"Romanian Kill Shelters"

[Laggartha]

Our local dog rescue imports dogs rescued from what they describe as "Romanian Kill Shelters". They are constantly seeking monetary donations as well as new owners.
Can anyone point me in the direction of reputable sources about this? I can't help but think that exporting these dogs to another country is going to solve the problem. Would it not be more cost effective to fund solutions in Romania?

I hope MNers can (gently) enlighten me.

This is a summary from one of the rescues, and it is very much the case from someone who has looked into this over time:
Romania has a massive problem with stray dogs. The problems started in the 1980s when Nicolae Ceausescu aimed to industrialise Romania; people were forced to leave the countryside and move into cities. Houses were demolished to make way for apartment blocks and people had nowhere to keep their dogs, so many were abandoned on the streets. The dogs were left to breed and the population increased rapidly. It is estimated that, in Bucharest alone, there are 65,000 stray dogs on the streets. Whilst many residents feed them, others attack them – they are deliberately run over, shot, poisoned, set on fire, beaten to death, or worse, mutilated and left to die a slow and agonising death. If they avoid this fate then they are likely caught by the dog catchers who take them to the public 'kill' shelters. The dog catchers do not use humane methods to catch the dogs in the street, and many dogs die or are severely injured in the process of capture or transport. It is clearly not acceptable for this type of barbaric behaviour to go on in a supposedly civilised country.

The kill shelters by the way are paid to feed the dogs while they are in their care as they have to be there for 2 weeks (I think) to allow the owners to come forward. They often don't, they take the money and kill them straight away. It's a very difficult situation.

Maybe I should just turn this into an ama! I have 2 Romanian rescues myself.

Thank you, but why is it advisable (long term) to export them to England? What is the incentive for the Romanian system to find a long term, humane solution?

My dog comes from Bacau Public Shelter in Romania. Of course our money would be better spent funding neutering of street dogs but that doesn't help the ones currently waiting to be killed. Dog catchers are paid by the dog so they dont take care rounding them up they grab as many as they can by whatever methods necessary. At the shelter the money they receive for food is not spent on food. Many kind Romanians throw food over the fence for them. 2 weeks in the shelter and if no one claims them they die. They have a metal tag put through their ear on arrival, when our dog was rescued from the centre the worker just grabbed the tag and ripped it our of his ear. Lots of Romanian dogs that have been rescued have this same torn ear from this happening. My dog was in a large field with hundreds of other dogs of all shapes and sizes competing for the same small amounts of food thrown over the fence. No kennels or shelters from the rain/snow. So in summary yes Romania really needs a better street dog policy and perhaps a charity could help fund this but there are dogs right now really suffering so although I cant change the world I can change the world for 1 dog and thats what I did.

UK rescues set the bar so high it is almost impossible to get a rescue dog from them. I was turned down by 6 rescues because my children were under 16 (they are 14 and 12 and have grown up with 5 dogs in our close family. I also work full time from home).

In Romania people don’t neuter or spay their animals leading to large numbers of stray dogs and cats. The rescue that our dog came from spends a large portion of its income on going to villages and spaying/neutering dogs to get the numbers down.

Reputable rescues don’t necessarily bring ex street dogs to the uk. They often can’t settle into a domestic setting. It’s usually puppies and young dogs who can adjust.

I would rather have a rommie rescue than a dog bred from a uk puppy farm.

@Bunnybigears your boy has proper rommie ears! Gorgeous boy ❤️

I appreciate that this situation is terrible for the dogs and cannot continue. I am questioning whether importing them to England is the best solution.

My concern is that the shelters are motivated to continue with the status quo if we prop them up.

For example, what if dogs homes were situated in Romania? The money spent on transporting a few dogs to the UK would be better spent in creating safer living conditions there. Similar to the old donkey sanctuaries expats used to set up in Spain.

My concern is that the shelters are motivated to continue with the status quo if we prop them up.

I dont know about all charities but none of the adoption fee I paid for my dog went to the shelter. They charity have someone over in Romania who goes to the shelter and selects the most adoptable dogs (some just can't live in a home) she takes them out of the shelter (for free as its either that or they waste money killing them) The adoption fee pays for their injections, pet passport transportation to England.

@Laggartha

I appreciate that this situation is terrible for the dogs and cannot continue. I am questioning whether importing them to England is the best solution.

My concern is that the shelters are motivated to continue with the status quo if we prop them up.

