known as "Marinescu's Law". Among other things, this law classifies animal cruelty as a crime punishable by law and prohibits the euthanasia of healthy cats or dogs. It seemed as if common sense and logic had won over the hundreds of mayors and dogcatchers (who during 8 years managed to "bury" aprox. 35 million euros in a mountain of stray corps). Also, during the same time, in December 2007, the Senate modified the law concerning the strays and replaced euthanasia with spay/neuter and returning to territory, according to the WHO's guidelines.
AND NOW COMES THE "PROBLEM"....These two new legislative measures would have solved the strays problem, leaving all of those who made big money from the "stray business" without their huge profits!!!
The conspiracy
All the dogcatchers and their "official sponsors" quickly realized that if the new legislative proposals (PL912) will be presented to the ADP in spring 2008, the new law will become definitive, as approved by the Senate. Their only chance was to postpone and prolong this indefinitely. This would have given the dogcatchers plenty of time to still operate as before, the solution wouldn't have been applied and it would present later on as the perfect excuse to suggest euthanasia of all strays as the number of strays would have grown even more. Their evil plan worked, as the new legislative proposal (PL912) still has yet to be presented to ADP since 2008!
ANSVA , DSVSA and other public institutions
Although euthanasia had been abolished, majority of public administrations across country continued the mass killing of strays, using the most absurd justifications: suddenly, all strays became terminally ill (backed up by false documents produced by corrupt state employees) or using "personal interpretation " of the law. All this was going on with the silent approval of the official services for animal protection, just as corrupt as the public administrations: ANSVSA and DSVSA.
Thousands of strays were captured, the "lucky"ones being detained sometimes for a couple of weeks before their death in the official "shelters": filthy, cold, very small cages, lying in their own feces, deprived of food and water, beaten and abused daily and then finally killed by untrained or uneducated dogcatchers, in the most cruel ways possible, suffering the most unimaginable pain till the last breath...
Anybody that get the chance to see some of their official evidence of these atrocities would be appalled by the gruesome mistakes used to justify what they did.
As many of these dogcatchers are paid by the local authorities, their only "enemy" are the NGO's. Therefore, they are doing their best to keep the NGO's as far away as possible, refusing any collaboration or cooperation with them.
The almighty dogcatcher and his dark amendments...
About a year later, once a few people started complaining about their dirty business, the almighty dogcatchers across the country started to be concerned and thus considered it's the perfect time to start changing the law according to their interest.
The "chosen" one to formulate the new proposal of law was no other than Barbulescu Flavius (famous for killing 30.000 dogs in 8 years and having at least 6 legal complaints against him), supported by Simona Panaitescu. Both of then had the "blessing" of Brasov's mayor, George Cripcaru, also known as "Dracula of dogs", prominent member of PDL (Democratic-Liberal Party) and a man used to manipulate the laws according to his best interests.
Barbulescu's new law proposal included mass euthanasia of strays, banning the NGO's any involvement in the dogcatchers or municipal shelters activity, obstructing adoptions by implementing severe fines for people feeding or taking care of strays on the streets
The evil plan
Once Barbulescu's "masterpiece" was finished, they needed someone to make it public. And who better than Bucharest's prefect, Mihai Atanasoaiei, well known for his embarrassing public speeches and appearances. After that, the game moved on to Elena Udrea and Sulfina Barbu.
Zanfir Iorgus (PDL): "The best solution is spay/neuter...or Euthanasia...or better yet let the mayors decide!"
Sulfina Barbu:" I suggest that it should be mandatory by law that local administrations and NGO'S became partners.." .....that was all she had to say after all NGO's representatives explained and documented 453,17 arguments against the reintroduction of mass euthanasia of strays. They have showed her in ever way possible why mass killing of dogs is inefficient, inhumane, absurd, very expensive and not cost-effective compared to the alternative, against WHO's guidelines: they also showed her how during the last 7 years the officials did nothing to solve this problem the right way, how they delayed everything, didn't pass the law, abused the power they had, continued the killings and misused the taxpayers money.....
