|
|
Society and animal welfare - Romania (#)
It was in the 80s as the miserable situation of the Romanian pets began when the dictator Ceausescu began to industrialize the country and people were forced to move from the countryside to the cities to work. Housing shortage in cities became large, small subsistence farms have been demolished and made room for large housing complexes with apartments.
The state did not comply with the new production at the same pace as the population of cities grew and it was during this time a common fact that several families crowded together in a single apartment. A consequence of overcrowding was that the Romanian pets moved out to a roving life on the streets. At fast speed, they began to cast out the animals and especially dogs and cats began to reproduce out of any human control.
Still today, the stray dogs are shot, poisoned, hanged, beaten or burned to death or huddled in small enclosures, dying of starvation and dehydration or by untreated injuries and diseases. The most commonly used killing method in the public enclosures is the injection of directly into the heart. Many times these injection fails because of no use of anesthetic or sedative before lethal injection. Very often the dog's lung is punctured, resulting in a very protracted and painful death. Sometimes used simply air in the syringes and injected into the bloodstream of the dog. The dog die an incredibly painful death in which the heart rupture.
The state did not comply with the new production at the same pace as the population of cities grew and it was during this time a common fact that several families crowded together in a single apartment. A consequence of overcrowding was that the Romanian pets moved out to a roving life on the streets. At fast speed, they began to cast out the animals and especially dogs and cats began to reproduce out of any human control.
Still today, the stray dogs are shot, poisoned, hanged, beaten or burned to death or huddled in small enclosures, dying of starvation and dehydration or by untreated injuries and diseases. The most commonly used killing method in the public enclosures is the injection of directly into the heart. Many times these injection fails because of no use of anesthetic or sedative before lethal injection. Very often the dog's lung is punctured, resulting in a very protracted and painful death. Sometimes used simply air in the syringes and injected into the bloodstream of the dog. The dog die an incredibly painful death in which the heart rupture.
|
|
Many citizens see the abandoned animals as vermin, and many dogs and cats being poisoned by various substances - death is protracted and painful. Children are forced to witness all the atrocities being committed in the community and can get the wrong idea about what is ethically right or wrong - therefore is education in schools in countries with poor animal welfare extremely important to break the cruel traditions such as ignore to neuter their animals and instead to poison the animals when they become too many.
Children are the future?
In July 2011, Laurentiu Ierusalim left his Romanian orphanage, the only home he had ever known. He had less than $150 in his pocket and nothing more than the clothes he was wearing. He had no job, no housing, and no clue how to survive. “I didn’t know what to do,” Ierusalim says, “so I slept in a playground across the street.”
It was the beginning of two years of homelessness, of knocking on doors to ask for food and shelter. An Orthodox priest helped him find families to take him in for several weeks at a time. Last summer, after finally surmounting the formidable bureaucratic and financial obstacles required to secure a government ID, he landed his first job as a grocery store clerk.
With slight variations, Ierusalim’s story is told over and over again in the experiences of the tens of thousands of children shunted away in Romanian orphanages during the reign of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The execution of Ceausescu and his wife on Christmas Day 1989 led to the discovery of the country’s most disturbing secret—enough abandoned children to make up a city had been living in squalor for years, packed into unsanitary orphanages without appropriate resources, care, or stimulation.
It was the beginning of two years of homelessness, of knocking on doors to ask for food and shelter. An Orthodox priest helped him find families to take him in for several weeks at a time. Last summer, after finally surmounting the formidable bureaucratic and financial obstacles required to secure a government ID, he landed his first job as a grocery store clerk.
With slight variations, Ierusalim’s story is told over and over again in the experiences of the tens of thousands of children shunted away in Romanian orphanages during the reign of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The execution of Ceausescu and his wife on Christmas Day 1989 led to the discovery of the country’s most disturbing secret—enough abandoned children to make up a city had been living in squalor for years, packed into unsanitary orphanages without appropriate resources, care, or stimulation.
Under Ceausescu’s deranged despotism, abortion and birth control were outlawed. He demanded that all women bear at least five children in an effort to create a caste of “worker bees” that would labor in the hive of communism. Invasive investigations of women were conducted at workplaces and elsewhere to track their individual progress in making babies.
The government pledged to raise the children whose parents were too poor or incapable of caring for them. Some women never wanted the children they had been ordered to conceive in the first place and were happy to offload them. But many thought their babies would have a better life if given up—or that they had the option of collecting them later if they found the means to properly care for them.
The legacy of this nightmare is very much present in Romania today—and is one of the reasons, nearly twenty-five years after the death of Ceausescu and the bizarre and brutal system he created, that so many Romanian children continue to be abandoned while adult survivors struggle to make a life. A lingering social welfare mentality, coupled with lack of progressive approaches to education, a struggling economy, and halfhearted commitment to rule of law, pressurize the situation.
The government pledged to raise the children whose parents were too poor or incapable of caring for them. Some women never wanted the children they had been ordered to conceive in the first place and were happy to offload them. But many thought their babies would have a better life if given up—or that they had the option of collecting them later if they found the means to properly care for them.
The legacy of this nightmare is very much present in Romania today—and is one of the reasons, nearly twenty-five years after the death of Ceausescu and the bizarre and brutal system he created, that so many Romanian children continue to be abandoned while adult survivors struggle to make a life. A lingering social welfare mentality, coupled with lack of progressive approaches to education, a struggling economy, and halfhearted commitment to rule of law, pressurize the situation.
Ierusalim’s childhood was one of meager meals of broth and bread, minimal schooling, and lots of free time. He and fellow orphans tell stories of having their few pieces of food stolen by older bullies, who also pitted the younger kids against each other in fistfights for entertainment.
Some talked of being sent on missions in search of cigarettes, scaling the fences around the institutions, stealing from shops, and sometimes sleeping in random cars on the street. There was little supervision. Abuse and disease were rampant. Most of the lucky ones found homes abroad, when thousands of Americans and Europeans flocked to Romania in the 1990s to adopt, after catching glimpses of the tragic situation through television and newspaper reports.
Those who found homes with families, in Romania or abroad, have fared better, as numerous studies have shown, than those like Ierusalim who remained warehoused in the system. But few abandoned children escaped untouched by their initial neglect. American and Romanian researchers have been collaborating on a long-term study, based in Bucharest, investigating the effects of living in an institution in comparison to a family setting. Living in an institution, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) has found, has significant negative effects on brain development, behavior, and psychological functions.
Some talked of being sent on missions in search of cigarettes, scaling the fences around the institutions, stealing from shops, and sometimes sleeping in random cars on the street. There was little supervision. Abuse and disease were rampant. Most of the lucky ones found homes abroad, when thousands of Americans and Europeans flocked to Romania in the 1990s to adopt, after catching glimpses of the tragic situation through television and newspaper reports.
Those who found homes with families, in Romania or abroad, have fared better, as numerous studies have shown, than those like Ierusalim who remained warehoused in the system. But few abandoned children escaped untouched by their initial neglect. American and Romanian researchers have been collaborating on a long-term study, based in Bucharest, investigating the effects of living in an institution in comparison to a family setting. Living in an institution, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) has found, has significant negative effects on brain development, behavior, and psychological functions.
|
Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and lead researcher at BEIP, along with coauthors Nathan Fox and Charles Zeanah, have published a book on their research, Romania’s Abandoned Children. Their ongoing study has shown that there are critical “sensitive periods” of development. For example, the IQs of children placed in foster care prior to turning two were significantly higher than IQs of those placed after age two. And language development reaches a key point at fifteen months.
As their research moves ahead, examples of the ill effects of institutionalization and abandonment continue to appear. Daniel, twenty-three, was adopted by a Connecticut couple from an orphanage in Transylvania at the age of one. Despite the fact that his stay in a cramped maternity hospital with little stimulation or affection was relatively short, he has been diagnosed with mental health issues, including anxiety and schizoaffective disorder. He experiences delusions and drastic mood swings. He has created a parallel world full of other planets and galaxies, a place where even Osama bin Laden has “turned to the good side.” Psychologists say that his problems likely stem largely from the lack of attachment and sensory deprivation in the early months of institutionalization. Many others who were, by all appearances, successfully adopted, face struggles similar to Daniel’s. But if institutionalized children are moved into families early enough, some of the ill effects of neglect in these first years of life can be reversible. Children placed in foster care tested higher on IQ tests than those in orphanages, the BEIP study showed. They developed greater attachment to caregivers, exhibited less anxiety and depression, showed improvements in language skills, and had increased brain activity. |
|
Fewer abandoned Romanian children are living in institutions
Fewer abandoned Romanian children are living in institution-like settings today than during the Ceausescu years. Since the early 1990s, several NGOs have worked with the government to close down many of the larger, notorious orphanages. Later in that decade, the Romanian government began a foster care program, employing “maternal assistants” to take care of orphans, hopeful that this would move more kids into family settings. The most recent government data indicate that more than twenty thousand Romanian children live in foster care.
The system is based on the French model: foster parents are government employees, earning the equivalent of about $200 a month, and are prohibited from other employment, even if the children are of school age. Child welfare workers in Romania debate about whether foster parents choose this path for love or for money. While $200 a month doesn’t sound like much, it is equivalent to the salaries of some other professions in Romania, including some teachers and nurses.
In many smaller cities and more rural areas, jobs are scarce and foster parenting is one of few options. “It’s not for the love,” says Catalin Ganea, a project manager for one of the biggest funders of child welfare programs in Romania, SERA Romania. “It is a contract that can be broken at any time. It’s not good to have kids in foster care or foster homes for a long time. It’s a broken connection. Sometimes the foster family has an interest because it’s the only job to have here. It’s a job—a contract between them and social services.”
In November, Ganea concluded a trial program formulated in conjunction with a county in western Romania to reintegrate one hundred and sixty abandoned children back into their biological families. The plan provided goods, like a washing machine or materials to build a house, to families on a case-by-case basis in return for accepting their child back home. Most of the families are extremely poor, often living in cement-block homes with no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. Though some of the children had been living in orphanages, many had been living in foster homes—sometimes in the same home since they were babies.
