Sweden: Congratulations to Carl Schlyter (MEP) – New President of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.

Posted on June 13, 2010 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAV would like to send congratulations to Swedish Carl Schlyter (MEP) on his election as the new President of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.

Carl Schlyter Profile Link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schlyter 

Animals Intergroup link:  http://www.animalwelfareintergroup.eu/ 

We also offer our thanks and very best wishes to Dr. Caroline Lucas, former President of the European Parliament Intergroup and Uk Green Party MEP / Green Party leader, who has now progressed to being the very first elected Green Party politician in the Uk Parliament.  Caroline has always been so very active in her work and support for promoting good and better animal welfare issues in Europe.  We know that she will continue this within the Uk by being a real voice for animal welfare in the Uk parliament.

Dr. Caroline Lucas link: http://www.bing.com/reference/semhtml/?title=Caroline_Lucas&src=abop&qpvt=caroline+lucas&fwd=1&q=caroline+lucas

Goodbye and thanks to Caroline, and hello and welcome to Carl.

We know that Carl will be an excellent advocate for animal welfare issues both within and outside of the EU, and we at SAV very much look forward to providing him with regular updates on the situation for animals in Balkans states.  We hope that through this new cooperation, Carl will become even more aware of the terrible suffering illegally inflicted on animals (in Serbia) by the municipal authorities and the shinter community.

We also send our congratulations to Jacqueline Foster who has been elected as British vice-president of the Eurogroup.

Link:  http://www.jacquelinefostermep.com/    

Jacqueline has been a strong supporter of animal welfare and has been an active member of the Intergroup since becoming an MEP.

Jacqueline is Vice President of the Parliamentary Intergroup on Animal Welfare and is pictured here (on the left) with the Campaign to stop Puppy Farming. 

 

———————————————————- 

Carl Schlyter MEP acclaimed as new Intergroup President 

21 May 2010

During its 261st session the Intergroup elected by acclamation Carl Schyter MEP as its new President and he takes over the role with immediate effect.

His predecessor, Caroline Lucas, resigned following her election to the UK Parliament as the country’s first green party MP, after leading the Intergroup since the start of the current parliamentary session.

“It is a great privilege to follow in the footsteps of Caroline and carry on the work she has so confidently promoted. I am extremely pleased to be able to take the leadership of one of the most active groups within the Parliament and look forward to working with my fellow MEPs to develop the Intergroup further,” said Mr Schlyter following his adoption.

“I hope that during my tenure as president we can work together to raise the issues surrounding the welfare and conservation of animals further. It is vital that we ensure that any future legislation presented by the Commission reflects the desires of Europe’s citizens and protects and defends the interests of all animals,”  he concluded.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »

Serbia: Subotica City Public Tender – Update 09/06/10.

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

As many of you will be aware, the application by public competition for the control of stray animals in Subotica City will be opening on 12/06/10.

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/serbia-subotica-city-now-stray-animal-control-is-opened-up-to-public-competition-including-welfare-organisations-suddenly-the-budget-for-same-is-drastically-reduced-the-closed-shop-big-money-w/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/serbia-now-that-stray-animal-control-programmes-go-to-public-tender-authorites-cut-budget-by-two-thirds-to-ensure-animal-welfare-proposals-fail/

The main reason that this site has not been updated for days now is that we have been attempting to gather support to our ‘no kill’ programme for Subotica city from other major animal welfare organisations.

Until now, a lot of time and effort has been put into this.  This is not a ‘visible’ effort to those who visit the SAV site, but it is something which has taken a massive amount of our time during the past week especially.

Soon we will be providing more of an update on the situation as it currently stands; but as a generalisation, we could say that now that things could be looking better !

Tonight – 09/06/10, we have been dealt some rather negative news about all of this.  At the moment, we are unsure what to do next and if there is any further way forward without the major support of a large animal welfare organisation to support us in putting in a bid.

On 12/07/10 the public competition for Subotica strays will close, and so we have one month in which to find a supporter to our programme and in which to work with Serbian campaigners to prepare a bid pack / proposal for this competition.

