Animals and Barking Fines in Romania

Many Romanians have seen, in recent days, the TV news reports about the Community Police “visits” in the capital’s first sector to blocs, to hunt down barking canines. Based on this report, I would like to discuss what is happening- or actually, what should happen. 

For those who aren’t aware, the capital’s Sector 1 is considered to be the “plush” sector, where people with money and high-level jobs live- the privileged. This area has its own laws, and the Community Police started an Animal Police force which legally they didn’t have the right to establish- only State police can do this. So legally this animal police force should not exist, except that according to certain animal rights representatives, in light of the incredible dog shelters and optimum conditions offered (a fountain in the courtyard for the animals to cool down by in hot weather), they’ve turned a blind eye. Whatever’s necessary for the animals’ well-being…even though this concept doesn’t really exist in this country.  

Now regarding barking fines. This is one of the greatest absurdities perpetuated by mayors and community police, and it’s been encouraged by mass (media) hysteria- particularly TV and radio. And I’ll tell you why this is absurd:

1. Barking is a normal behavior for all dogs, just like meowing is for cats and crying is for babies. Why aren’t fines given for the neighbor’s baby who cries all night? Because it’s a human and humans are given preferential treatment? Why, I ask, does the law for public peace not apply to the wails of human babies? I’ll tell you why: because it would be absurd to try to stop a child from expressing itself in the only way it knows. If we apply the same rationale to animals, can you see why it’s also absurd to give fines for dogs who bark?

2. In this news report, they also showed/reminded of certain ways to discourage/eliminate dog-barking, such as anti bark collar and surgery for removing the vocal chords. You wouldn’t believe how this makes my blood boil. So we’re protecting our friends by mutilating them??? I would recommend to those screaming and yelling scandal-makers in the living buildings to try out these methods on themselves. Even in my neighboring bloc there’s a lady who yells (inside her apartment) loud enough that I can hear her in my yard. Certainly if there were laws against this kind of noise, we would all have more peace.

3. Better solutions are out there, as can be seen in other countries. True, but have we forgotten (deliberately) to mention that these countries have concrete animal protection laws, that in these countries there are well-built shelters for stray animals, and those who abandon animals are punished- all reasons for which only in rare cases do you find animals roaming on the streets? There the police intervene in cases of animal abuse, schools teach kids to love earth’s creatures and nature, and even mayors assemble to collaborate with influential associations.

Try to imagine the Romanian's animal situation like a Rubik’s cube:

Something can be discovered on each side: on one side, the animal with its master; on another, an abandoned animal; on another, puppy mills who sell animals with dirty money; on another, baby animals born in peoples’ homes; on another, abused animals; on another, public peace laws, etc. Each side has an assigned color according to its general category (ex. police, town hall, laws, etc, would be one color.) In order to get a single color on one side, you have to move the pieces accordingly, right?

  However, in our country the colors are badly mixed up and the pieces are all out of order because a clear vision is lacking. It makes sense that in order to complete the puzzle, you need to have a vision- a positive vision. Here, in the case of the national animal situation, there is no vision whatsoever. And on the side with the animal and its master, the colors are even more mixed up, making it all the more difficult to complete the cube.

Know why this is happening??? Because some essential pieces are missing from the cube:

          - involvement of animal protection groups

          - application of animal protection laws

          - collaboration between public administration and specialized  NGO-s

          - general education regarding prevention of animal detainment, proper care and respect for animals

          - the existence of official shelters, particularly for stray animals

Until these pieces are introduced, the cube will never be complete!!!
  
Once all these pieces are in place in our country, then (possibly) we will be able to be “snobby” like those mentioned in the report above. Until then, if ever, those of us in animal protection associations are not receiving any support from State institutions, even though the police aren’t enforcing animal protection laws, and the streets are filled with abandoned, miserable, sick, injured and abused animals. First a better balance must be established (a completed cube), and then measures can be taken to sustain an equilibrium. If you give fines to people with pets who act according to the way God created them, you’re only encouraging more abandonment. And we further entrench ourselves in a truly vicious cycle that we will never be able to escape from.

P.S: There is a lady in Cluj who has gathered a lot of stray dogs in her own yard. They’re all well cared for and she would like to start a shelter. Except that the neighbors have declared the dogs “bothersome”, especially since they live near a road on which many ambulances, police cars, and firefighters circulate, whose sirens cause the dogs to howl. They made many complaints to town hall, and fine after fine was delivered from the community. This woman, a true animal lover, felt that something needed to change during this chaos, and called the Haga Tribunal. Do you know what these legal specialists said? That the lady had every right to keep and care for these animals, so long as public authorities haven’t created a shelter for them to go to that conforms to EU laws.