The system is based on the French model: foster parents are government employees, earning the equivalent of about $200 a month, and are prohibited from other employment, even if the children are of school age. Child welfare workers in Romania debate about whether foster parents choose this path for love or for money. While $200 a month doesn’t sound like much, it is equivalent to the salaries of some other professions in Romania, including some teachers and nurses.
In many smaller cities and more rural areas, jobs are scarce and foster parenting is one of few options. “It’s not for the love,” says Catalin Ganea, a project manager for one of the biggest funders of child welfare programs in Romania, SERA Romania. “It is a contract that can be broken at any time. It’s not good to have kids in foster care or foster homes for a long time. It’s a broken connection. Sometimes the foster family has an interest because it’s the only job to have here. It’s a job—a contract between them and social services.”
In November, Ganea concluded a trial program formulated in conjunction with a county in western Romania to reintegrate one hundred and sixty abandoned children back into their biological families. The plan provided goods, like a washing machine or materials to build a house, to families on a case-by-case basis in return for accepting their child back home. Most of the families are extremely poor, often living in cement-block homes with no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. Though some of the children had been living in orphanages, many had been living in foster homes—sometimes in the same home since they were babies.
The head of one children’s charity in Romania, who asked to not be identified for fear that her statements might negatively impact her relations with the government, says she is unsure of the merits of the effort. “I don’t believe that a kid should be taken out from a good foster home after ten to fifteen years, to be placed back with his parents just because the government offered the parents an incentive to say they wanted the kid back. I believe that family is very, very important. But I also believe that family is where your heart is, where you feel peace, and where you are protected.”
She recalls a visit to the home of two elementary-aged brothers who had been reintegrated into their biological family by social services, unrelated to the SERA project. Neighbors approached her, she says, and told her the children were not safe—that the parents were drunk most of the time. The boys had previously spent their entire lives in one foster home, with guardians who were devastated when told that the kids were being removed.
But a child’s ties to his biological family, for better or worse, have become a central focus of child policy in Romania. A child’s biological parents must be deceased or indicate that they have no interest in having a relationship with the child before adoption can be considered. But what a “relationship” is, exactly, is unclear. Sometimes a mere phone call or e-mail a couple of times a year is considered sufficient. Many children now linger in the orphanage system because a parent “expresses interest” by stopping by or calling once a year. Many times, the parent can ensure the child won’t be adopted this way—leaving open the possibility that when the child gets older, he or she could finally be taken home and put to work to earn money for the family.
She recalls a visit to the home of two elementary-aged brothers who had been reintegrated into their biological family by social services, unrelated to the SERA project. Neighbors approached her, she says, and told her the children were not safe—that the parents were drunk most of the time. The boys had previously spent their entire lives in one foster home, with guardians who were devastated when told that the kids were being removed.
But a child’s ties to his biological family, for better or worse, have become a central focus of child policy in Romania. A child’s biological parents must be deceased or indicate that they have no interest in having a relationship with the child before adoption can be considered. But what a “relationship” is, exactly, is unclear. Sometimes a mere phone call or e-mail a couple of times a year is considered sufficient. Many children now linger in the orphanage system because a parent “expresses interest” by stopping by or calling once a year. Many times, the parent can ensure the child won’t be adopted this way—leaving open the possibility that when the child gets older, he or she could finally be taken home and put to work to earn money for the family.
Via the Washington Post, watch the story of Izidor Ruckel, adopted from a Romanian orphanage and profiled as a child on American television, who now works to change the system to which he was victim—and learn from Dr. Charles Nelson about the long-term effects of the neurological deprivations suffered by similar children.
Even when the parent does not express any interest in maintaining a relationship with the child, the social system’s structure makes it difficult to get a child into an adoptive home within the critical periods of development that Charles Nelson and his colleagues have defined. At least a year with no familial contact must pass before a social worker can pursue adoption.
Once it has officially been established that there is no interest from the biological parents, the social worker assigned to the child’s case must make contact with all adult relatives of the child, to the fourth degree—including, for example, the grandparents’ siblings—to explore the possibility that someone else in the family might take in the child. Only after this process is completed can the social worker finally file a motion to make the child adoptable.
But even from that point, other obstacles remain. A child cannot be adopted directly from an orphanage or group home; he must be adopted out of a foster home. The state slashed funding for foster parents as part of austerity measures a few years ago, meaning now fewer children can be moved through the system this way. And with the high case demand facing social workers, the process to finalize adoption is often slow.
Romania had issued a moratorium on international adoption in 2001, finally outlawing it in 2005 under pressure from EU representatives as the country made its bid for entry into the union. Romanian officials at the time said they could not effectively monitor and control the process, as rumors swirled of babies being sold at auction. But adoption inside Romania hasn’t been a success. Annually, between seven hundred and nine hundred children are adopted of the twelve hundred to fourteen hundred considered “adoptable,” a tiny fraction of the orphans within the system.
