To all the people who have compassion for the dogs, regardless of where they come from, in my quality of President of the first organisation for animal protection created in Romania, 22 years ago, I want to warn you about the dangers of helping people “to save animals” in illegal conditions. It is true that in Romania there are a lot of stray dogs, and bad public shelters where people do not respect life and Romanian laws, but is not a solution to take the dogs out from the public shelters and to entrust these dogs to private individuals who have no legal organisation, and no shelter or foster placement authorized by the Veterinary Direction. Unfortunately some people who say they love dogs are also responsible and the tragedy which happened demonstrates that without the control of the authorities, all these fosters and illegal shelters put in danger innocent creatures who need care and protection, and mislead honest and compassionate people.
The most important thing to solve the problem of the stray dogs, is to act before they arrive in the street, to castrate the dogs of owners who have no money to do it and to prevent the abandonment of dogs. And if you want to support this, you must address your donation to a registered organisation, authorised by the authorities which is able to give you back a receipt for your donation. All the amount of money transferred to a private name cannot be controlled and can be considered “black money”. And if you want to sponsor a dog, the situation is the same. You must do it through an organisation which can give you a receipt and explanation for what care they are giving the dogs. There are serious organisations in Romania, who care for the dogs, make castration campaigns and sent the dogs abroad, to the UK, to Germany, to the Netherlands, etc. But the transport of the dogs must also respect EU rules, respecting the health of the dogs and the conditions of transport. All illegal transports with false documents, and more hours than can be accepted by law, with dogs who are ill, can put in danger the veterinary situation and the welfare of the dogs in the importing country and lead to laws against bringing dogs from Romania. Private individuals who want to adopt a Romanian dog can do it from an organisation in the country where they live, which has a partner organisation in Romania. To adopt a dog is a responsibility for whoever is giving the dog in adoption and for those who adopt. A dog is not a book you order via the internet, is a live creature. There are many nice families but not all families are right for every dog. And once the dog arrives like a package, if the family cannot cope, and there is no serious rescue backup, the dog might end up returning to Romania or go to a shelter or worse be put to sleep, none of which is acceptable. If he was adopted from an organisation, he can go back to them and find another place which will suit him better.
The dogs pay with their lives for human mistakes, ignorance and cruelty. Let’s work together to avoid any other tragedies like the Rainbow illegal shelter where around 70 dogs were found, dead of hunger and thirst.