Who knows what will happen ? – we certainly do not.  Today has not really given us the result we were hoping for and so things are once again all up in the air as regard a way forward.

A further update will be produced and issued soon once we have communicated with Serbian campaigners to clarify a few issues.

We will attempt to put a few posts relating to other things on the site over the coming days, but please stick with us and know that at the moment, we are giving our all in attempting to get something together that will make a difference for the animals in Subotica City.

Finally, many of you are leaving comments about the terrible situation at Loznica; thanks for all of those.  Today I have had a mail from a group in Loznica who are working very hard to expose what is happening there.  They have sent me their web site info and you can access it at the following, complete with a short video caption on the suffering at the city pound / shelter.

 The link to the site is:

http://www.netbre.info/animals/asc/shelterloznica.html

Loznica – a horror and scare house 

 

 

You can select English language under the ‘Home’ tab located at the top.

A site worth visiting ! – you can also leave messages of support on the guestbook.

More updates on our Subotica issue to come soon.

Thanks and regards

Mark – SAV (England) Uk.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia | Leave a comment »

Serbia: Now That Stray Animal Control Programmes Go to Public Tender, Authorites Cut Budget By Two Thirds – To Ensure Animal Welfare Proposals Fail ???

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

We now have copies of the contracts between the Subotica government / authority and the public garbage firm ‘JKP Cistoca i zelenilo’ who have the contract to capture (and subsequently kill) the strays in the city.

In 2009 the city government awarded 5,400,000 dinars from the municipality budget, whilst an additional 5,800,000 dinars was given from the republic budget.

This closed shop system equals 11,200,000 dinars in just 2009 (12 months) alone to a public firm FOR THE CAPTURE AND KILLING OF STRAY ANIMALS.

Now that the contract for stray animals is open to public tender / competition, including proposals that can be presented by animal welfare organisations with a No kill policy;

the budget has now been reduced to 4,100,000 dinars for the first 12 months of the contract, followed by 6,100,000 over the next 18 month period.

This equals 10,200,000 dinars over a 30 month period (two and a half years) now that the contract has been put out for public competition !

This means that a closed shop city organised budget (NO PUBLIC COMPETITION) of 933,333 dinars each month for 2009

has now (FOR PUBLIC COMPETITION)

been REDUCED to 340,000 dinars per month.

*** We make that a CUT OF APPROXIMATELY TWO THIRDS ***.

As we have stated in our recent post:

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/serbia-subotica-city-now-stray-animal-control-is-opened-up-to-public-competition-including-welfare-organisations-suddenly-the-budget-for-same-is-drastically-reduced-the-closed-shop-big-money-w/ 

“We consider that this immediately shows a fear factor in the depths of municipal authorities financial controllers – one which immediately shows that now that tendering is open to public competition, the vast fortunes of money which have been provided by authorities in the past, and which have been controlled by elicit groups and organisations within the authority, may now be lost by them when it has to be handed over to another party undertaking the work – such as the animal welfare organisations”.

“For example; up to this present time, many contracts for things such as the control of stray animals within cities has had what could only be classified as political support and leanings – namely that the Director of one of the Shinter firms engaged in the capture and killing of stray animals, one Vlada Dragin, also happens (by just pure chance !) to be the brother of the Serbian Minister for Agriculture, one Sasa Dragin. 

Keep contracts within ‘the family’ along with the millions of dinars financially involved each year and you have basically what could be referred to as a bit of a closed shop !

Now ‘outside parties’, including animal welfare organisations, who propose an alternative ‘No Kill’ way of addressing stray animal control, are immediately given advance information that this budget for such tasks will be greatly reduced in the coming years.

A fear factor concern that things in the dynasty type establishment will not be controlled from within the close knit community now that all future contracts for animal control will be going out to public competition, or just the way things are now days ? – lets leave the decision up to you all to see what you think”.

Strange what happens to money when it is no longer under the closed shop control of a few individuals and has to be put out to public tender – the amounts available fall so dramatically !!

It leads one to question if there was any corruption going on in the past ?

Just for the record, here are the official copies of all documents associated with these past and future budgets.

