UPDATE – April 2015.

We have been joining our Serbian animal campaigner colleagues for several years now in what seems a never ending battle with the authorities to improve the treatment of Serbian stray animals; and most importantly; control and reduce stray (street) animal numbers by using a properly orchestrated ‘no kill’ strategy.

Please click on the following link below to read and see the situation for Serbian stray animals; and what we have undertaken in recent years to try and improve their lives.  The EU also has big responsibilities on this issue which it is NOT addressing.  Now more than ever (early 2015); we need EU wide legislation on a ‘NO Kill’ stray dog management and control programme.  With something in place such as this; nations already in the EU, such as Romania; and nations seeking EU membership, such as Serbia, would then be obliged by EU law to enforce the EU wide regulations, rather than making up or simply ignoring their own national legislation / rules as they are doing at present.

Link – ‘About Serbian Strays’ –  https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/about-serbian-animals/  

—————————————–

Update 1/4/15 – Very soon we aim to provide a sample letter on this site (written in both Serbian and English); which you will be able to copy and send to the Serbian ministers and government regarding this issue.  We will provide the sample letter and also all the e mail addresses.  

You only need to copy and send to help us with the campaign !

We are currently working on this and will provide the information on this site (and SAV Facebook) in the near future.  

This is being given priority over other issues at present. – SAV.

——————————————————–

Petition links (English and Serbian):

https://www.change.org/p/the-president-government-of-serbia-stop-the-brutal-massacre-of-80-000-street-dogs?just_created=true

https://www.change.org/p/ministarstvo-poljoprivrede-i-za%C5%A1tite-%C5%BEivotine-sredine-republike-srbije-protiv-izmena-zakona-o-dobrobiti-%C5%BEivotinja-u-delu-o-napu%C5%A1tenim-%C5%BEivotinjama?recruiter=30333149&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=des-lg-share_petition-no_msg

Dear friends,

Last week, a draft version of Ministry of Agriculture working group’s proposals for the amendments to the existing Animal Welfare Act in Serbia has leaked on the social media.

It introduced the concept of “quarantine for a lost and abandoned animals,” which lasts 15 days, after which the animals can be “killed humanely.”

We believe that the amendments to the Law which was never fully implemented are counter-productive and unacceptable and that in no way it will solve the problem of abandoned animals with killing thousands of healthy animals.

This process should include representatives of civil society from the beginning, as enforced by the “Guidelines for the involvement of civil society in the process of adopting regulations” adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia on 26 August 2014.

If these amendments get accepted it would allow dog catchers to kill all dogs that have no individual owner, within 15 days of catching them.

This is to include all dogs and cats in PRIVATE shelters, even those who have been offered homes.

We believe the Government of Serbia is using this amendment to try and quickly ‘clean-up’ the streets of Serbia to make them look more favourable as candidates for EU membership.

They keep forgetting that they have other methods of actually successful stray animal population management that is not detrimental to animals.

What could be the reasons you might ask yourselves – well the obvious reason for this new kill policy is because dogcatchers, local government officials, veterinarians and many politicians, all take money from the public purse by being involved with an animal killing strategy.

So the public money is continuously being used for killing with no real long term programme to reduce animal numbers by other methods.

We join other animal welfare associations and organisations in support for Serbia to lead the way in animal welfare.

They can do this by setting up country-wide Catch, Neuter, Release (CNR) programmes. Using the government facilities of dog catchers and pound vet facilities, this approach could help Serbia get its stray population under control humanely.

We are all aware that the unpunished culture of owners letting unneutered pets roam free has created this problem.

Killing 80,000 innocent animals WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

However, sadly the new amendment don’t just stop at the stray animal population but also deal with experimental, food chain, hunting/wild animals and the amendments are far from favourable for all those sentient beings.

This is why we have to act and be their voice NOW!

We call Serbian government to LEAD THE WAY TO A COMPASSIONATE, SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION!

Please sign this petition and share it widely to raise the awareness of this urgent situation in Balkans so that Europe and the world doesn’t get another Romania.

Also let us support the College of Agriculture students who have organised a peaceful protest against the proposed killings on 4^th April 12noon in Belgrade.

Petition links (English and Serbian):

https://www.change.org/p/the-president-government-of-serbia-stop-the-brutal-massacre-of-80-000-street-dogs?just_created=true

https://www.change.org/p/ministarstvo-poljoprivrede-i-za%C5%A1tite-%C5%BEivotine-sredine-republike-srbije-protiv-izmena-zakona-o-dobrobiti-%C5%BEivotinja-u-delu-o-napu%C5%A1tenim-%C5%BEivotinjama?recruiter=30333149&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=des-lg-share_petition-no_msg

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, DOCUMENTS, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), SERBIA (Central Serbia: Capital - Belgrade) and (Serbia, SHINTERS (Dog catchers), The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE | Leave a comment »