Protest in Bucharest

During last weekend hundreds of people gathered in the center of Bucharest to protest. Many came with their dogs, some were adopted from the streets. Sadly there is another great conflict in Romania now (about Rosia Montana) and the press doesn't debate too much about the dogs these days. On Saturday night, an ex senator came with a copy of a petition he sent to the Constitutional Court, a petition signed by other 30 senators. They asked the President NOT to pass the law for killing dogs, some very wellknown lawyers did the same. However, the president, Traian Basescu, has always had a very cruel attitude towards stray dogs and I heard he might pass the law anyway.

The press has instigated people and filled them with hate these days, showing pictures of violent dogs, they made Romanians believe like we're in a huge danger. This only made people who already disliked dogs to show their hate and encouraged some to throw poisoned food outside. I heard of so many cases of dogs that died like this.

I also heard the Constitutional Court will make a decision in about 10 days... don't know what this means for the dogs that have already been caught.

I feel nothing but shame and pain, but I really hope we'll manage to save the situation somehow. I've seen pictures of foreigners protesting on Facebook, everybody seems so involved and caring. Hopefully the pressure will make our President change his mind.

They say millions of dollars were spent on sterilizing but this doesn't reflect in the actual number of dogs on the streets. That money vanished and now they act like killing is the only way left.

The 60$ per caught dog thing is the one that makes me most mad. They pay this out of public funds and people seem to accept it, even though it's clearly not ok.

The exact figures are : adopting more than one dog in Bucharest costs 150RON (that would mean 44.53$), the shelters are open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9AM and 3PM, but on TV i saw that some shelters denie visitors access until the killing law passes (basically those dogs have no chance).

Also, an independent TV post (Realitatea TV) investigated and found out that the companies that signed contracts for catching the dogs CAN'T be found at the addresses they claim to have, and the neighbours have never heard of those companies when the reporters went there and asked. Basically they might not even be legal.

A Vier Pfoten representant was intervied and said catching one dog should not cost more than 5Euros (gas, the payment for the driver and the dog catcher). Wasting 10 times that amount is a huge lie and bad use of public funds.

Meanwhile, there are dogs poisoned in many cities in Romania (I presume they throw poisoned food in areas where the dogs can't be caught).