200,000 stray dogs in the streets of Romania's capital city. This frightening figure brings light on the terrible state of Romanian society, eleven years after the fall of "Conducator".
By Raymond Audemard
200,000 stray dogs in the streets of Romania's capital city. This frightening figure brings light on the terrible state of Romanian society, eleven years after the fall of "Conducator".Ruined by the architectural madness of former Romanian President Ceausescu, who ruled unquestionably over his country for decades, Bucarest is today but the shadow of what it used to be.These herds of stray dogs are mostly descendants from the animals, which were left behind by the people who were expropriated after to the gigantic urban reorganizations of the 1980's. These dogs can be found everywhere in the city, in the streets, in the squares, markets, parking lots, rubbish dumps, and even in the entrances of buildings, searching for food in the garbage cans and begging for something to eat.
The night belongs to those animals, which are most often the time sick and whose is lifespan is short. Though it must be pointed out that they still receive help and food from a great part of the population.
Each pack of dogs has its own territory, and they defend it tooth and tails, even against humans. Accidents are many, and the civil servants working at the French Embassy have been warned of the possible dangers of strolling through the streets at night. However, there is a deep solidarity between Bucarest inhabitants and the dogs, even though many accidents where people were bitten are daylily reported.A private company of urban cleaning (Rosal Servis) has proposed to systematically remove all stray dogs and to put them together in shelters outside the city. Animals' friends are quite worried, all the more so since the company director quoted in a TV debate some laws dating back from Ceausescu's period (yet still applied), which planned that any stray animal should be put down and its skin used for the making of fur gloves or fur collars.
The very same company has also decided to organize a referendum on its website, so as to benefit from a popular backup. But Romanian political authorities from both sides know that the matter should be dealt with carefully, and prefer for the moment being spaying the dogs before taking them back to the spot where they had been captured.
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