Romania: Quiet, we are killing!
Romania is the scene of a tragedy. While dogs are being slaughtered in their thousands, the rights of children exposed to these horrific scenes are being violated.
The Ceausescu years turned pets out of their homes and on to the streets, many citizens turned into potential dictators of these streets. Stray dogs are tracked down like vermin, they are murdered in the eyes of children … while at the same time violating their human dignity! Let’s put an end to this hellish escalation of violence!
A large-scale massacre is taking place in Romania. Tens of thousands of stray dogs are persecuted and killed every year with the government’s consent. It encourages the entire country through its “law of slaughter”, to get rid of animals that have been left to their own devices. These unfortunates have become the scapegoats for structured violence for those in search of an outlet.
A bottomless pit
In Bucharest alone there are at least 2000 homeless dogs. Their numbers have been fluctuating ever since the 1980s, when the Ceausescu regime banned pets from entering, apartment blocks forcing families to feed them on the streets or to abandon them. Since then, these dogs have reproduced, multiplied, and are now the “the black beasts” for the majority of local residents. Pursued from everywhere, some cause damage, biting, thus fuelling the hatred against them. But rather than contain the problem by implementing a policy of sterilization, the authorities preferred to resort to the expeditious (and ineffective) solution of euthanasia. This has been officially practiced after 14 days on captured individuals who have not been reclaimed. But the truth is that most dogs are executed immediately after capture, or even at the very moment of their “pick-up”.
Horror at every street corner
It must be said that the dog pounds have quickly understood the profitability of these actions … Why do we have live animals, feed them on time, and then preform expensive lethal injections, if only, they could get the premiums up front before catching them? without any form or need of trial? Council employees began torturing and exterminating the “undesirables” automatically, not hesitating to commit the worst acts of cruelty in the streets. As an example, the citizens were not only accustomed to shows of butchery, they even reproduced these acts themselves. Today, it has become commonplace, even in a good way to assert their superiority and/or to pass their stoic nerve by cracking open a few skulls of dogs on their way. Even adopted, vaccinated and “regular” dogs often end up in this bloodbath.
What kind of example for children?
The Romanians are the collateral victims of these unsustainable public scenes: 86% of them have already been witnesses, according to the European Link Coalition. This international NGO, of which One Voice is a member, has undertaken to shed light on the link now established between animal abuse and violence against humans. With them, we urge you to challenge the European Commission and write to the Romanian Embassy in France on this serious problem within a country of the Union. By tolerating such practices that violate the Lisbon Treaty and its values, we are promoting executioners and / or their next victim!
Edit : Article modified on July 11th 2019