Once it has officially been established that there is no interest from the biological parents, the social worker assigned to the child’s case must make contact with all adult relatives of the child, to the fourth degree—including, for example, the grandparents’ siblings—to explore the possibility that someone else in the family might take in the child. Only after this process is completed can the social worker finally file a motion to make the child adoptable.
But even from that point, other obstacles remain. A child cannot be adopted directly from an orphanage or group home; he must be adopted out of a foster home. The state slashed funding for foster parents as part of austerity measures a few years ago, meaning now fewer children can be moved through the system this way. And with the high case demand facing social workers, the process to finalize adoption is often slow.
Romania had issued a moratorium on international adoption in 2001, finally outlawing it in 2005 under pressure from EU representatives as the country made its bid for entry into the union. Romanian officials at the time said they could not effectively monitor and control the process, as rumors swirled of babies being sold at auction. But adoption inside Romania hasn’t been a success. Annually, between seven hundred and nine hundred children are adopted of the twelve hundred to fourteen hundred considered “adoptable,” a tiny fraction of the orphans within the system.
Most Romanians who apply to adopt children are couples that have been unable to have children on their own. Most of these couples are only interested in adopting babies; seventy-two percent want a child who is less than three years of age, and eighty-six percent want a child under five, according to a study by the . Few are open to adopting children with disabilities or those of Roma decent, which rules out a large percentage of children.
The idea of putting the needs and rights of these children first—reconnecting them with their biological families or finding them other loving homes—would require changing the social mentality of Romanians.
During the Ceausescu years, parents didn’t necessarily know what they were getting into when they dropped their children off at the doorstep of a state-run institution. The poor in Romania today continue to lack education about birth control, and costs remain prohibitive for many. There also is a lingering belief that full-time childcare—for a year, five years, or more—is a service provided by the state.
The idea of putting the needs and rights of these children first—reconnecting them with their biological families or finding them other loving homes—would require changing the social mentality of Romanians.
During the Ceausescu years, parents didn’t necessarily know what they were getting into when they dropped their children off at the doorstep of a state-run institution. The poor in Romania today continue to lack education about birth control, and costs remain prohibitive for many. There also is a lingering belief that full-time childcare—for a year, five years, or more—is a service provided by the state.
Mothers have the option of leaving their newborns at the hospital when they go home. They do not have to give up the rights to the child at this point—or ever. And, as the law states, if the parents or relatives don’t renounce their relationship with the child, the child cannot be adopted. Some are eventually moved into foster care, while others remain at the hospital until they are two, when they can be sent to orphanages.
There are no national programs aimed at preventing unwanted births or child abandonment; no system for giving up your child for adoption directly or privately, as exists in the United States and Western Europe. But neither is there coordinated government support for the children who “age out” of the child protection system, leaving many on the street without the skills to find work, search for a place to live, or cook a meal.
At age eighteen, or twenty-six in the rare instance when the orphan is enrolled in higher education, the young adults, like Laurentiu Ierusalim, are turned out with only a few dollars in their pockets. Each year, an estimated two thousand young adults exit orphanages in Romania. Many end up homeless, with no money or shelter, and turn to drugs and crime.
Those children who lived through the last days of Ceausescu’s institutions are young adults today. Some, who made it out through sheer determination or the rare help of a concerned caregiver, have been able to make lives for themselves on the outside. Gabriel Ciobotaru, thirty-five, says he was motivated by the support of an American family who wrote letters and sent gifts every Christmas. His excellent grades won him the chance to attend university, and he is now a social worker for the Department of Child Protection in Bucharest. He also started a foundation that aims to build apartment buildings for youth being released from orphanages. The group, Sansa Ta, or Your Chance, has secured the promise of a donation of land for its first building from the mayor of a town outside Bucharest.
There are no national programs aimed at preventing unwanted births or child abandonment; no system for giving up your child for adoption directly or privately, as exists in the United States and Western Europe. But neither is there coordinated government support for the children who “age out” of the child protection system, leaving many on the street without the skills to find work, search for a place to live, or cook a meal.
At age eighteen, or twenty-six in the rare instance when the orphan is enrolled in higher education, the young adults, like Laurentiu Ierusalim, are turned out with only a few dollars in their pockets. Each year, an estimated two thousand young adults exit orphanages in Romania. Many end up homeless, with no money or shelter, and turn to drugs and crime.
Those children who lived through the last days of Ceausescu’s institutions are young adults today. Some, who made it out through sheer determination or the rare help of a concerned caregiver, have been able to make lives for themselves on the outside. Gabriel Ciobotaru, thirty-five, says he was motivated by the support of an American family who wrote letters and sent gifts every Christmas. His excellent grades won him the chance to attend university, and he is now a social worker for the Department of Child Protection in Bucharest. He also started a foundation that aims to build apartment buildings for youth being released from orphanages. The group, Sansa Ta, or Your Chance, has secured the promise of a donation of land for its first building from the mayor of a town outside Bucharest.
