Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

As can be seen from our article earlier this week, https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/campaigns-move-on-this-week-15th-september-for-the-animals-of-serbia/  we have been busy writing to the Serbian government on the issue of a (Serbian) national humane sterilisation program for dogs and cats.

So we were delighted to receive a response within only a few days from Marina Čvorović at the State Secretary Office of the Serbian Ministry of Finance, declaring that the Ministry supports all legitimate efforts in the adoption of humane animal control policies.

We were delighted to hear this and on the 18^th September a thank you message has been returned to Marina Čvorović.

We have asked that we very much hope that it will be possible for the Ministry of Finance to engage with their colleagues at the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture on this issue, with special attention and emphasis being given to the most productive and effective use of limited financial resources allocated to stray/roaming animal welfare issues.  We also pointed out that we were sure the Finance Ministry would agree that Serbian taxpayers would wish to see the most beneficial results from their taxable
contributions, and with specific regard to animal welfare, this will be
achieved through the establishment of a ‘No Kill national sterilisation
programme’ as outlined in the orignal SAV and OIPA letters of 13th and 14th September.

We wish to publicly thank Marina Čvorović for the very rapid response from the ministry to our letters of concern about the animals.  We hope that within the next days and weeks we will also hear favourably from the Agriculture Ministry.

Also, as a parallel event to writing to the Serbian government, a formal written presentation has now been prepared by SAV for the EU Commissioners with regard the final delivery to the EU of the petition “Serbia Suffering”, which we closed around a week ago.  The petition can still be seen at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/serbia-suffering although it is no longer open for additional signatures.

The photograph which forms the image to our petition ‘Serbia Suffering’

The full copy of the petition and a covering letter outlining our concerns about Serbia not enforcing its own national animal welfare legislation, as well as a request for a No kill national sterilisation policy to be adopted by the Serbian government, are just two of the issues we are raising with the EU.

We are delighted that 5,538 signatures were collected for the petition in a very short time period – over five times our original estimate, and when combined with all the comments, they make an impressive document of some 246 A4 pages !

As many of the signatures and comments are from existing EU citizens, we will wait to see what the response is from the EU Commission about the situation for animals in Serbia on receipt and review of our letter, petition and several other attachments.  As and when information arrives, we will immediately inform you of any news.

So, things are moving along very much to our satisfaction; the Serbian government knows about the presentation of the petition to the EU, and this coming week the EU will have the formal copy of the petition on which to advance; which we hope includes writing back to us and giving their views and planned actions for the animals of Serbia.

We would especially like to thank everyone who has helped us to make this petition an effective campaign tool with the Serbian government and the EU Commission in working to obtain a better future for the animals in Serbia.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, LETTERS, SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia |