Today 28/10/14 has been an incredibly manic, busy day for both Serbian and English campaigners regarding Serbian animal welfare. We think and hope that all the efforts today will set a much better precedent for Serbian animal welfare in the future.
Here in a detailed brief are a few of the main issues that we have addressed today with our Serbian campaigner friends. As the day has been a long one; here at present are only the main points of today’s events. Just the main points but a lot – this shows how manic today has been !.
For us and also campaigners In Serbia; we consider all today’s happenings are very productive and hopefully will set a precedent to the better treatment of animals within Serbia in the future. Below is a summary of the days events.
Regards Mark – SAV;
on behalf of all in the crew in both Serbia and England.
Free Nani !!
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Serbia wishes to become an EU member state – and so if it does have this position; the massive animal welfare syndicate of groups and campaigners in the EU will watch Serbia much more closely. Serbian politicians have to learn this for the future – they are under the spyglass when it comes to animal welfare.
By coincidence, Serbian Prime Minister, Mr. Aleksandar Vucic has been in London yesterday and today (27/28 10). It was time to act. After news from Serbian campaigners, we immediately first made contact with a Green Party member of the London Assembly; which is a kind of council which oversees all that happens in London; it is directly linked with the Mayor.
It was late, but we asked members of the assembly if today they could meet Mr Vucic and ask him about Serbian animal welfare. We did not expect anything, but at least the issue of Serbian animals was with the London Assembly.
Next; Serbian campaigners have today made a formal Criminal Charge to the Serbian authorities regarding the situation of Nani the baby deer. Here is translation of the charge for you to see:
PREVOD:Translation
TO: Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, Belgrade
– Office of the Minister, to conduct
– Director of the Veterinary Department, to conduct
– Head of the Department of Republican Veterinary Inspection, to conduct and deliver
– RVI of Rasina District, to conduct
Chief Slavica Jovanovic
27.10.2014.god.
Charge
for the abuse of a tame fawn Nani in the pheasant farm of a Hunting Association “Cicevac” in extended period of time, as of 01.08.2014 when the same fawn was illegally confiscated by hunters and in assistance of Police Department Cicevac, from Dragana Mitic, street Luj Paster No. 6, Cicevac, who saved him from a certain death, where he grew the most critical two months of age and survived weighting only 450 gr. He was tamed while growing up, and therefore does not have and won’t ever have the status of a hunting wildlife (Article 4, paragraph 32 of the Hunting Law (“Off. Gazette of RS”, no. 18/2010) therefore Wildlife and Hunting Law can’t be applied on this fawn, and hunters were not allowed to take him, and the same fawn is subject to regulations and Article 2 page 1, paragraph 7 of the Animal Welfare Act (“Off. Gazette of RS”, no. 41/2009 ).
Bearing in mind that we have acted immediately (as of 08.08.2014 until 27.10.2014 after learning a tame fawn was taken away) and filed a large number of charges due to various abuses of this fawn, and abuse reflected in:
– keeping of a fawn in an unsuitable pheasant farm of a hunting association “Cicevac” that is not a registered facility, a shelter for the keeping of a large game where the hunting is prohibited, that the fawn is tame and in such circumstances in which the veterinary inspection has left her on 27.08.2014 and never checked upon her since then (27.10. 2014), she will never become an individual that can be returned to nature,
– that the fawn was sick or showed signs of the illness – more than once, due to bad and wrong diet and starvation caused by stress which she is constantly exposed to due to the inability to have peace, food, water and a place to rest, due to the negligence and mistreatment by all hunters who come to pheasantry for the rioting and revelry, especially on weekends,
– that Nani, the fawn received ecto- and endo parasites in dirty premises, inside the fenced area where the pheasants are being held and which hasn’t been cleaned for years nor there was a sanitation performed, that vet. inspection didn’t find appropriate to check out, at least for the sake of 600 pheasants which reside there,
– that the fawn is locked in a box sized barely 5m2, next to field latrine, where everything is terribly dirty, always without food and clean water and that she has been there longer, in a place where she could not turn around, nor lie on the dirty concrete, until Dragana Mitic found her like that and immediately reported to us how horrible conditions are under which Nani lives, that she is known to be hungry and thirsty and cries a lot and she even tried to jump over the dangerous fence where a huge nail is appointed on which she can injure and cut herself, and that they can’t approach her any closer, since that fence is much farther from the outer enclosure. We even reported that to PD of Cicevac and RVI in Krusevac, who did nothing,
– fawn Nani is a female and was deliberately locked inside a small fenced area with a goat, Cameroonian race who was in estrus, to be abused, and where the goat beat and chased Nani to exhaustion, while the hunters were amused. We reported this to the police as well, after which they were separated. Inspection in Krusevac barely condescended to respond to the call of the police, but for this particular case they did nothing except telling us that whenever hunters have “feast day (Serbian Slava)” the Laws of RS are suspended,
– that we have reported several times that the fawn Nani is being starved, that she never has clean drinking water, that she never gets bulky green food which is essential for digestion and proper rumen function, on what we have received an answer from RVI stating that the fawn is being fed with concentrate feed for lambs, which by the way Nani did not want nor did she eat. Then we realized the degree of ignorance we’re dealing with, that a veterinary inspector knows nothing about ruminant nutrition, or about the living needs of the young specimens of wild animals, and that such ignorance causes the lack of every treatment concerning the welfare of the fawn regarding starvation, deprivation of basic needs, both at the beginning and today. Additionally vet. inspection in Krusevac showed a complete lack of knowledge about regulations by which it should work and since there were also no proper actions from a Chief of RVI, Director of the Veterinary Department and the Minister herself, we conclude from numerous other examples, that for them a complete inaction, ignorance and violation of regulations from the veterinary field and animal welfare is a normal occurrence and that they actually don’t really know the description of their job and the laws by which it is regulated,
– we reported that the fawn resides in the fenced space, on the mowed lawn with uniform grass, that she has no grazing and no proper food, that the fawn is for a longer period either starved or inadequately fed, and that’s when she was dozed, cheerless, frightened by all events and the constant noise in the pheasant farm, that she is tired and short of sleep, which will only show its harmful effects during the winter, because in her critical period of growing up the fawn had no useful substances necessary for her proper growth and the body and rumen development,
– that, consequently, fawn’s well-being and physical and psychological condition was greatly compromised, her health and mental stability, because around her it has been shot with firing weapons, she has been visited by a lot of unknown people, pheasants were captured and later released back to the nature from the farm, there were sprees and rampages through the whole night after the hunt was over, slaughter of the animals, etc … etc …. a series of very bad actions that have adversely affected and destroyed and undermined all the good that has Dragana Mitic for two months achieved and brought this fawn back from the dead.
– that we have delivered you the document, a statement from Dejan Ignjatovic from Cicevac, that tells about the origin of the fawn, which was the job of a veterinary inspection and the police, and also tells the fact that the fawn was found in a comatose state, with no response to the human presence, abandoned by the mother and alone, and that Mr. Ignjatovic who was picking mushrooms in the forest took her out of compassion and brought her with him and gave her to his neighbor Dragana Mitic to try to save her, which surprisingly Dragana Mitic managed, because the survival rates of so young and small fawns are very low and only survive in conditions when they have someone to bind to, and accept the person who raises them as biological mother, which is also a rarity… The most common is that the fawns will not accept anyone and mortality rates are much higher than those who remain alive.
– if you do not know anything about this, we suggest you again with good intentions, to find and read the professional literature from the XXI century, that will broaden your knowledge about animal welfare, that is contained in the Animal Welfare Law, and according to which you must act and thus improve your work.
As we approach the period of winter and cold weather, and the fawn is in very bad shape, skinny, has weak hair, mostly scared and tired without the possibility to have its peace and shelter to rest and sleep, we are reporting this type of abuse as well and it must end, inspection must act, because all the events around this fawn in the previous period indicate a fatal outcome that will soon come!
In recent days of heavy rain, wind, cold, humidity, fawn Nani had nowhere to hide except in the dirty area where pheasants resided. She was outdoors constantly. In this space there is a lot of hazardous waste of every type. Besides pheasant’s excrement, there is armature which protrudes upwards, scattered beams that can ensnare fawn’s foot and crush it, she can get hurt on the sharp metal armature, on a maze of wires, etc… She is always more hungry than satiated, thirsty and as the days get shorter and as we go into the winter period, sun can shine, but it will still be cold. Therefore it is not acceptable that a fawn has no shelter.
Under the shelter we don’t consider any hazardous bunch of objects which abound in pheasant farm, see pictures attached – but a closed type of shed with wooden floor, with a thick bedding in which a fawn may lie down and sleep without a wind blowing from the door, yet the entrance area should be designed to shield the inside of the shed and prevent the entry of the cold air or rainfall. This is because the fawn is not moving, she is not running, does not eat, she is not happy, she is poorly fed, always hungry, has lost its weight, has weak hair and has stopped growing (she now looks the same and is in the same psycho-physical condition as the fawn Suzana was who disappeared the day before a hunting inspector was supposed to come) and it is unacceptable that over all Nani does not have a space where she can shelter herself from the rain and cold.
Veterinary inspection should order the Hunting Association “Cicevac” to do this, with the instant completion deadline!
Or to order the relocation of the fawn in accordance with Article 79, page 1, paragraph 2 of the Animal Welfare Law for her well-being and recovery, all in accordance with the principles of the Law and return the fawn back to Dragana Mitic who still wants to take her and has much better conditions to keep Nani than hunters in the pheasant farm have. She has a spacious courtyard of the 15 acres, where the fawn grew, and in addition, she will feed and take care of Nani much better than the hunters do now. Nani needs to recover from all that she has survived since 01.08.2014 up until now. This fact you can’t deny because we have plenty of evidence to show the contrary!
Winter is approaching and with it come the various situations that can’t be predicted. The fawn can’t be left at the mercy of nature, closed in the fence where she even now doesn’t have the basic conditions for life, no food and water or anyone to bring the food and check out if she needs anything, except Dragana and her family who daily travel 6km to feed Nani which they won’t be able to do when winter comes.
At Dragana Mitic’s home, the fawn will comfortably and safely overwinter, recover and she can wait there the delayed and slow acting of the Minister, and that would be a reasonable treatment and the best solution for the fawn herself. All in accordance with Article 4 of the Animal Welfare Law.
Summary: At the time of confiscation, 01.08.2014 the fawn looked great, perfect, even the vets gave her 15 days more of her actual age. She was cheerful, she played and ran. She was in a great psychological and physical condition and that was all thanks to Dragana Mitic. Now after almost three months in conditions in which RVI Krusevac put her and forgot her, we have one ruin of the animal and that will be the further topic of our work.
Noting that the life which Dragana preserved is the only one that this fawn has, and her one and only small life was destroyed by the state authorities of the Republic of Serbia, although the Animal Welfare Law dictates otherwise!
In the very bad conditions lives the Cameroon goat as well (see photos attached – what you see in the picture as a makeshift boards is the actual shelter for her), but it can’t be a reason to kill her, rather the hunters should get her a decent space with a thick layer of bedding, where she could shelter herself from weather and cold, sleep, eat, have water that won’t freeze in the winter. The temperature in which goats reside C. The goat could also get transferred from the°shouldn’t be lower than 5 pheasant farm to Cicevac, in Milije Djordjevic’s home where he could take the care and custody over the goat until spring arrives.
According to the way of how the animals are being kept in this pheasant farm it’s not difficult to conclude that everything is done by violation of the regulations which directly goes at the expense of animals and their well-being.
To us it is more than clear now that out of spite veterinary inspection won’t comply with the law and won’t return the fawn to the family to which it belongs – yet it was obliged to do so according to the Article 79 of the Animal Welfare Law until the Decision of the Minister is reached. It would remove all the dangers for the fawn, but Ms. Slavica Jovanovic, the vet. inspector, Chief of RVI Krusevac, wants to leave this fawn to suffer as much as she can, to drop dead if it must, but defiance is defiance. Abuse of power is a dangerous and contagious “disease” and is transmitted. It expires after the period of more than 10 years, so she better not dream that she can get away from her responsibility in front of the law.
Defiance was always a bad craft, legal provisions oblige the inspection for proper actions and this is the last Charge for this specific case that we file in this form. Following is the insistence on the legal treatment by the Minister through everything we have provided so far, including the complaints on your work and then the following are criminal charges to the Republican Public Prosecutor, whom we will supply all the evidence and everything we wrote in elapsed time and to detail transfer your every (in)action and response, and to whom you will must, willingly or not, provide all that you did or didn’t do and the reasons for your inaction since 08.08.2014 until 27.10.2014., everything you didn’t want to provide to us, but we requested, yet you are angry and pouting because we only write you the truth about your illegal work, and that is only we insist on, everything that exists and that will be the evidence of your actions or omissions, and is defined by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia.