2009 - Orphanages in Romania, EU member State (2007)
“I was different than other kids because I liked to get involved,” Ciobotaru said of his childhood. “But like other orphans, I knew I’d have to go out into a new world where life isn’t easy. They don’t prepare you for life.”
Another recent university graduate, who described his “Lord of the Flies” surroundings growing up in one of Bucharest’s orphanages and is now a music teacher at a high school, asked that his name be withheld because even adult orphans are often discriminated against in Romania, as many feel that these survivors are “damaged goods.” He rarely tells people he is an orphan and worries that he might lose his job or his apartment if people found out his “secret.”
Romania seems unable to move past the shame associated with the early days of its abandoned children. While dozens of children’s charities continue to funnel money, goods, and care into the country, many international groups that came in the 1990s—some establishing model programs intended for government takeover—have gone, and few of their programs have continued. While Romania now for the most part looks at the brutal Ceausescu regime in its rearview mirror, it sees one of the few accomplishments of that dictatorship, large numbers of disquieted orphans who are now young adults, walking its streets every day.
Meghan Collins Sullivan is a supervising editor at NPR and former assistant managing editor at the Washington Post. She spent the last two years reporting in Romania, in part on a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. source
Another recent university graduate, who described his “Lord of the Flies” surroundings growing up in one of Bucharest’s orphanages and is now a music teacher at a high school, asked that his name be withheld because even adult orphans are often discriminated against in Romania, as many feel that these survivors are “damaged goods.” He rarely tells people he is an orphan and worries that he might lose his job or his apartment if people found out his “secret.”
Romania seems unable to move past the shame associated with the early days of its abandoned children. While dozens of children’s charities continue to funnel money, goods, and care into the country, many international groups that came in the 1990s—some establishing model programs intended for government takeover—have gone, and few of their programs have continued. While Romania now for the most part looks at the brutal Ceausescu regime in its rearview mirror, it sees one of the few accomplishments of that dictatorship, large numbers of disquieted orphans who are now young adults, walking its streets every day.
Meghan Collins Sullivan is a supervising editor at NPR and former assistant managing editor at the Washington Post. She spent the last two years reporting in Romania, in part on a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. source
2013 - Antena 3 TV station has been nominated for the International Media Excellence Awards, awarded by The Association for International Broadcasting in London every year, at the categories Domestic current affairs documentary, namely Investigative Documentary. The two materials were made by Carmen Avram, in her show "În premieră". One of these two, "The Inferno of the Forgotten Children" was made in collaboration with our association, under the project "Reset the System - A Family for Every Abandoned Child." "The Inferno of the Forgotten Children" talks about the hundreds of Romanian children abandoned in hospitals and ignored by the state. Due to the lack of money and staff care, the children are left into dark rooms, sometimes forced to feed themselves, even if only a few months old. Meanwhile, hundreds of families are struggling with a flawed system, trying to adopt a child. The jury is an independent one and consists of TV and media professionals worldwide. Antena 3 is the only news station in Romania affiliated to CNN International and is part of the Intact Media Group.
The similarities are striking
To abandon and then let the state (EU funds) or charities take care of the "problems" and providing funding, food, shelter and adoptions - seems to be deeply rooted in the Romanian mentality and tradition.
Working with this page now ......
Letter from Romania
2011 - 2012 In the last 2 years the situation became more and more unbearable; people are getting pets that they don’t neuter or spay; unwanted puppies and kittens are put in the most fortunate cases, in bags and thrown in the garbage or in the street; many of them die of hunger, dehydration, parvovirus, Care disease or feline pan leucopenia.
Those who survive become new strays; the strays that were supposed to be neutered and spayed during special programs and they were marked as being spayed and neutered, are found now pregnant and giving birth to dozens of unwanted puppies; because of the lack of food some of them become dangerously aggressive and bite to defend their territory.
The hysteria reaches its maximum when someone dies because bitten by a dog; in many cases, the “guilty” dog is not a stray but an aggressive dog with owner but nobody says that loud and clearly and the poor strays are suffering over and over again campaigns of extermination.
The shelters – public or private - are overcrowded and adoption is just a beautiful dream. No campaigns are organized in favor of these poor souls. Whenever someone – a public person – tries to defend them, to do something for them, is blamed, mocked and considered to be a frustrated idiot.
In Romanian city pounds, the access is not permitted to the public. Why? So they can kill these poor souls without anyone actually seeing what is happening. The city pounds are guarded. Why this shroud of secrecy about the fate of animals there? We all know what they hide but no one can’t do anything. The dogs live in miserable conditions, without food and water. Not spayed females are in the same paddocks with un-neutered males.
One month old puppies are held together with adults! Vaccinations and de-worming? Nobody ever heard about this. The strong dogs always bit to death the weaker ones and then everything turns to cannibalism.
Is there any solution to all this? In all civilized countries, pet owners are required to neuter/spay their pets and identify them with a microchip. Thus, the problem of uncontrolled and abandoned animals can be easily eradicated.
In Romania this is not mandatory by law and there is no national registrar of pets where to register the microchip; which leads to a constant daily struggle with something that is more powerful than the will of a few people. Animal advocates and all NGO’s say the only solution is to neuter and spay the dogs, and argue that the authorities must impose harsh laws to force dog owners to become more responsible for their pets.
