"The Members of the European Parliament are flooded with messages from concerned people throughout the world who urge us for help in order to avoid a massacre of the Romanian stray dogs."

European Parliament's Intergroup on Welfare and Conservation of Animals. 

This letter is just not good enough. It is an extremely weak letter. One would have thought they could do better than that. 

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Dear President Basescu, 

It is with great sadness and concern that Members of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals address their second letter to you after their first appeal of last week was ignored.

We acknowledge and respect the Romanian Parliament’s adoption of a law which will allow local authorities to apply euthanasia of dogs that have stayed more than 14 days in a shelter.

The Romanian authorities will have now the duty and responsibility to enforce the law in a civilised and non-cruel way but given the sheer number of stray dogs in Bucharest and the whole of the country we have serious doubts that it will be possible.

We are concerned that it will end in a brutal massacre of dogs and would therefore like inquire if there exists already a strategy on how to apply the euthanasia campaign. If yes, we would like to have the details. Will it include as well dogs that have already been neutered? When and how will it be enforced? We hope that you will be able to provide us this information.

The very large stray dog populations in Romania are the result of bad management practices. Since many years NGOs have called to invest in systematic neutering campaigns and in education programmes for responsible dog ownership. This has been generally ignored and has resulted in the current situation.

The Members of the European Parliament are flooded with messages from concerned people throughout the world who urge us for help in order to avoid a massacre of the Romanian stray dogs.

We call on you and all competent authorities to ensure that uncontrolled killings of stray dogs will be avoided. Even though the European Union has little to say when it comes to companion animals it would be a shame before the international community to admit that cruel mass slaughters of dogs can still happen in the European Union of the 21st century.

 Please act now, so that worst can be avoided.

Sincerely,

Dan Jorgensen,

President of the Animal Welfare Intergroup