The Plight of Dogs in Romania – and How to Help Them
Romania’s homeless-animal crisis is miserable for dogs and cats, who spend their lives without a guardian to care for them, let alone a warm, comfortable place to curl up at night. Over 600,000 dogs and thousands of cats live on the streets. That’s more than in any other European country.
Many dogs suffer and die on the streets or meet their end after having been captured by dog-catchers and taken to city shelters or “killing stations” – which is legal under Romanian law. Most dogs who aren’t killed outright die in the shelters, where they’re often not provided with appropriate food, sufficient space, or protection from the cold. The majority of them aren’t spayed or neutered, which means they keep reproducing as long as they’re alive.
The simplest and most effective way to spare dogs and cats this suffering is to prevent more unwanted animals from being born by undertaking spay/neuter projects.
Every time an animal is sterilised, it prevents potentially hundreds of thousands more from being born. One female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in just six years. In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can produce a staggering 370,000 kittens!
By taking its mobile spay/neuter clinics around Romania, PETA Germany and its local partner Eduxanima are sterilising and registering about 4,000 animals each year. The groups focus on rural and poor areas – where both dogs with guardians and homeless dogs are spayed and neutered, registered, and given other veterinary treatment free of charge.
PETA Germany provides dogs whose owners make them live outdoors with long tethers to replace short, heavy chains as well as new doghouses to make their lives more comfortable.
The group also runs animal-care workshops in Romanian schools. These sessions help young people learn about the importance of compassion and empathy towards all living beings – because giving the next generation an understanding of animal rights can create a brighter future for animals in Romania and around the world.
To establish this project in even more areas of Romania, PETA Germany is working closely with local mayors and other politicians to raise awareness of the laws on animal sterilisation and registration and to ensure this legislation is enforced in order to improve animals’ lives.
What You Can Do
Make a difference for dogs in Romania and other animals around the world by donating generously to PETA’s Global Compassion Fund.
Just $20 could support the production of educational materials for schools to help children learn how important it is to show animals kindness and empathy, and $30 could help sterilise one dog and provide other important veterinary treatment (including the costs of medication, anaesthetics, materials, instruments, and a microchip as well as mandatory vaccinations and examination of ears, teeth, and paws). A $400 gift could help finance another vehicle for the programme so that it can reach even more animals in rural Romania.
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