In Romania, as well as worldwide, overpopulation of stray dogs and cats is a serious problem, because there are too many animals born, more than the number of families who can adopt them. Without a real control of chaotic breeding, the streets will soon be invaded by wandering dogs and cats.
The phenomenon is now uncontrollable and Bucharest citizens acknowledge this crisis. Some of the animals are born on the streets, but most of the puppies are abandoned around 2 months old, after living with their mother in a house. For many owners the spay surgery is very expensive (25 –115 Euros), that is why they rather leave the puppies on the streets, hoping they will be saved by animal lovers.
The only efficient solution to control this phenomenon is spay & neuter: animals cannot breed and their number reduces until seeing a stray animal will be an event for us!
Programs like this, in conjunction with good legislation, education and responsible pet-ownership have proven their efficiency in most of the European countries.
2013 - 2014
Bucharest dog cull plan divides Romanians
Those who survive become new strays; the strays that were supposed to be neutered and spayed during special programs and they were marked as being spayed and neutered, are found now pregnant and giving birth to dozens of unwanted puppies; because of the lack of food some of them become dangerously aggressive and bite to defend their territory.
The hysteria reaches its maximum when someone dies because bitten by a dog; in many cases, the “guilty” dog is not a stray but an aggressive dog with owner but nobody says that loud and clearly and the poor strays are suffering over and over again campaigns of extermination.
The shelters – public or private - are overcrowded and adoption is just a beautiful dream. No campaigns are organized in favor of these poor souls. Whenever someone – a public person – tries to defend them, to do something for them, is blamed, mocked and considered to be a frustrated idiot.
In Romanian city pounds, the access is not permitted to the public. Why? So they can kill these poor souls without anyone actually seeing what is happening. The city pounds are guarded. Why this shroud of secrecy about the fate of animals there? We all know what they hide but no one can’t do anything. The dogs live in miserable conditions, without food and water. Not spayed females are in the same paddocks with un-neutered males.
One month old puppies are held together with adults! Vaccinations and de-worming? Nobody ever heard about this. The strong dogs always bit to death the weaker ones and then everything turns to cannibalism.
Is there any solution to all this? In all civilized countries, pet owners are required to neuter/spay their pets and identify them with a microchip. Thus, the problem of uncontrolled and abandoned animals can be easily eradicated.
In Romania this is not mandatory by law and there is no national registrar of pets where to register the microchip; which leads to a constant daily struggle with something that is more powerful than the will of a few people. Animal advocates and all NGO’s say the only solution is to neuter and spay the dogs, and argue that the authorities must impose harsh laws to force dog owners to become more responsible for their pets.
In Romania, as well as worldwide, overpopulation of stray dogs and cats is a serious problem, because there are too many animals born, more than the number of families who can adopt them. Without a real control of chaotic breeding, the streets will soon be invaded by wandering dogs and cats.
The phenomenon is now uncontrollable and Bucharest citizens acknowledge this crisis. Some of the animals are born on the streets, but most of the puppies are abandoned around 2 months old, after living with their mother in a house. For many owners the spay surgery is very expensive (25 –115 Euros), that is why they rather leave the puppies on the streets, hoping they will be saved by animal lovers.
The only efficient solution to control this phenomenon is spay & neuter: animals cannot breed and their number reduces until seeing a stray animal will be an event for us!
Programs like this, in conjunction with good legislation, education and responsible pet-ownership have proven their efficiency in most of the European countries.
2013 - 2014
Bucharest dog cull plan divides Romanians
Barbarism in Romania -Stop the massacre of dogs!
Atrocities issued by authorities - Romania
On Friday, 21st March 2014, several dog catchers from the Authority for the Supervision and Protection of Animals [ASPA] brutally raided the international animal welfare organisation's [Four Paws] shelter. Shocking images of the barbaric methods used by dog catchers have been splashed across social media over the weekend causing public uproar, and also leading to the creation of a petition to return the dogs to their shelter. The violent action was directed against the paddocks and the shelter in which the clinic is situated. Around 90 dogs were forcibly removed. According to several eye witnesses, at least four dogs died on the spot because of the aggressive handling.
Brutal Massacre at Four Paws Dog Shelter, Romania - is title of Dr Rita Pal's latest article published in the Huffington Post, at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rita-pal/romania-dogs_b_5023937.html
The dogs under the care of Four Paws were neutered, micro-chipped and registered. Most of them were already adopted and ready to be transported to their new owners.
