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Helping dogs in the Balkans English talk by Neira Obralija (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Laura Vicuña: Seminar room, first floor
Sarajevo is not the best place to be in, if you are a dog.
An organization from the UK that came to Sarajevo, Bosnia to help reduce the number of street dogs in Sarajevo (by offering free spay/neuter programme) estimated that in 2012. this city had circa 11000 dogs roaming the streets. How, one may ask, does one relatively small city (compared to the ones in Europe) can have such a problem. Well... People here dispose of their pets by releasing them on the streets, throwing them out of their homes, having un-spayed and un-neutered pets that walk around and breeding without any control etc. Thus- so many strays.
Never did a single person came to the face of justice for getting rid of their dog in such a way. To make things worse, dog-catchers are being brought back to the streets. The ways of capturing the dogs by these people is beyond cruel. Noose around the neck, legs, stomach are just one way. Killing in different, „creative“ ways in another. After capturing them, dogs are then being delivered to some of the local shelters, Praca mostly.
Praca has circa 400 or more dogs in it at any given day. The cruelty there is beyond imagination. You have to see it to believe it. Dogs live in their own feces, there is no water or the possibility to clean the pens, no food (so dogs are forced to turn to canibalism) and no order what so ever. Big dogs with small ones, diseases, no basics for decent life of a dog. Volunteers (i have been one since 2012.) do what they can, but i think that we need to raise more awarenes to this issue, so i hope you can help us with that, to have their stories told.
Campaign against dog fighting in Europe and the Balkans
Serbia is one of the last countries in Europe that adopted the Animal Welfare Law, in June 2009.
According to the Serbian Animal Welfare Law, the local authorities are under obligation to carry out a strategy for resolving the problem of stray animals (Article 54). Since the adoption of the Law, it’s not being implemented, and local regulations were not harmonized with it.
Citizens and the authorities are not educated in humane animal issues and furthermore most of them do not care.