Now why should animal welfare No Kill stray control policies be under threat from the government and city authorities ? – after all, if they win the public competition to control stray animal numbers, animal welfare organisations suddenly (under public competition) now have only have one third of the past money available with which to undertake their programmes !

Strange that, isnt it ? – or is it ?

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia | Leave a comment »

Uk: Anyone for Tennis ? – Old Balls Used for Preservation of Harvest Mice in Leics and Rutland.

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

Source (BBC):  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicester/10221571.stm

Harvest mice in Leicestershire get tennis ball homes

Around 200 balls are being made available

Old tennis balls are being used to help research and preservation of harvest mice in Leicestershire and Rutland.

The county council, concerned about the decline in numbers, has prepared around 200 balls with penny-sized holes for the mice to nest in.

Members of the public are being encouraged to report sightings of the creatures so records can be built up.

It is thought a change in farming methods has led to the mice losing their habitats.

‘Safeguard future’

The project is believed to be one of the biggest of its kind ever run in Leicestershire.

County Council wildlife expert, Helen O’Brien, said: “Little is known about the creatures’ current status locally so we need people to look in tall grass and fields and send in their information.

“The data will help us track numbers and tell us where we need to focus our attention to safeguard their future.”

The balls, donated by a local tennis club, are available for surveyors to distribute and monitor.

Anybody interested in taking part in the scheme can attend a training day at the county councils’s environmental resource centre in Birstall on 14 June.

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering) | Leave a comment »

Serbia: Loznica City – Further ‘Rabies Necessary’ Killings By Hunters and Shinters Acting Under Orders From Government.

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

*****  UPDATE 03/06/10 –

The veterinary investigation shows that the dog in the photographs below was beaten, that both his front legs were violently fractured.
The main cause of his death was suffocation due to being hung as shown, – in public – in the park where he has lived since he was sterilised.

The activist who cared for this dog is in hospital with a heart condition after witnessing this to the animal which he looked after.  And why the killing ? – allegedly because of rabies –  all strays must be killed.

Update ends.

———————————————————————————————-

Original Story:

Pictures have just arrived from Loznica, where a dog belonging to a local animal welfare activist has been killed.  It is suspected that either shinters or hunters did this.

 

The man who saw this done to his dog has had to be taken to hospital with heart problems.

The ‘official’ answer to this from Zvonimir Rot ,on behalf of Mr. Micovic states that the killing of dogs and cats is necessary as a method of prevention and the dispersion of rabies.  It continues that dogs and cats must be killed immediately on the streets in areas where rabies is present.

E mail contact details are left on the mail below in order that people can send messages to those authorising the killings if they so wish.

————————————————————————————————- 

From: *Zvonimir Rot* <zvonimir.rot@minpolj.gov.rs <mailto:zvonimir.rot@minpolj.gov.rs>>
Date: 2010/6/1
Subject: Odgovor na PITANJE

To: radavolizivotinje@gmail.com <mailto:radavolizivotinje@gmail.com>
Cc: Uprava za veterinu <vetuprava@minpolj.gov.rs <mailto:vetuprava@minpolj.gov.rs>>, Zoran Micovic <zoran.micovic@minpolj.gov.rs <mailto:zoran.micovic@minpolj.gov.rs>>

Поштовани грађани Лознице и Бање Ковиљаче,
 Поводом појаве беснила на Вашој територији и упућеног дописа у име Др Зорана Мићовића желим да вaс обавестим следеће:
 Поштујући Закон о ветеринарству и Правилник о утврђивању мера за рано откривање, дијагностику, спречавање ширења, сузбијања и искорењивања заразне болести беснила и начину њиховог спровођења, када се на основу дијагностичког испитивања потврди присуство болести, Министар пољопривреде, шумарства и водопривреде доноси Решење о проглашењу зараженог и угроженог подручја и налаже мере у истим.
 Као једна од мера налаже се лишавање живота паса и мачака луталица, што је у складу и са Законом о добробити животиња који прописује, да се ради спречавања ширења, сузбијања и искорењивања заразних болести животиње могу лишити живота, чак и на јавним местима.
 Све друге мере се односе на власничке псе и мачке.

