Why Romania ?

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The Lotus team, and our adopters, are often asked 'why rescue a dog from Romania?'. The simplistic answer is that compassion has no borders and a dog in desperate need should be helped, if possible, regardless of where they are from.  However it does help to understand a bit more about the stray dog problem in Romania.

Whilst there has always been stray dogs in Romania, it is said that the number of stray dogs rocketed in the 1980's. During the communist ruling of Ceausescu workers had to leave their countryside residences and city homes to live in high rise buildings, leaving their pets behind. These dogs bred leading to huge numbers of stray dogs in the streets.  

Many states introduced a mass cull directive in an attempt to eradicate the stray dogs. The dogs were rounded up by dog catchers, and taken to Public Shelters, the equivalent of our local pounds, for culling, and in the process often suffered severe abuse injury and distress. The methods used to kill the dogs were brutal and done as cheaply as possible. This would often mean the dogs were killed by beating , hanging or poisioning.  

In 2008 the Animal Protection Law was introduced, with the purpose of protecting stray dogs from being brutally killed. However this law often meant that the dogs were still rounded  up and taken to the public shelters, and simply left to starve to death, die from disease, cold or from dog fights. It was not uncommon to hear about the weaker dogs being eaten by the other dogs. Despite the promising development of the 2008 legislation, with no one willing to enforce it or prosecute for animal cruelty, the dogs  suffering continued.

In 2013 things once again took a turn for the worst for the strays, when the death of a small boy was blamed on a pack of stray dogs in Bucharest. Many say the evidence suggests that the tragedy had nothing to do with the dogs and was simply a ruse to manipulate the public into supporting another mass cull initiative. A law was pushed through, the number of dog catchers was significantly increased, and once the dogs had been caught if they were not adopted within 14 days would be killed. Whilst many local people fought the legislation and did what they could to protect the strays, many others were caught up in the frenzy of hatred towards the strays, and the number of savage attacks on dogs increased dramatically. Many considered it fair game to stone a dog to death, cut off their limbs or intentionally run them over. The streets had become a very dangerous place for the dogs.

The brutal way that the state sanctioned dog catchers operate is still the same, dog catching is big business, and there are no considerations of animals welfare. The public shelters are equally as dire, and often the dogs are not fed, the pens not cleaned, and disease is rife. The dogs wait in fear for the day when they will be brutally killed.

It was estimated that in 2013 Bucharest there was 1 stray dog to every 31 people in the city. Today the stray dog numbers in the cities has reduced but the small towns and villages still have significant stray populations. 

We understand that tragically dogs in UK pounds are also killed when their time is up and we strongly encourage people to adopt from UK pounds instead of buying a dog from a breeder. However we also advocate the adoption of dogs from Romania as they have next to no chance in Romania and have no protection in law and the way they are treated and ultimately killed is simply horrific.