The action of the ASPA dog catchers who vandalised the shelter and the Vier Pfoten paddocks is told by an eye witness that witnessed the entire operation:
Cornel Constantin said:
"At around 14:00, 13 ASPA vans came accompanied by policemen. They broke the lock at the entrance of the shelter and they began to destroy the paddock gates, which were locked. They simply destroyed everything. It's hard to describe how brutal the methods used to catch the dogs were. I saw with my own eyes at least 2 dead dogs. After I protested, the dog catchers threatened to beat me. Meanwhile, the police looked at / witnessed all of this without doing anything. I told them that what is going on is not normal, that there are dead dogs. They just told me to relax. After they finished vandalising the shelter, they started destroying the 2 kennels of Vier Pfoten, which were next to the clinic. They trampled the gates and destroyed everything. Luckily I managed to get my 5 dogs that were in the shelter, that I squeezed into my own car"
The defenceless dogs were covered with blood, dragged with clubs and thrown in cramped cages. This was carried out in the presence of the local area police who did nothing. Four Paws said,
"Several dogs were badly injured and some of them died due to violent treatment. The number of the dead dogs is not clear, as we only have statements based on eye witnesses and smartphone quality video footage. At the moment, I think that there are 4 to 6 dead animals, but we will only know for sure after getting the dogs back. The animals choked to death, as catchers intentionally or by their incompetence tightened the lace too much while enforcing the animals. Many dogs, even if they didn't die, were bleeding through their mouth due to being brutally manipulated . Unconscious (or dead?) animals were enforced together with moving animals in small cages".
The true horrors meted out on harmless dogs by an organisation that claims to "Protect Animals" were exposed in broad daylight. Moreover. the film taken demonstrates their cruel, unacceptable and unsympathetic handling of defenceless animals that maybe common practice. The dog catchers were behaving more like "hit men" rather than respected members employed by a local authority. The fact that the ASPA is currently being investigated by the Romanian National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) does not go in their favour at all [ Read the details here ] This is not the first time that Four Paws has clashed with the ASPA. In 2013, access to the clinic was blocked without due explanation.
This barbaric raid on Four Paws occurred following the MEP's damning indictment on the mistreatment of Romanian dogs. In addition, on the 10th March 2013, Four Paws took legal steps at the Court of Appeal in Bucharest for the Romanian Government to freeze the killing of stray dogs. The timing of this raid is, therefore, of interest.
Four Paws added:
"VIER PFOTEN has a legal contract ongoing with the 6th District City Hall for the stray dogs neutering project and for the use of the veterinary clinic. After their raid on Friday, ASPA representatives still forbid access in the facility. The way the City Hall of 6th District broke the Protocol is completely unexplainable, giving the fact that FOUR PAWS invested money from donations, a lot of effort and time in this project, which was requested by the City Hall. FOUR PAWS so far has neutered over 3,000 dogs in the 6th District. We filed a complaint to the police and we will open a legal action against ASPA. The main accusations: killing and cruelty against animals, theft, sequestration of private goods and vandalism."
More detailed reporting relating to the dispute can be found on Occupy For Animals.
On the 24th March 2014, rescuers arrived at the doorstep of Bragadiru public dog shelter. With ASPA's reputation firmly in the gutter and no law to justify their barbaric actions, the dogs were given back to the rescuers. In the interim, no apologies have been issued for the death of the harmless, vulnerable animals. Moreover, no investigation into the brutal conduct of the dog catchers has been announced.
Gabriel Paun, Director of Campaigns at FOUR PAWS bravely said,
"The dog catchers killed some, they injured others. We'll do our best to rescue those who survived the massacre again, and we hope to find loving families for them".
Undeterred by the current harassment they have been subjected to, Four Paws valiantly issued a petition asking Prime Minister Victor Ponta to squash all the laws that allow the mass killing of dogs.
We suggest that you read the original article to have access to many linked information and videos:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rita-pal/romania-dogs_b_5023937.html
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr Pal is an independent medical journalist based in the UK. Between 1999-2007, she worked as a psychiatrist in the National Health Service UK. She has written for a number of publications around the world and is editor of World Medical Times (http://www.worldmedicaltimes.org/). Please visit the website Dr Rita Pal (http://about.me/dr.ritapal). Anyone can contact her via Email. She is also on Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook.
Dr Pal is also a well established, evidence-based NHS whistleblower. Details of this can be found in the articles Elderly Helped to Die (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rita-pal/elderly-helped-to-die_b_1678872.html) and a summary of Ward 87 North Staffordshire NHS Trust (https://sites.google.com/site/ward87whistleblower/). She has also summarised her experiences in a short narrative available on Amazon - The North Staffordshire Whistleblower - and was second author in the leading research paper Whistleblowing and Patient Safety, published by the JRSM.
Dr Pal was the first whistleblower to raise concerns in the Midlands hospitals run by the same local health authority.
Brutal Massacre at Four Paws Dog Shelter, Romania - is title of Dr Rita Pal's latest article published in the Huffington Post, at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rita-pal/romania-dogs_b_5023937.html
The dogs under the care of Four Paws were neutered, micro-chipped and registered. Most of them were already adopted and ready to be transported to their new owners.