На основу члана 6. Закона о ветеринарству власник, односно држаоц животиња је дужан да се стара о здрављу и добробити животиња  и да предузме све мере заштите здравља животиња ради спречавања појаве и ширења заразних болести животиња и зооноза. Беснило је нарочито опасна заразна болест и зооноза. Као мера спречавања ширења ове болести обавезна је вакцинација паса и мачака, старијих од три месеца, и касније ревакцинација на годишњем нивоу. Тако се једино може спречити ланац преношења вируса са дивљих животиња, у овом случају лисица, на псе и мачке, и наравно на људе. Животиње познатих власника, осим што имају познати здравствени статус на беснило, у зараженом и угроженом подручју морају имати и контролисано кретање, тако што се мачке држе у безбедно ограђеном простору, а пси при извођењу у шетњу морају ићи на повоцу и са брњицом.

Пси и мачке луталице, осим што имају непознат здравствени статус, њихово кретање нити је могло нити може бити праћено, те веома лако могу бити преносиоци болести ако дођу у контакт са бесном лисицом, те је стручно и оправдано лишити живота те животиње.

У циљу искорењивања ове болести, и уз помоћ предприступних (ИПА) фондова Европске Уније, почело се са реализацијом  вишегодишњег пројекта оралне вакцинације лисица.

Борба са беснилом је тешка и дуготрајна, али Управа за ветерину спроводи све законске и стручне мере како би била и успешна и са што мање последица по здравље и добробит животиња, а наравно и самих људи у околини.

Срдачан поздрав

Звонимир Рот

Zvonimir Rot
Viši savetnik
Uprava za veterinu
Ministarstvo poljoprivrede,
Šumarstva i vodoprivrede
Omladinskih brigada 1
B e o g r a d

Zvonimir Rot
Special adviser
Vetrinary directorate
Ministry of agriculture,
forestry and water managment
1 Omladinskih brigada
B e l g r a d e

Tel./Fax: +381 11 2602320

www.minpolj.gov.rs <http://www.minpolj.gov.rs/>
zvonimir.rot@minpolj.gov.rs mailto:zvonimir.rot@minpolj.gov.rs

————————————————————————–

Further to this we have a picture which again has arrived from Loznica.

This female dog was killed by having wood inserted into her vagina.

Her body was thrown into the local pound at Loznica city.

It is thought that this act is one of revenge by hunters.

Past links relating to Loznica city animal abuses:

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/serbia-loznica-city-shelter-captured-stray-dogs-used-for-target-practice-by-local-hunters/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/serbia-180510-new-photographs-of-loznica-pound-animal-killings-and-conditions-at-city-dump-no-wonder-stray-animals-are-attracted/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/serbia-sample-letter-to-send-to-the-government-the-eu-commission-and-to-the-world-organisation-for-animal-health-the-oie-serbia-must-change-its-attitude-towards-stray-animals-and-willingless-to/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/serbia-loznica-city-pound-3-million-dinars-for-what-certainly-not-for-animal-welfare-politicians-maybe/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/serbia-many-cases-of-rabies-throughout-the-country-but-is-the-serbian-government-reporting-this-to-the-oie-world-organisation-for-animal-health-as-they-should-maybe-not/

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/serbia-loznica-city-pound-death-camp-why-does-the-government-not-act-re-leskovac-city-policy-and-why-not-the-european-union-with-a-policy-for-stray-animal-welfare/

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), RABIES, SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia, SHINTERS (Dog catchers) | Leave a comment »

Serbia: Subotica City – Now Stray Animal Control is Opened Up to Public Competition, Including Welfare Organisations, Suddenly the Budget for Same is Drastically Reduced. The Closed Shop, Big Money Ways of The Authorities Past Dealings are Now Declined to Welfare Organisations. But We Fight On to Win the Competition.

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

 

 

 

 

Regarding our recent post which declares that there must be a Public Competition – Tendering for the catching of stray dogs and cats in Subotica city;

https://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/serbia-public-competition-by-law-may-now-enable-animal-welfare-groups-to-present-proposals-to-authorities-for-their-no-kill-stray-animal-numbers-control-programmes/

already there are signs that the city authorities are attempting to cause the animal welfare approach to fail.

