I have used an American slang term, “sucks”, to describe the situation with respect to animal welfare in a country that is part of the European Union. Members of the European Union should be in harmony on all matters including animal welfare. This is not the case and the politicians who run the European Union have made a ghastly mistake allowing Romania to join before they straightened out animal welfare.
Note: I am not against Romania joining the EU. I am against countries joining before they are ready because it is neither good for the EU nor the joining country.
The dog shelters are hell-holes. The stray dogs are mistreated. A pregnant dog walks across the street and a car tries to run her over for the hell of it. Another stray dog is hit with an iron bar.
“Animals are always abused in Romania. Many people hunt and torture them, they poision and shoot them to eliminate the overpopulation. There are homeless everywhere, at every block, at every street, at every place..” (The Animal Care Medical Foundation website)
Example: Slatina, a city from Romania with 80.000 residents. Estimated 8,000-10,000 dog killed in 7 years. I wonder how they are killed? I have to presume that for most dogs it is not humanely or even decently.
At a state pound in the town of Craiova, the resident vet is called “The Butcher”. His real name is Dr Avram. He has a blood stained coat and turns away from the camera. He is paid €4 (euros) to neuter a dog. He works in a crude manner and too fast in order make money. He discharges them before they are ready. He picks up a living dog by one leg and carries her like a carcass. There are three million stray dogs in Romania and they are mistreated. Get the picture?
There are far more dogs than cats in Romania which confirms to me that the country is backward (sorry, that is not politically correct but it needs to be said). This is because dogs are more useful as utility animals. Dogs were domesticated before cats for this reason. Romania really is about 100 years behind Northern European countries in development.
A typical shelter profile of dogs to cats: 200 dogs and 70 cats. Rehoming? Very low, poor levels.
Romania should have been told by the Eurocrats to: “get your act together with respect to animal welfare before you make an application to join the European Union”. The irresponsible European politicians screwed up again.
As at 2008 animal welfare law was very poor in Romania.
Romanians can now travel freely to other EU countries. This will mean the best people are liable to move away from their country. Good vets and decent, ambitious people are likely to leave and come to the UK or other northern European countries. The UK is favored. This will probably make things worse for the unwanted cats and dogs of Romania. The situation is already dire.
Major source: Daily Mail and law from PoC.
This is awful. France has a huge problem with Romanians – I won’t go into to detail but lets just say they abuse the whole French system repeatedly and all the while taking money France doesn’t have to solve the problem. Wasn’t the horse meat from Romania? Anyway I agree it’s awful and something should be done about it. What are the Eurocrats thinking. It’s harder every day to trust the people who are running things.
The Eurocrats have messed up. There first priority appears to be themselves. So many mistakes. It is distressing to know that in a European country that is in the European Union we have rampant animal abuse, weak animal welfare law and ineffective enforcement. Shocking,
My concern is the likelihood of the abusers moving and integrating into a nation of animal lovers what impact will this have? This really worries me:(
I know about the mistreatment of animals there because my friend has adopted a dog and is always highlighting the plight of others on FB. She is thinking of adopting another.
You are right Michael how can we a nation of animal lovers be expected to tolerate migrants from a country that treats animals like this?
I know there are a lot of good people from there but surely most of them will be economic migrants?
Excuse me if I appear ignorant of such matters however I am just airing my concerns.
I am not against Romania being part of the EU – when they are ready.One of the ideas behind joining the EU is to force applicants who want to join to raise their game on all manner of issues including animal welfare.
However, this has no happened. So when skilled Romanians come to the UK and other countries they remove their skills from their home country where they are required. This will make animal welfare worse not better.