FOUNDATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF COMMUNITY DOGS - SOS DOGS ORADEA
PRESS RELEASE 29.08.12
1. When we started work in Oradea in 2004 there were between 4000 and 5000 dogs on the streets despite RAPAS' kill and poison campaign. Dead and live dogs could be seen for example all along Bors-Oradea road and at the Bors border post.
2. In desperation and although sceptical Mayor Mr. Petru Filip accepted FPCC's offer (with the sponsorship for 3 years of Dogs Trust, Battersea Dogs Home and North Shore Animal League) to solve his dog problem through Neuter & Return. By summer 2011 according to a Politia Locala census we had reduced the unsupervised dog population of Oradea to only 350 dogs.
3. Since 2004 we have neutered and vaccinated over 24000 dogs in Bihor (mainly females). We reduced the loose dog population by over 90% without putting a single healthy dog to sleep, other than literally 1 or 2 dangerous dogs per year which bit other dogs or people without provocation.We achieved this reduction in dog population despite the constant dumping of fertile dogs from outside the city. In April 2012 for example we collected 119 newly dumped dogs from the ring road and other peripheral areas of Oradea. [ It is easy to tell disoriented dumped dogs from relaxed, indigenous dogs].
4. Because the Romanian Government has so far failed to accept our proposals for a National Neuter and Return programme this dog dumping will continue without end. There is therefore no visible end in sight for my personal expenditure in Oradea, which is about Euros '150.000,- per year in addition to another Euro 150.000,- financing other neutering and rehoming projects in Bihor. Oradea is a relatively rich municipality but has not contributed significantly to the costs of this project, even though everyone can see that Oradea is now the one and only large city in Romania without a dog problem. Since 2004 the municipality allocated onty RON 50.000,- per year to SOS Dogs Oradea and even this paltry sum was never paid in cash so did not reduce my financial burden. I cannot afford to, and it is not reasonable that I should have to, continue to fund this project on behalf of the citizens of Oradea almost single-handedly.
Yesterday Oradea City Council voted by 17 votes to 5 to allocate RON 195.000,- = approx.
Euros 11.000,- per month to ADP to carry out what amounts to simply a Catch & Kill
Policy. This is an outrageous waste of public money. ADP is not being allowed to offer free neutering and vaccination or free of charge dog adoption. Citizens will be charged for adopting or reclaiming dogs. On July 20th at a meeting with Vice-Mayor Mr. Malan and senior officials including Mr. Gita I offered to continue FPCC's work (with free neutering for all, free vaccinations, free adotpions, free school and public education and open access fo our shelter) for Euros 8.000,- per month. Your City Council is now throwing Euro 3.000 of public money down the drain each month to operate a dog shelter which will be closed to the public with no neutering or free rehoming of surplus dogs.
5. One reason why Mr. Basescu's Catch and Kill policy failed in Bucharest despite an investment of over Euro 5 million between 2001 and 2004, and the reason that all Municipal Dog Killing campaigns fail everywhere in the world and are a complete waste of public money, is that stray dogs are not the source of the problem. RAPAS failed 10 years ago because their killing campaign was aimed at the wrong target. The most reproductively successful dogs are those with owners or keepers, for example factory, petrol station, car park, hospital dogs. Since the City Council has not voted to continue our policy of offering all citizens, i.e. all dog keepers or dog toleratours, free neutering, the dog population will start to increase gradually, then exponentially.
One pregnant bitch can theoretically result in 67000 new dogs over 6 years. Since the City Council and ADP will not offer free neutering to all dog keepers, it is likely that the unsupervised dog population of Oradea will have returned to the carrying capacity of at least 4000 dogs by the time of the next municipal elections in 2016.
6. The only way to reduce the unsupervised dog population in Romania in the short term (by which I mean 10 years) is for motivated, educated, humane and efficient dog collectors, such as FPCC's employees, to proactively look for fertile bitches in poor, gypsy and peripheral areas of the city and to return them neutered and vaccinated to their keepers or territory. Reacting to complaints about dogs in the city center or from influential residential areas, which is almost certainly all that ADP will be able to do, will not stem the tide of dog reproduction. Neuter & Return has to be carried out in the manner of a military campaign, street by street, house by house, factory by factory. Because a majority of Oradea's councillors apparently have no understanding of dog ecology and no understanding of how and why FPCC has succeeded whereas every other municipality in Romania has failed, it is unlikely that ADP will be allowed to continue our successful work.
7. If however the City Council changes its mind and decides to continue our successful Neuter & Return project and to give ADP the financial resources necessary, FPCC will give help and advice in every possible way, including with rehoming campaigns and continuing our school education project in Responsible Pet Ownership. lt is however more difficult for public sector organisations to implement Neuter & Return because their employees normally lack the skills motivation and credibility with the public required. Also management and financing systems are often slow and cumbersome.
8. The only satisfactory short term solution for Romania is a National Neuter & Return programme based on our successful template in Oradea. This must be a public-private partnership. The role of government and municipalities must be to provide finance, purchasing, statistical records and publicity campaigns. The role of the private sector, preferably NGOs such as FPCC, Vier Pfoten and Save the Dogs, must be to implement the programme on the ground. lt is not impossible for government employees to implement Neuter & Return, since this has been partially successful in Turkey, but progress will be much slower. The economic advantages of solving Romania's unwanted dog problem are obvious: fewer road accidents, fewer dog bites, the elimination of rabies, less disturbance and disruption, more tourism potential, a more civilised and developed image for investors and visitors.
9. Romania's dog problem can be solved as we have proved in Oradea. What is lacking is the political will and even a rudimentary understanding of dog ecology by most politicians. The problem in this country is not the dogs. The problem, until now at least, has been a large minority of irresponsible citizens and the even more irresponsible Basescu government. Let us hope that the new USL Government is willing at long last to get to grips with the dog problem nationally.
Unfortunately Oradea City Council is forcing ADP to follow Basescu's failed policy, which the Constitutional Court has already declared to be illegal.