Romania: Let's listen to their cry for help!
To legalize cruelty against Romanian dogs amounts to normalizing violence against all. Between animal abuse and abuse of humans, there is only one small step!
The abuse of stray dogs in Romania is scandalous in itself. But this legalized cruelty also exposes children and society as a whole to the normalization of violence. The testimonies of children and their families must be heard: they need help! They do not have the freedom to be able to close their eyes and to escape these visions of horror … we must open our eyes and help them!
We all know what human beings are capable of, even towards his own kind and even in his own home! Sordid impulses lie deep inside some, transforming them into criminals, becoming murderers of their own relatives. This unsupportable violence, lurking in the depths of individuals, is strongly inclined to take precedence over all reason when it has been awakened, even excited or encouraged, and / or suffered since birth.
Oppressed Innocence
By authorizing the killing of stray dogs, even in including on the streets and under the gaze of the very young, Romanian leaders are trivializing cruelty. In fact, this type of «spectacle», children find themselves hostages of these atrocities. How does one escape these tragic scenes? How do we protect ourselves from this negative emotional impact? How can we evolve harmoniously when the leaders of society, and therefore theoretically our protectors, present horrors as the “norm”? The little ones of Romanian know no escape and their human dignity is under attack!
Spiralling Inferno
Such psychological childhood trauma can cause enormous damage even into adulthood. Multiple studies have shown the link between violence against animals and violence against humans. However, as one of them points out (*), environmental factors play a considerable role in an individual’s cognitive development. When aggression is commonly accepted and widespread around one, one risks integrating violence as a cultural reference. The most fragile subjects often end up assimilating deviant behaviour as a rule and are likely to reproduce these acts of violence sooner or later, unless they themselves become victims, as prisoners of fate.
Help
As an international group the European Link Coalition, of which One Voice is a member, has received many testimonies from children and mothers in distress in the face of these public abuses. Sorina B., mother of little Cassian, who is soon to be 6 years old, explains, for example, that since her boy was born, she has been teaching him how to take care of animals. But her teaching is regularly compromised by the scenes outside which she cannot protect her son from. She feels terribly helpless when confronted with it: “When he sees people hurting or mistreating stray animals, he is more than shocked and mortified. He keeps asking me “Mummy, why is this happening?” It’s very difficult to keep him out of this state of shock and disbelief (…) I have no way to explain to him why people do this, why animals are loved by some, but not by others. “Another mother, Andreea F., expresses the same dismay and has difficulty in answering questions from her 5-year-old daughter:” Sarah wants to bring home all stray animals and she always asks me: “Why don’t the animals on the streets have a home? Do they have food? Who loves them? “And animals must also be protected because they have a soul, because it hurts them and they suffer when they are physically and emotionally abused.” On the other hand, Cezara K., mother 18-year-old Vladut sighs bitterly: “My son deserves to live in a world where no animal is hurt … So, his heart will not be wounded as being a witness to abuse and violence!”
Let’s break this routine of violence!
These words from desperate mothers and children must be heard! In May, UNICEF, in partnership with the Romanian Government, signed the “Bucharest Declaration with the Children of the EU”. This agreement provides the possibility for minors to participate in decision-making within the European Community. Will the little ones of Romanian finally be listened to? This is our dearest wish! In the meantime, we call on you to make their voices heard through your own voices right now. By multiplying your letters to the attention of the European Commission and the Romanian Embassy in France, to challenge them about this serious problem within a country of the Union! The most vulnerable must be protected urgently and this cycle of violence stopped!