Manipulation
Their biggest weapon is the manipulation of the population through mass-media. Their "servant" PRO TV always "deliver" twisting the facts and lying out in the open without remorse, just as long as they can blame something on the strays (e.g. the case of a woman attacked by dogs in a private yard, because she entered the premises at night, without any authorization, presented to the public as a woman killed by strays. The same type of story happened again, a drunk woman was attacked by dogs who had owners, and they also blamed the strays for her death. Even after the official reports from the investigations were released, PRO TV never rectified their stories, apologized, on the contrary, everyday they try to find more things that they can blame the strays for...
And PRO TV is not the only one. There are other tv stations and newspapers in the same boat.
AND NOW COMES THE "PROBLEM"....These two new legislative measures would have solved the strays problem, leaving all of those who made big money from the "stray business" without their huge profits!!!
The conspiracy
All the dogcatchers and their "official sponsors" quickly realized that if the new legislative proposals (PL912) will be presented to the ADP in spring 2008, the new law will become definitive, as approved by the Senate. Their only chance was to postpone and prolong this indefinitely. This would have given the dogcatchers plenty of time to still operate as before, the solution wouldn't have been applied and it would present later on as the perfect excuse to suggest euthanasia of all strays as the number of strays would have grown even more. Their evil plan worked, as the new legislative proposal (PL912) still has yet to be presented to ADP since 2008!
ANSVA , DSVSA and other public institutions
Although euthanasia had been abolished, majority of public administrations across country continued the mass killing of strays, using the most absurd justifications: suddenly, all strays became terminally ill (backed up by false documents produced by corrupt state employees) or using "personal interpretation " of the law. All this was going on with the silent approval of the official services for animal protection, just as corrupt as the public administrations: ANSVSA and DSVSA.
Thousands of strays were captured, the "lucky"ones being detained sometimes for a couple of weeks before their death in the official "shelters": filthy, cold, very small cages, lying in their own feces, deprived of food and water, beaten and abused daily and then finally killed by untrained or uneducated dogcatchers, in the most cruel ways possible, suffering the most unimaginable pain till the last breath...
Anybody that get the chance to see some of their official evidence of these atrocities would be appalled by the gruesome mistakes used to justify what they did.
As many of these dogcatchers are paid by the local authorities, their only "enemy" are the NGO's. Therefore, they are doing their best to keep the NGO's as far away as possible, refusing any collaboration or cooperation with them.
The almighty dogcatcher and his dark amendments...
About a year later, once a few people started complaining about their dirty business, the almighty dogcatchers across the country started to be concerned and thus considered it's the perfect time to start changing the law according to their interest.
The "chosen" one to formulate the new proposal of law was no other than Barbulescu Flavius (famous for killing 30.000 dogs in 8 years and having at least 6 legal complaints against him), supported by Simona Panaitescu. Both of then had the "blessing" of Brasov's mayor, George Cripcaru, also known as "Dracula of dogs", prominent member of PDL (Democratic-Liberal Party) and a man used to manipulate the laws according to his best interests.
Barbulescu's new law proposal included mass euthanasia of strays, banning the NGO's any involvement in the dogcatchers or municipal shelters activity, obstructing adoptions by implementing severe fines for people feeding or taking care of strays on the streets
The evil plan
Once Barbulescu's "masterpiece" was finished, they needed someone to make it public. And who better than Bucharest's prefect, Mihai Atanasoaiei, well known for his embarrassing public speeches and appearances. After that, the game moved on to Elena Udrea and Sulfina Barbu.
Zanfir Iorgus (PDL): "The best solution is spay/neuter...or Euthanasia...or better yet let the mayors decide!"
Sulfina Barbu:" I suggest that it should be mandatory by law that local administrations and NGO'S became partners.." .....that was all she had to say after all NGO's representatives explained and documented 453,17 arguments against the reintroduction of mass euthanasia of strays. They have showed her in ever way possible why mass killing of dogs is inefficient, inhumane, absurd, very expensive and not cost-effective compared to the alternative, against WHO's guidelines: they also showed her how during the last 7 years the officials did nothing to solve this problem the right way, how they delayed everything, didn't pass the law, abused the power they had, continued the killings and misused the taxpayers money.....
Manipulation
Their biggest weapon is the manipulation of the population through mass-media. Their "servant" PRO TV always "deliver" twisting the facts and lying out in the open without remorse, just as long as they can blame something on the strays (e.g. the case of a woman attacked by dogs in a private yard, because she entered the premises at night, without any authorization, presented to the public as a woman killed by strays. The same type of story happened again, a drunk woman was attacked by dogs who had owners, and they also blamed the strays for her death. Even after the official reports from the investigations were released, PRO TV never rectified their stories, apologized, on the contrary, everyday they try to find more things that they can blame the strays for...
And PRO TV is not the only one. There are other tv stations and newspapers in the same boat.
Elena Udrea
She is one of the biggest supporters of euthanasia of all strays, as a future candidate for the Mayor of Bucharest. She encourages the passing of the anti strays law, claiming that this is the "American model", but failing to realize the HUGE differences between the two countries when it comes to animal welfare.
SUMMARY / RECAPITULATION
2007: The Senate votes PL 912/2007 that replaces the mass killing of strays with spay/neuter/release
2008: Animal Protection Law prohibits mass euthanasia.
ADP from Deputies Chamber blocks the discussion of this law for 3 YEARS!
Meanwhile, local authorities continue the killing and totally ignore the solution: spay/neuter/release. They are officially breaking the law and try to cover for all who do that also.
In Brasov, a German organization offered to spay/neuter all the city's strays but were completely ignored by local authorities.
The only town were the mayor actually used spay/neuter/release programs was Oradea, and the results are showing: in 6 years the population of strays decreased 8 times.
So after 3 long years of blocking PL912 from being approved, the politicians want now to "solve" the stray problem by mass killing!
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". Spay/neuter/return programs would only jeopardize their source of dirty profits!
On the 1st of March 2011, Sulfina Barbu sneaked in Atanasoaiei's new proposals of law (modifying PL912) which granted the mayors the liberty to decide on euthanasia or not. Animal lovers were protesting outside the Parliament's Building unnoticed...
On the 7th of March 2011, when ADP tried to vote the "new and improved "PL912 with Atanasoaiei's proposals, a miracle happened: the deputies decided to return the law to the Commission to allow the NGO' s and Animal Welfare groups to be consultants and the law to be re-discussed after 3 weeks.
This delay "caught by surprised" a lot of mayors too, who already counted on the mass euthanasia to be approved and were "ready" to take action, having everything ready do to "the job". And strangely enough, during these 3 weeks more and more cases of strays shot, poisoned, beaten to death, burned, abused and tortured appear every day, all over the country.
Please spread the word! ...EVERYONE NEEDS TO FIND OUT ABOUT THIS THING!
Thank you!
Source
SUMMARY / RECAPITULATION
2007: The Senate votes PL 912/2007 that replaces the mass killing of strays with spay/neuter/release
2008: Animal Protection Law prohibits mass euthanasia.
ADP from Deputies Chamber blocks the discussion of this law for 3 YEARS!
Meanwhile, local authorities continue the killing and totally ignore the solution: spay/neuter/release. They are officially breaking the law and try to cover for all who do that also.
In Brasov, a German organization offered to spay/neuter all the city's strays but were completely ignored by local authorities.
The only town were the mayor actually used spay/neuter/release programs was Oradea, and the results are showing: in 6 years the population of strays decreased 8 times.
So after 3 long years of blocking PL912 from being approved, the politicians want now to "solve" the stray problem by mass killing!
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". Spay/neuter/return programs would only jeopardize their source of dirty profits!
On the 1st of March 2011, Sulfina Barbu sneaked in Atanasoaiei's new proposals of law (modifying PL912) which granted the mayors the liberty to decide on euthanasia or not. Animal lovers were protesting outside the Parliament's Building unnoticed...
On the 7th of March 2011, when ADP tried to vote the "new and improved "PL912 with Atanasoaiei's proposals, a miracle happened: the deputies decided to return the law to the Commission to allow the NGO' s and Animal Welfare groups to be consultants and the law to be re-discussed after 3 weeks.
