Help A Romanian Stray: May 2012

May 2012 was meant to be a wonderful month for the dogs in Botosani.

Asociatia ADOR and RAR (Romanian Animal Rescue) joined forces to help solve the problem of overpopulation of stray dogs in Botosani, a problem that the City Hall Botosani has not been able to solve. In this campaign, dogs, both owned and strays, were going to be sterilized, vaccinated and dewormed. FOR FREE!

Outside the clinic

The goal was to spay/neuter up to 1000 animals in the city of Botosani, Romania, with volunteers arriving from around the globe to help. The plan was to spay/neuter animals for a duration of two weeks, the last day being May 30th, with hopes of the sterilization program reaching a large number of dogs and cats.

The public was very open to the sterilization campaign, because the number of dogs registered for sterilization for the first day was considerable; about 500 dogs and 100 cats.

Volunteers involved came from several countries (USA, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and of course Romania) to help veterinarians to operate all dogs registered.

The clinic and space where all the action took place was offered for free by VelmaVet.

On the 4th day, however, local authorities - or more specifically - the Director of DSV (Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety) Minodora Vasiliu stopped the sterilization campaign on the grounds that there were a number of statutory conditions not met. "We only observed the law", Vasiliu says, denying any foul play being involved.

The volunteers and charity workers see it quite differently. "They gave all kinds of astonishing reasons for closing down the campaign. For instance, they claimed that we didn't have authorization from the DSV. This is false, a volunteer who actually works at the DSV personally worked on all the papers and we got the ok. We wouldn't have done it otherwise." One of the volunteers says.

Other reasons the DSV had given were that some of the volunteers didn't have medical training - This was true, however, the volunteers weren't doing any medical action, they were sorting the dogs, petting to keep them calm, brushing them, cleaning before surgery, removing hair in the operation area before the vets would take them on the table, talking to the owners, reassuring the dogs once they were awake from the anesthetics etc.

Director of DSV Minodora Vasiliu

The DSV also claimed that the space was too small - The vet clinic in question was the only one that agreed to help with the sterilization campaign, no other veterinary cabinet wished to help because of being politically controlled or fear of repercussion from helping ADOR. The RAR team was available to do the operations in other spaces, even in tents, but the DVS specifically asked for a vet clinic and the charities conformed. "The space was enough given that it was a spayathon directing at neutering stray dogs, not a luxury salon for dogs. The vets worked perfectly in there, so again this was a far fetched reason."

Other claims were made as well, like that the dogs were put on blankets on the clinic's floor after the surgery and that it wasn't a septic space - Although true, it was warm enough and there were many blankets on the floor, no risk of disease really existed. Volunteers stayed besides the dogs, caring and petting and making sure they were perfectly safe. It was far better than doing it how the local vets do it; simply putting the spayed dog into the owner's arms right after the surgery is ready, even though most people have no idea how to care for the dogs after the surgery. That's why the charities and their volunteers wanted to keep the dogs for a few hours at the clinic and keep them under observation, instructing owners on how to care for them. People from abroad working in hospitals even said that this sometimes happens with humans too and that there is no real problem as long as someone didn't specifically put dirt onto the dogs' wounds.

Apparently unaccustomed to western veterinary skills, the DSV were skeptical about the quick pace and small incision scars left from the surgery, not taking into consideration that the surgeons were extremely skilled and used good surgical equipment.

Probably the most ridiculous claim the DSV came up with was that the American vets don't have the legal right to do operations in Romania. When the RAR team then hired good doctors from other cities in Romania (Romanian vets), this wasn't good enough for the DSV either. They wanted every vet that performed surgery to have a clinic in Botosani(?!), and that they would each operate in their own clinic, not have them all come to one clinic and perform the surgeries in the same clinic.

The final reason, and also the official one, the DSV decided to go with, was that only 15 animals could have been sterilized per day, instead of 55. This would have meant the veterinarians would have had to stay for 66 more days, which financially wouldn't be possible, since everything was being payed for from donations received.

If there was ANY base to the claims made by the DSV, then why hasn't there been any problems with the sterilization campaigns organized and conducted under the same conditions in other cities: Craiova, Cluj Turda, Sibiu, Oradea, Galati, Blackpool, Moreni. In these cities the local authorities have supported the efforts of sponsors and volunteers. And for the claims of limited operations per day, just take a look at last years successful Craiova Spayathon campaign by RAR, where four veterinarians, two from the United States and two from Romania, spayed 1400 dogs and cats during 10 days!

The true reasons for this ludicrous charade by the DSV's director lies most likely in the outcome of last years stray dog massacre in Botosani, where over 200 dogs were killed under false pretenses.

DSV's director Minodora Vasiliu, as well as the mayor of Botosani Catalin Flutur among others, were considered to be prosecuted by the Botosani Court for their involvement in the massacre. Unfortunately, corruption prevailed, and the aforementioned only got a bad image, nothing else.

Asociatia ADOR was the one who made the 2011 Botosani dog massacre public, which lead to bad publicity for DSV's director Minodora Vasiliu. Vasiliu is also married to a local vet who apparently was less than happy that people got their dogs neutered for free instead of paying to use his practice, a posh and expensive clinic in Botosani.

The public feels betrayed by the unreasonable decision to end the sterilization campaign, quotes;

"Where was the law when the decision was made to kill the 240 dogs in Botosani public shelter? Do you think the people of Botosani are stupid?"

"Is it better for people who cannot afford expensive veterinarian services to leave their dogs unsterilized because of the DSV's personal vendettas??"

"Amazing how suddenly some are so quick to "respect the law" and ask for papers over papers, accreditations and credentials only when it suites them! When they brutally killed 240 dogs last year, did that comply with the law?"

It has been stated time and time again that spay&neuter is the only solution to reduce the overpopulation of unwanted animals. It is unfathomable that the city of Botosani has not risen to the occasion to be part of the solution, handed to them on a silver plate.

Shameful. And truly, truly sad.