A senior member of Serbian president Boris Tadic’s party was
hospitalized after being attacked by a pack of stray dogs
outside parliament, reports said Friday.
Jelena Trivan, a parliamentary deputy and spokeswoman for Tadic’s ruling
Democratic Party, was rushed to hospital late Thursday after being attacked while walking to her car. after being treated for deep leg wounds, Trivan was described as “stable.”
Animal rights activists said the city was to blame for failing to solve the problem of Belgrade’s thousands of stray dogs.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Pack+stray+dogs+maul+Serb+politician/1872062/story.html***
SAV Comment: ***
This attack is a direct consequence of Serbian authorities refusing to properly address the situation of stray (unowned) and roaming (owned) dogs using a No Kill strategy.
It is also proof that the current and past policy of the Serbian government to simply kill all animals in some futile attempt to try and reduce animal numbers is obviously not working. If animal numbers were reduced by the (government / authorities) mass kill policy, then in effect, attacks on people by packs of stray dogs would be a thing of the past.
As there are still packs of stray dogs on the streets as this situation shows, then the current government policy is obviously not working, as we have always declared.
One thing which does work, which has been told to the Serbian government time and time again, with no effect, is for a national programme of no kill sterilisation for both stray (unowned) and roaming (owned) dogs. As we have always said, sterilised animals cannot produce more offspring; unsterilised animals can.
We have asked for a programme where all owned pet animals are also sterilised, so that if these same animals go walkabout during the day, or are turned out daily as is often the case, they cannot mate with other animals and produce yet more stray dogs !
This is basic intelligence, but somehow the Serbian government do not seem able to grasp it.
The Serbian government needs to act now in light of this situation and introduce legislation which ensures that all stray (unowned) and roaming (owned) dogs are sterilised. This is the only way that dog population numbers will reduce and that future attacks such as this do not happen again.
Things could now go one of two ways:
1) the Serbian government see sense and introduce no kill sterilisation for all dogs, thus resulting in reduced animal numbers in the long term; or
2) they decide on a mass kill policy for all stray and roaming animals, much as they have done in the past and at present, which given the attack now in the news by stray animals, actually does nothing in the way of reducing dog numbers.
One could say that this attack is a message to the politicians that their current policy of mass kill is wrong and that they are effectively reaping what they have sowed !
The attack was something which could have been avoided with some common sense, future thought and planning by the Serbian government. They have not done it and this is the result.
NO KILL STERILISATION – the only way to go for reducing stray and roaming animal numbers.
And the proof yet again to the Serbian government is detailed in the evidence below:
The following is a link to a Serbian newspaper article on this incident and includes a picture of the politician who does nothing to address the stray dog problem.
http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2009&mm=08&dd=07&nav_category=16&nav_id=375224
The article is a good one in general, because it declares that Mr. Dragan Djilas, Belgrade City Mayor, has declared that all the time he is the Mayor, nobody will kill dogs in Belgrade. Instead they will build shelters, undertake sterilisations, and insist on responsible animal ownership.
This was fully supported by Elvir Burazerovic, the President of ORCA.
At last it may becoming clear to everyone that simply building animal shelters alone is the not the way to reduce animal numbers. We thank Mayor Djilas who is the first politician bold enough to come forward and declare that simply killing animals is not the way to solve the population problem. Mayor Djilas states that both responsible (owned) animal ownership and the control on the reproduction ability, ie. sterilisation, is the way to move forward.
Mayor Djilas would appear to echo our thoughts and declarations on animal numbers control in Serbia. But at the moment it would appear that words are all that is coming from Mayor Djilas; the actual putting into practice of the words has not yet been seen.
For example, we are informed that at this time, there are two Shinter teams out on the streets trying to find the dogs which attacked Jelena Trivan; and we all know what Shinter teams are about ! – teams which WILL KILL dogs in Belgrade; in direct opposition to the words of Mayor Djilas !
If the shinters do find the dogs responsible for the attack, then the dogs will be put into the terrible OVCHA shelter.
Many people have commented in the newspaper that their children come first and that there is a need for the extermination of the dogs in Belgrade. What these same people fail to realise is that there has been a policy of mass extermination of dogs in Serbian cities being attempted for many years. And where are things now ? – judging by the fact that a politician has been attacked by stray dogs, who still exist, is it not fair to say that a policy of mass extermination to resolve the ‘problem’ is simply a pipe dream !
A policy of mass sterilisation and vaccination of dogs will see a reduction / eventual elimination of stray dog numbers, but until the Serbian government accepts this, and more importantly, puts a programme into place, nothing will ever change.
We have asked the Serbian government many times in the past for actual data showing how effective their policy of mass killing is in relation to reducing stray animal numbers. We have never ever been provided with any data.
Does this not say something in itself ?????
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia | Leave a comment »
Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 