This delay "caught by surprised" a lot of mayors too, who already counted on the mass euthanasia to be approved and were "ready" to take action, having everything ready do to "the job". And strangely enough, during these 3 weeks more and more cases of strays shot, poisoned, beaten to death, burned, abused and tortured appear every day, all over the country.
Please spread the word! ...EVERYONE NEEDS TO FIND OUT ABOUT THIS THING!
Thank you!
Source
In the next video, Princess Maja from Hohenzollern when she said:
“I often heard this argument: In Romania we euthanize dogs because we are poor.
Do you kill dogs to eat them, or for their fur? No, you are not that poor. You are poor only in education and empathy... and on the right politicians. That's the poorness that Romania has!”
“I often heard this argument: In Romania we euthanize dogs because we are poor.
Do you kill dogs to eat them, or for their fur? No, you are not that poor. You are poor only in education and empathy... and on the right politicians. That's the poorness that Romania has!”
Romania plans
the 'greatest genocide of dogs in European history'
September 2013 - Romania is once again in a dilemma over whether to kill, save or adopt the millions of stray dogs that stalk its nation. Galvanized by the tragic and unnecessary death of a four-year old boy, possibly by a pack of dogs loose on the street. On 10th of September, 2013 the movement to euthanize dogs has won Government approval to allow its councils to kill all strays.
Former senator Marius Marinescu, current President of the Federation for the Protection of Animals and the Environment (FPAM) has challenged the approved law before the Romanian Constitutional Court which will debate PL912 allowing euthanasia of ALL homeless dogs in Romania, after 14 days spent in their "shelters", if not adopted or perished of thirst or hunger before the 14 days have elapsed.
‘Man’s Best Friend’ - a documentary filmed between 2011 and 2012 in Romania - outlines how this battle has played out before, and reveals all the options for dealing with this complex and emotional zoological disaster.
Ten reasons why Romania’s proposed mass-kill of millions of stray dogs
won’t work and two reasons why it might
...is the title of an article written by Michael Bird, a UK journalist in Romania
September 23, 2013 - An English version of a comment piece published here in Romanian
No one wants dogs on the streets in Romania. In a country with up to two million loose canines, no one is standing on a pedestal in the centre of Bucharest shouting We Want More Dogs! We want a Dog for every school! In every office, a mandatory dog at every desk! Two dogs for every church!
For four years I have been writing about and filming stray dogs in Romania, including a film, ‘Man’s Best Friend’, released on Vimeo this week.
During this time, mayors, residents and dog lovers alike all agreed – no more dogs on the streets.
However when the council of a town in east Romania, Botosani, killed 200 dogs in 2011, there was a rumour that a local animal activist group was planning a ‘Dog Bomb’.
A ‘Dog Bomb’ is where pet-loving extremists orchestrate fertile dogs to breed over a six-week period and, once they have hundreds of puppies, they set the animals loose in the city. Dog anarchy follows. But it was only a rumour. No one – not even the Dog Bombers of Botosani – wants dogs on the streets.
So if everyone has the same end in mind, why can’t they agree on the means?
Following the horrific canine attack on a four year-old boy in Bucharest earlier this month, Mayor of Bucharest Sorin Oprescu pushed through a new law allowing councils to kill strays after 14 days in captivity – in a move fiercely contested by animal rights activists and now under dispute in Romania’s Constitutional Court.
Here are ten reasons why this new law may not solve the problem of dogs on the streets – and two reasons why it might.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Bucharest tried mass-murder. As Mayor of Bucharest, Traian Basescu ordered the killing of around 100,000 dogs between 2001 and 2003. It failed.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…
- 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.
- 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.
Botosani ~ the massacre of 230 healthy dogs
On May 11, 2011, the vet Cristian Petru Pencu, assisted by his drunken helpers,
"managed" to kill 230 healthy dogs in 2 hours time
Botosani made national in international headlines on 11th of May, 2011, when the vet Cristian Petru Pencu, assisted by his drunken helpers, "managed" to kill 230 healthy dogs in 2 hours time.