The action of the ASPA dog catchers who vandalised the shelter and the Vier Pfoten paddocks is told by an eye witness that witnessed the entire operation:
Cornel Constantin said:
"At around 14:00, 13 ASPA vans came accompanied by policemen. They broke the lock at the entrance of the shelter and they began to destroy the paddock gates, which were locked. They simply destroyed everything. It's hard to describe how brutal the methods used to catch the dogs were. I saw with my own eyes at least 2 dead dogs. After I protested, the dog catchers threatened to beat me. Meanwhile, the police looked at / witnessed all of this without doing anything. I told them that what is going on is not normal, that there are dead dogs. They just told me to relax. After they finished vandalising the shelter, they started destroying the 2 kennels of Vier Pfoten, which were next to the clinic. They trampled the gates and destroyed everything. Luckily I managed to get my 5 dogs that were in the shelter, that I squeezed into my own car"
The defenceless dogs were covered with blood, dragged with clubs and thrown in cramped cages. This was carried out in the presence of the local area police who did nothing. Four Paws said,
"Several dogs were badly injured and some of them died due to violent treatment. The number of the dead dogs is not clear, as we only have statements based on eye witnesses and smartphone quality video footage. At the moment, I think that there are 4 to 6 dead animals, but we will only know for sure after getting the dogs back. The animals choked to death, as catchers intentionally or by their incompetence tightened the lace too much while enforcing the animals. Many dogs, even if they didn't die, were bleeding through their mouth due to being brutally manipulated . Unconscious (or dead?) animals were enforced together with moving animals in small cages".
The true horrors meted out on harmless dogs by an organisation that claims to "Protect Animals" were exposed in broad daylight. Moreover. the film taken demonstrates their cruel, unacceptable and unsympathetic handling of defenceless animals that maybe common practice. The dog catchers were behaving more like "hit men" rather than respected members employed by a local authority. The fact that the ASPA is currently being investigated by the Romanian National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) does not go in their favour at all [ Read the details here ] This is not the first time that Four Paws has clashed with the ASPA. In 2013, access to the clinic was blocked without due explanation.
This barbaric raid on Four Paws occurred following the MEP's damning indictment on the mistreatment of Romanian dogs. In addition, on the 10th March 2013, Four Paws took legal steps at the Court of Appeal in Bucharest for the Romanian Government to freeze the killing of stray dogs. The timing of this raid is, therefore, of interest.
Four Paws added:
"VIER PFOTEN has a legal contract ongoing with the 6th District City Hall for the stray dogs neutering project and for the use of the veterinary clinic. After their raid on Friday, ASPA representatives still forbid access in the facility. The way the City Hall of 6th District broke the Protocol is completely unexplainable, giving the fact that FOUR PAWS invested money from donations, a lot of effort and time in this project, which was requested by the City Hall. FOUR PAWS so far has neutered over 3,000 dogs in the 6th District. We filed a complaint to the police and we will open a legal action against ASPA. The main accusations: killing and cruelty against animals, theft, sequestration of private goods and vandalism."
More detailed reporting relating to the dispute can be found on Occupy For Animals.
On the 24th March 2014, rescuers arrived at the doorstep of Bragadiru public dog shelter. With ASPA's reputation firmly in the gutter and no law to justify their barbaric actions, the dogs were given back to the rescuers. In the interim, no apologies have been issued for the death of the harmless, vulnerable animals. Moreover, no investigation into the brutal conduct of the dog catchers has been announced.
Gabriel Paun, Director of Campaigns at FOUR PAWS bravely said,
"The dog catchers killed some, they injured others. We'll do our best to rescue those who survived the massacre again, and we hope to find loving families for them".
Undeterred by the current harassment they have been subjected to, Four Paws valiantly issued a petition asking Prime Minister Victor Ponta to squash all the laws that allow the mass killing of dogs.
We suggest that you read the original article to have access to many linked information and videos:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rita-pal/romania-dogs_b_5023937.html
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr Pal is an independent medical journalist based in the UK. Between 1999-2007, she worked as a psychiatrist in the National Health Service UK. She has written for a number of publications around the world and is editor of World Medical Times (http://www.worldmedicaltimes.org/). Please visit the website Dr Rita Pal (http://about.me/dr.ritapal). Anyone can contact her via Email. She is also on Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook.
Dr Pal is also a well established, evidence-based NHS whistleblower. Details of this can be found in the articles Elderly Helped to Die (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rita-pal/elderly-helped-to-die_b_1678872.html) and a summary of Ward 87 North Staffordshire NHS Trust (https://sites.google.com/site/ward87whistleblower/). She has also summarised her experiences in a short narrative available on Amazon - The North Staffordshire Whistleblower - and was second author in the leading research paper Whistleblowing and Patient Safety, published by the JRSM.
Dr Pal was the first whistleblower to raise concerns in the Midlands hospitals run by the same local health authority.
Twenty-three years after the bloody uprising that freed it from the grip of the Ceausescu dictatorship, Romania seemed to have become a consolidated democracy, boasting membership in NATO and the European Union. Then came the summer of 2012, when the southeastern European country, already a cause of concern to Western Europe because of reports of creeping lawlessness and political corruption, tried on a more authoritarian political identity, as a second Belarus or a second Venezuela. Officials in the EU and US winced and unequivocally called upon the new Romanian government to abide by its commitments - World Affairs