Also, we will not repeat this anymore: Article 58 of the Animal Welfare Law requires lawful actions from the Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, and gives him a period of up to 30 days and that deadline is long over, because today is 88th day of abuse and suffering of the fawn and the family to which it belongs – without any progress. Not to mention the Article 76 of the Animal Welfare Law, according to which the Ministry was obliged to monitor the welfare of all animals on this pheasant far through the competent government veterinary inspection service, and that is not happening. The well-being of all animals in the pheasant farm in Cicevac is seriously impaired, as well as the safety of the citizens from infectious diseases, because the Hunting Society “Hajduk Veljko” doesn’t have a registered facility under Article 104 of the Veterinary Law, that is in force since 02.11.2005., as well as under Regulations which more precisely regulate this field, and for such violation of the law is responsible sloppy and non-working RVI Krusevac, ie specifically Chief of RVI Krusevac, who doesn’t apply and implement the applicable laws of the Republic of Serbia.
If not to us, then Ms. Minister will have to explain to Republican Public Prosecutor’s Office why she didn’t act the way she was supposed to according to the Article 58 of the Animal Welfare Act (“Off. Gazette of RS”, no. 41/2009), and, after all, with all its principles this whole law is aimed at animal welfare – while lady Minister violates the law. So when Minister can break the law, of course that the veterinary inspector will freely violate it as well – but thus they both make abuse of power because they allow acquisition of illegal material and non material benefits to others, and of course, for themselves they also provide a variety of benefits at the expense of the citizens and property of the Republic of Serbia in yet unspecified amount.
In attachment we submit photos and part of our addressing to RVI Krusevac, and on the site http://serbiananimalsvoice.com you can see the chronology of the events since 08.08.2014 up until now.
Sincerely,
EPAR – SERBIA OIPA / Alliance for the Protection of nature, animal and human rights
End of Charge —————————————————–
Whilst this above charge was being undertaken by Serbian campaigners; we at SAV England made contact with both Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski; the newly elected President of the EU Animal Welfare Intergroup and a huge animal campaigner for Romanian stray dogs. See our past post – serbiananimalsvoice.com/2014/09/20/eu-great-news-a-victory-for-animals-the-new-president-of-the-intergroup-on-the-welfare-and-conservation-of-animals-within-the-european-parliament-a-real-activist-in-animal-protection/
We informed Mr. Wojciechowski about the situation for animals within Serbia and we gave a lot of information on the fact that Nani baby deer had still not been released back to Mrs. Mitic by the government Minister after 89 days; when according to Serbian law, the authorities had a maximum of 30 days. As Mr. Wojciechowski is also an MEP in the European Parliament, we asked him to please make sure that other MEP’s were informed about Nani.
We also then had a formal response from the EU Enlargement Commission which reviews potential new member state applications to the EU. We were asked if we were willing for our SAV information to be given to the Serbian government.
Here is exactly what the Commission said to us:
Dear Mr Johnson,
Your message to DG Enlargement has arrived to me, in the Serbia team of DG Enlargement, as the official responsible for environment questions.
I hope that you will understand that, as a candidate country to the EU, Serbia is not yet obliged to apply fully EU laws.
However, as a country aspiring to join the EU, Serbia needs to demonstrate its capacity to apply those laws. The European Commission is in the process of examining Serbia’s implementation of the large block of laws under the environment heading, including those to do with animal welfare.
In this context, I hope that you will agree that we can pass on your message and your views to the Serbian authorities. I would like to invite them to give this matter their fullest attention and to invite them to reply to you.
Yours sincerely,
Naturally, we at SAV were fully in agreement with the EU Commission that our information be provided to the Serbian government so that they can be invited to reply to what we have said. We await their comments with much interest. A full copy of today’s Serbian campaigners charge (above) was also provided to the Enlargement Commission to see what the Serbian government also would say about this.
The formal charge speaks or itself and we think there is no way the Serbian government can get out of what has been said. We trust that the EU Enlargement Commission will also take this charge as additional evidence to our case for the animals of Serbia.
The situation for Nani deer has not changed today; she is still being held by the hunters.
But we hope that all of the efforts both in Serbia and England today will prove very productive for animal welfare within Serbia in the future. We especially hope that our first real win will be to see Nani and the other animals held captive by the hunters released and returned to Mrs. Mitic for life safe keeping.
So this is a long but very brief summary of today’s events – 28/10/14.
Via work at the EU and also with criminal charges made within Serbia by Serbian campaigners; we hope that the Serbian government will now be put under more formal pressure to provide responses to both of us, Serbian campaigners, SAV and the EU Enlargement Commission.
Our first priority is still to free Nani deer and the other animals held by the hunters; but today we can look back and say that hopefully, 28/10/14 can be noted as a turning point day for big progress in Serbian animal welfare.
We hope you agree !
Our new petition to free Nani the deer can be viewed and signed at:
Thank you – Nani and friends.
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Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) 