Make no mistake because the above sentence contains the word 'vet': these dogs had not been euthanized by injection; these 230 healthy dogs had been slaughtered!
The volunteers who until then had fed the dogs at the municipal shelter every day, discovered them in the morning, in plastic bags, with blood everywhere.
The vet who was responsible for the killing of the 230 dogs was later accused of intentional murder and another 15 people had been surveyed. The police doubted that he managed to make lethal injections to 230 dogs in two hours. "For an injection ten minutes are needed. The doctor therefore needed 2300 minutes ..."
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News reports
Botosani: veterinarian who killed 240 dogs, "I did what needed to be done!"
Botosani: vet that killed 240 dogs is accused of intentional murder; another 15 people are surveyed. The police doubts that he managed to make lethal injections to 240 dogs in two hours. "For an injection is needed ten minutes. The doctor therefore need 2400 minutes ..."
Shocking images. Hundreds of dogs killed in Botosani and put in plastic bags (including video)
Botosani: Prosecutors' Office in Botosani started criminal investigations on the shelter dogs case
Botosani: the massacre of the 240 dogs in the German news
Flashmob for the murdered dogs at the BOTOSANI shelter on 12th of May
Botosani: Police filed a complaint against animal veterinarian involved in the massacre of Botosani
http://www.adevarul.ro/locale/botosani/Botosani-_Medicul_veterinar_care_a_ucis_240_de_catei-audiat_la_politie_0_478752702.html
No surprise: health survey carried out on the carnage at BOTOSANI. Laboratory analysis confirmed distemper, said Health Department Chief Veterinary and Food Safety (DSVSA).
The few dogs that survived the massacre from BOTOSANI last Wednesday will likely be euthanized, Head of Health Department - Veterinary and Food Safety (DSVSA) said today, 16/05/2011
BOTOSANI: a pilot experiment? - Certain political forces hope to pass through parliament the law allows the killing of shelter animals and want to see how society would react after application of the "final solution," writes dcnews.ro.
Botosani: vet that killed 240 dogs is accused of intentional murder; another 15 people are surveyed. The police doubts that he managed to make lethal injections to 240 dogs in two hours. "For an injection is needed ten minutes. The doctor therefore need 2400 minutes ..."
Shocking images. Hundreds of dogs killed in Botosani and put in plastic bags (including video)
Botosani: Prosecutors' Office in Botosani started criminal investigations on the shelter dogs case
Botosani: the massacre of the 240 dogs in the German news
Flashmob for the murdered dogs at the BOTOSANI shelter on 12th of May
Botosani: Police filed a complaint against animal veterinarian involved in the massacre of Botosani
http://www.adevarul.ro/locale/botosani/Botosani-_Medicul_veterinar_care_a_ucis_240_de_catei-audiat_la_politie_0_478752702.html
No surprise: health survey carried out on the carnage at BOTOSANI. Laboratory analysis confirmed distemper, said Health Department Chief Veterinary and Food Safety (DSVSA).
The few dogs that survived the massacre from BOTOSANI last Wednesday will likely be euthanized, Head of Health Department - Veterinary and Food Safety (DSVSA) said today, 16/05/2011
BOTOSANI: a pilot experiment? - Certain political forces hope to pass through parliament the law allows the killing of shelter animals and want to see how society would react after application of the "final solution," writes dcnews.ro.
Please read also:
The mayor of Botosani wants to send all stray dogs to Constanta, on a dubious 'pilot project'
Romania, host of the "2012 Euro Dog Show"
Hypocrisy at its finest!
The international community was outraged with the news of Romania being the host of the "2012 Euro Dog Show". Romania, the country that kills innocent strays in the cruelest manner imaginable. There was simply no logic to this.
A selection of comments made by shocked people from around the world is published here.
As a result of the international outrage about the Euro Dog Show 2012, to be held in Romania, the Romanian Kennel Club has issued a statement on 14th of June, 2011 (their site is bilingual)
A selection of comments made by shocked people from around the world is published here.
As a result of the international outrage about the Euro Dog Show 2012, to be held in Romania, the Romanian Kennel Club has issued a statement on 14th of June, 2011 (their site is bilingual)