"Bucharest debates fate of stray dogs in city; Death of child brings calls for mass killings" by Alison Mutler | Associated Press, September 11, 2013
BUCHAREST, Romania — They roam the streets of Bucharest, sad-eyed, scraggly mongrels that shelter in demolition sites, rifle through garbage — and increasingly attack humans. The capital’s massive stray dog population, a legacy of communism and its aftermath, can have lethal consequences: In recent years, a Bucharest woman was killed by a pack of strays, and a Japanese tourist died after a stray severed an artery in his leg.
Now, after a 4-year-old boy was fatally mauled last week, the city wants to take action. The controversial plan that has divided Bucharest? To capture and kill Bucharest’s tens of thousands of strays, blamed for dozens of attacks every day that need medical treatment. Animal lovers and dog-wary citizens are at such loggerheads that the city has called a referendum next month on whether to go forward.
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Hundreds have demonstrated both for and against the measure and have vowed to continue rallying in coming days.
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Burgeoning stray dog populations plague other countries in the former Eastern Bloc — sometimes leading to extreme measures. In Ukraine, authorities in the capital, Kiev, were accused of resorting to poisoning strays as they prepared to host the Euro 2012 soccer championships. And in the Kosovar capital of Pristina, officials gunned down nearly 200 strays over the course of three weeks as part of a culling campaign.
Many Bucharest residents simply fear they are being overrun by street mongrels.
‘‘We want a civilized capital, we don’t want a jungle,’’ said Adina Suiu, a 27-year-old hairdresser. ‘‘I will vote for them to be euthanized. I drive a car most of the time, but when I walk around my neighborhood, I am always looking over my shoulder.”
Vier Pfoten counters that the solution is not killing strays but sterilizing them. The group has sterilized 10,400 dogs in Bucharest since 2001 — but says the problem needs to be tackled on a scale that is beyond the capacity of animal welfare groups.
‘‘We sterilize one, and five more are born in the same time,’’ said Livia Campoeru, a spokeswoman for the organization.
Basescu, who says he is an animal lover, has adopted three stray dogs — and urges others to do the same. But he says that strays that aren’t taken in should be put down. Authorities argue that mass sterilizations are not a solution because of cost and logistics — and that euthanizing eliminates the threat of attacks.
The controversy has reached such a fever pitch that Brigitte Bardot, the French screen siren-turned-outspoken animal rights activist, has stepped into the debate.
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Bucharest has historically had a thriving stray dog population. The problem became acute in the Communist era when former Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu razed large swaths of the city and residents were forcibly moved into high-rise apartment buildings....
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"Romanian court says stray dogs can be euthanized" Associated Press, September 26, 2013
BUCHAREST, Romania — A bill allowing stray dogs to be euthanized is legal, Romania’s constitutional court ruled Wednesday, prompting hundreds of dog lovers to block a main road outside Parliament in protest. The ruling came weeks after a 4-year-old boy’s fatal mauling in Bucharest led officials to draft the legislation.
I don't know what the answer is; however, I am troubled by the knee-jerk reaction of "Kill it!" to any problem.
The protesters, who blew whistles and brought some dogs, yelled ‘‘May you have the same fate as the dogs!’’
Well.... !!!
The bill needs to be signed by the president before it can become law. Under it, stray dogs will be taken to shelters and — if not adopted or claimed within 14 days — they will be killed.
Oh, you mean like what we do here in AmeriKa?
The Vier Pfoten animal welfare group criticized the ruling and urged mayors and veterinarians to stop the ‘‘mass killings’’ of dogs.
Bucharest City Hall says the capital has 64,000 stray dogs, while animal rights groups say there are 40,000.
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Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Detroit Gone to the Dogs
I'm done barking about it.
More mass killings from Romania:
"Former commander of Romanian labor camp is charged with genocide" by Alison Mutler | Associated Press, October 25, 2013
BUCHAREST — A former commander of a communist labor camp in Romania was charged with genocide for his alleged role in the deaths of 103 political prisoners, prosecutors said Thursday.
Ion Ficior, 85, was deputy commander, then commander, of the Periprava labor camp from 1958 to 1963. The camp in the remote Danube Delta village near the Black Sea held up to 2,000 prisoners.
Romania had about 500,000 political prisoners under the Communist regime, about one-fifth of whom died while in detention, according to historians, who say most prisoners had simply fallen afoul of the Communist regime.
Ficior’s role was revealed by a Romanian organization, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. The institute said prisoners in the Periprava camp died from malnutrition, beatings, lack of medicine, and dysentery caused by drinking dirty water from the Danube....
Ficior told the Associated Press in June that he was unrepentant, saying his former prisoners were Nazi supporters during World War II who deserved to be incarcerated.
Related:
"Ficior could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, but in an interview in June he insisted that only three or four people died under his command. He was unrepentant in saying that his former prisoners were militiamen — known as Legionnaires — who supported the Nazis during World War II and who deserved to be incarcerated.... Andrei Muraru, head of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes, handed the request to the country’s general prosecutor. He accused Ficior of being responsible for 103 deaths at the camp from malnutrition, beatings, a lack of medicine, and from drinking dirty water from the Danube, which caused dysentery."
Ficior is the second former prison commander in Romania to be charged with genocide.
On Sept. 3, prosecutors charged 87-year-old Alexandru Visinescu for his leadership of the Ramnicu Sarat prison from 1956 to 1963, where Romania’s elite were incarcerated.
That happened when?
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That's why he's facing charges! The elite were incarcerated!
"Romanian, 87, charged with genocide" by Alison Mutler | Associated Press, September 04, 2013
BUCHAREST — Romanian prosecutors on Tuesday charged the commander of a Communist-era prison with genocide, the first Romanian to face the charge since leader Nicolae Ceausescu was tried and executed in 1989.
Alexandru Visinescu, 87, was arraigned before prosecutors. Between 1956 and 1963, he ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison, where the pre-Communist elite and intellectuals were incarcerated.
Visinescu declined to comment as he was led to a taxi. He has said he was only following orders.
Prosecutors said in a statement that under his command prisoners were subjected to beatings, hunger, a lack of medical treatment, and exposure to cold. Visinescu could face life in prison if convicted.
In other words, it was like a U.S. torture chamber.
The last Romanian to be charged with genocide was Ceausescu.
He was quickly tried by a special military tribunal and executed on Dec. 25, 1989, after he fled Bucharest in the face of growing antigovernment demonstrations.
What a wonderful Christmas present.
In July, the institute investigating communist crimes wrote to prosecutors and called for Visinescu to be prosecuted for six deaths. It says it will give a total of 35 files about former commanders to prosecutors.
The institute said it ‘‘welcomed the historic decision’’ on the charges.
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Related: Romania’s top court reviews prison chief case
How come it always takes 50 years for war crimes charges to come (unless you are a double-crossed African tin pot dictator or poor Serb who refuses to go along with the program)?