For example, what if dogs homes were situated in Romania? The money spent on transporting a few dogs to the UK would be better spent in creating safer living conditions there. Similar to the old donkey sanctuaries expats used to set up in Spain.

Some of them kind of are in safer living conditions such as you describe but they need to be moved on to make way for new ones. It's not just to England they come, they are transported all across Europe. There are just too many dogs and not enough homes.

I think there's some problems with these - a friend who is experienced with dogs and a very sensitive, careful person got a Romanian stray this way and was assured it was socialised, no problems but it turned out to be very reactive, attacked a jogger (luckily it was small and didn't do much harm) so they simply could not cope. They were very lucky to find someone to rehome him who could give him the very specific care he needed.

OP. .I see your point, a few of mine adopted a Romanian stray but when you think of the costs involved it makes no sense, let alone the risk (is it really safe with children? What if there are visiting children who know nothing about dogs? etc).

We see a lot of Romanian rescues- usually v wary, nervous, and can be difficult to handle, but also see the odd one which is vin lovely and friendly. There’s often very little support so many of them end up in U.K. rescues.
The main issues are the importation of diseases that we don’t have in the U.K., and that U.K. dogs have no immunity or vaccinations for. There are lots of reports of dodgy imports at the moment, so it just seems to be a matter of time before it does cause serious problems.
It’s hard, because obviously U.K. rescues are stricter with regard to homing to people with kids, but the answer really isn’t getting a street dog from abroad.
I am really anti the whole Romanian dog imports scenario, but I admit, every so often I see one that is worth it.

I’m sure it’s worth it for the individual dogs, it’s the lack of a long term solution that I’m not clear on.

I agree with you OP. While UK rescues (& other countries) are willing to help out with the dog problems, nobody in Romania will want/ need to adress the issues at hand.

In Romania people don’t neuter or spay their animals leading to large numbers of stray dogs and cats. The rescue that our dog came from spends a large portion of its income on going to villages and spaying/neutering dogs to get the numbers down.

I think there is also a belief that a dog or cat should have one litter to avoid health problems, so of course the population is going to keep growing.

I agree with you '@Laggartha about the lack of a long term solution. The long term solution is more education about the importance of neutering and to dispel myths such as that an animal has to be bred once, and some kind of trap, neuter and release program for strays (because realistically there are simply not enough homes for every one and the only other alternative is to trap and euthanise them).

My understanding is the long term solution in Romania is killing the dogs after the two week period.

Its an industry, people catch the dogs and are paid, the dogs are homed or killed. The country is in the main happy with this I guess, as gets dogs off the streets, similar to cats and I think also stray dogs in the greek islands. There isn't a national outcry.

Their solution is unpalatable for us and some other countries so people here rescue them.

I couldn't agree more with those who have said spaying and neutering is so much better. When people are paying £££ for animals to be exported the problem will never go away.

I myself volunteer for a charity that funds spays and neuters for cats in Montenegro - there is a vast problem with strays there.

For Romania a reputational charity that funds spays and neuters is here : www.romaniaanimalrescue.org/

@Ylvamoon

I agree with you OP. While UK rescues (& other countries) are willing to help out with the dog problems, nobody in Romania will want/ need to adress the issues at hand.

But they are addressing the issue as they see it - they are killing the dogs. This is their long term solution, and they get paid to do so.

The dog catchers get paid for getting the dogs off the streets and the kill shelters get paid for food for two weeks. Many of them don't live for two weeks, they take the money and kill them anyway. Usually with a shovel. There are many people who try to negotiate with the owners of the kill shelters to release them and these are the ones that are being rehomed. I have a gorgeous sweet fur ball curled up by my feet right now. I have a photo of him a month before he was fostered and his face was black with bruises. My other dog has her ear torn as said above from where her tag was ripped out. She had to have her fur shaved for an operation and there is a scar across her spine where she was probably hit with a shovel to try to kill her. She has a dislocated hip that has healed out of place so has a limp. It's not as simple as saying "they need to do something so we don't adopt them" - they are doing something - they are putting them into hugely profitable kill shelters.
This article may help you to understand more. Incidently - the point about the boy being killed by stray dogs has been discredited and terribly it seems that he was murdered but it was easier to blame the dogs than create panic that there was a killer on the loose. I will try and find an article about that.

@Bunnybigears Your dog is beautiful. I wish I could post a photo of my two rommies but it's too outing but they are beautiful too.

Bunnybigears your dog is really lovely. And I don't even like dogs, so it counts especially