We read this yesterday with much enthusiasm: Bucharest City Council has pledged to change the law so that all stray dogs it captures and sterilizes will no longer be returned to the city’s streets.
We take our hats off to the prefect of Bucharest, Mihai Cristian Atanasoaei, who said he supports “immediate, firm action [on the dog issue] even though it might be unpopular.” He said that more than 10,000 people have been bitten by strays since November.
We have been here too long though to get our hopes up too high, so we are not holding our breath. At least the issue is back on the agenda though, a year or so after Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu had publicly stated that the issue was not a priority.
It is, and always has been.
Let’s now hope that Oprescu and the five sector mayors he has co-opted onto his anti-dog team now show backbone. Remember: Traian Basescu – when mayor of Bucharest – began a campaign to kill all of the city’s dogs in 2001. He backed down at the first whiff of bad publicity, however, revealing the spineless nature of leadership and obedience to blondes that he has since taken with him to the Romanian president’s office.
As for all you misguided animal lovers out there, a question: if the council does clear the streets of dogs without resorting to killing them (under the law it cannot kill them: it will need to put them up in kennels or such like), will you still complain?
Our guess is you will, for some of you simply want Bucharest’s streets full of dogs.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Get rid of these vicious dogs in Bucharest even if that means humanly killing them. 3 weeks ago my beagle and I were attacked by a pack of these wild dogs. My clothes were torn, I was bitten and and our little Annie was left bleeding.I called my husband at work and he came as fast as he could and we rushed Annie to the vet. We where told there was nothing that we could do for her. Her back was broke and she was paralyzed. We had no choice but to put our little Annie to sleep .We stayed with her while she feel asleep in our arms. I’m so hurt, sad and very angry right now. We did nothing wrong, just a walk in the warm weather. Our little Annie puppy was on a leash when we got attacked by vicious pack of wild dogs. Get rid of these monsters
I couldn’t get my car from beneath the snow.
It’s half-burried and one side which was exposed to the wind is burried in snow entirely.
I declare myself a defeated man, I’m canceling everything and going to sleep until spring arrives.
I will say it again: Bucharest is a backward and primitive place. I went to get my new passport at the US Embassy today and i had to step over stray dogs to get to the window to speak with the woman. C’mon! Remove the dogs. This is absurd.
You should be thankful there’s some additional security at the U.S. Embassy…
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If only the measures were applied nationwide. My native town (Campulung) is overrun by huge packs of vicious dogs and nobody is doing anything about it. In summer time when I stay in Campulung I have to draw up an elaborate route in order to avoid the resident packs. The main streets of Bucharest are ok though, as long as you don’t go into neighborhoods.
Ignore the Bardots of this world and cull (this word seems gentler than ‘kill’, why is that?) a large proportion of them.
It’s a confusing one. What would Romanians do if the city’s streets were full of rats? Leave out cheese or exterminate them? How are rabid, vicious dogs any different (except for being bigger and more scary)?
They just need to have one big cull, get rid of all the strays in one big sweep, and then control any future population. OK there would be complaints from various people, but ride it out, do it once, take care of the problem and then start from a more manageable baseline
Mind you, having said that, I think Bucharest has much worse problems than dogs, so in a sense Oprescu is right. A cull of cars might be more pressing, for example (or since that doesn’t really make sense, some form of traffic control as used in other cities, whether that be a congestion charge, or a odd number licence plates one day, even numbers the next)
Am I right in thinking the ‘even numbers one day/odd numbers another’ rules were actually applied in the 1980s? Then I think it was a case of saving petrol though, not a traffic issue.
This is what basescu wanted to do until he bottled it. I have always said do it, tell no one, and deal with the fall out afterwards.
I don’t think Bucharest will ever be rid of the stray dogs, and I don’t think there’s any way for those dogs to be taken off the streets without being euthanised (I also doubt they *will* be euthanised, since so many people seem to think killing dogs in bloody manners is fun).
There’s not enough shelters and Romanians aren’t educated to adopt pets from shelters, even if they did exist. Yes, some of us probably do like the “cainele blocului”, even though the damn mutt bites everyone except the 2 people who feed it.
I wish there was a solution that didn’t involve innocent dogs being killed *or* me being afraid to come home at night, when the local packs come out.
Agree with your first sentence: I simply don’t see how they can do it without killing them…
Well said, I don’t know if you noticed Piata Sudului area, the influence in that perimeter is split between gypsies selling mobile phones during daytime and packs of dogs during nighttime
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