The way they will be attempting this is by drastically reducing the budget allocated for stray animal control.

We consider that this immediately shows a fear factor in the depths of municipal authorities financial controllers – one which immediately shows that now that tendering is open to public competition, the vast fortunes of money which have been provided by authorities in the past, and which have been controlled by elicit groups and organisations within the authority, may now be lost by them when it has to be handed over to another party undertaking the work – such as the animal welfare organisations.

For example; up to this present time, many contracts for things such as the control of stray animals within cities has had what could only be classified as political support and leanings – namely that the Director of one of the Shinter firms engaged in the capture and killing of stray animals, one Vlada Dragin, also happens (by just pure chance !) to be the brother of the Serbian Minister for Agriculture, one Sasa Dragin. 

Keep contracts within ‘the family’ along with the millions of dinars financially involved each year and you have basically what could be referred to as a bit of a closed shop !

Now ‘outside parties’, including animal welfare organisations, who propose an alternative ‘No Kill’ way of addressing stray animal control, are immediately given advance information that this budget for such tasks will be greatly reduced in the coming years.

A fear factor concern that things in the dynasty type establishment will not be controlled from within the close knit community now that all future contracts for animal control will be going out to public competition, or just the way things are now days ? – lets leave the decision up to you all to see what you think.

And the numbers ?

From information provided, see documents provided below, it would appear that for the next year, 4.1 million dinars has been allocated for stray animal control.  The two years following, 2011 and 2012, 3.5 million dinars per year is allocated.

This is a little different to how things have always been.  The shinters of JKP Cistoca were always provided with a minimum of 4 to 5 million dinars per year.  In addition there were separate payments made for buildings, for vehicles and for workers salaries.  We understand that in 2009 shinter teams have been provided with 5.8 million dinars from the republic budget, and also provided with 5.2 million dinars from the municipality budget.  That makes 11 million dinars for the year of 2010.

Now it would appear that the tendering for work is being opened up to public competition, which involves proposals being provided by animal welfare organisations, the budget announced on 25/05/2010 has now been slashed to 4.1 million dinars for the period of the first 12 months, and thereafter 3 million dinars per year for the next 2 years.

It could be declared, argued and stated, that by suddenly reducing these budgets immediately by such large amounts, the authorities are already accepting defeat in a system that will no longer allow them to operate a closed shop system, and also that by allocating such small amounts of money when compared to the past, they are also attempting to show that those ‘public competition’ organisations who are tendering to take over management of programmes, such as stray animal control in Subotica city, are just not worthy and completely inadequate for the task !

It could be cynically stated that should any contract be awarded to a public organisation in the near future, things may decline and fail within a few years due to budget restrictions.  Whether this budget allocation would suddenly make a dramatic rise again after this period if contracts were given back to elicit groups and organisations within the authority one can only question – time will no doubt tell.

Again, lets leave the decision up to you all to see what you think.

Finally, Serbian campaigners who will be submitting proposals for the public competition for stray animal control are now going to use the public freedom of information request to obtain data from the city authorities as to why suddenly there is such a drastic reduction in money being provided now that the system has been opened up to public competition.

It will be very interesting to see what reasons are going to be provided by the authorities relating to this, now that the closed shop system has been closed for the future.

Whatever, we will be monitoring events and will hopefully be providing regular updates on a system which has finally been opened up to public control and management.  At what cost we have yet to establish, but there is little doubt that money will be harder to grasp for the ‘public’ organisations undertaking work on behalf of the public, using money provided by the public.

A corrupt closed shop system in the past ? – again, lets leave the decision up to you all to see what you think.

Serbian, Italian and SAV activists are currently cooperating to try and devise a proposal for the strays control of Subotica.  We have been given a limited time for this (around 30 days) and so several avenues to find a way forward are currently being looked at.

Further news in the very near future.

 

 

 

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia, SHELTER - Information | Leave a comment »

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