I've found a 2 yr old article, but I don't see any mention of the DNV group.
It's veeeeery long. Skip to my comment at the end.
brcanski-forum.com/2023/02/08/da-li-psi-lutalice-vladaju-u-brcko-distriktu-bih/
Headline: Do stray dogs rule in the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina?
This was the occasion to talk about the problem of stray dogs with the president of the Club of Nature Lovers and find out the details of the solutions they offer.
nula49: On your page, as well as in the media, we had the opportunity to see that last week you organized a meeting with representatives of institutions concerned with the problem of stray dogs. What exactly is it about?
Damjan Dundžić: Last Friday, we organized a joint meeting of everyone with whom we previously had special meetings, all as part of activities aimed at initiating the creation of a systemic solution to the problem of stray dogs.
In the second half of last year, we had a series of meetings with representatives of the Veterinary Station, the Police, the Inspectorate, and JP Komunalno, and now we have decided to gather them all together and openly talk about this long-standing problem. We didn't want the meeting to be open to the public, so that it wouldn't go in a different direction from the one we planned to move in, so I can say that we managed to move this issue from a deadlock.
We heard from representatives of the Police that they are overwhelmed with calls and reports from the population, even though solving this problem is the responsibility of some other institutions.
From the representative of the Veterinary Subdivision and the Veterinary Station itself, we heard everything about the history of the problem, starting with the famous Ark, through the problem with livestock pits and the problem of the incinerator, and from the representative of JP Komunalno a similar story from another angle.
n49: What did you conclude after the meeting?
DD: During the meeting, we realized that all of the authorities, except the Police, which we have to single out, because they are not even initially competent to solve this problem, are trying to justify long-term inaction by the lack of capacity in the asylum, the lack of locations for cattle pits, and the non-operation of the incinerator, which, we note this for the sake of the public, was purchased and paid for over 300,000 KM, but was never turned on, except for a short time during the pandemic, when it was a state of emergency when otherwise, everything is allowed for the sake of preserving health. And somehow I have the impression that everyone can't wait to encounter some obstacle, and that they don't try to solve it at all, because I'm sure that these are problems that can be solved very easily, we just have to insist on the application and implementation of the legal solutions that are in force in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Maybe it's not like that, but how can we explain the fact that nothing is being done about it. Here, for example, we mentioned at the meeting several solutions that would regulate this area and to each of our suggestions we encountered some answer in the form of an excuse as to why it cannot be done, and in everything politics is seen as a brake because there is no possibility of agreement on anything that, in their opinion, is crucial for solving this problem, and primarily they are thinking of cattle pits and the incinerator...
We would like to point out that we do not see a solution in starting the incinerator and livestock pits, because we are solving the consequence, but not the cause. In that case, the practice of catching and euthanizing stray dogs would continue, and the cause of the very appearance of those dogs on the streets would not be solved. We believe that work must be done on punishing people who do not behave in accordance with the law, and we are particularly thinking about the obligation to chip dogs. In that case, only true animal lovers would decide to keep dogs as pets, and most of the owner's dogs would be entered in the register at the BIH level, and when this is the case, then it is very easy to find owners of dogs on the streets, and punish those owners for negligence and throwing dogs out on the streets, i.e. due to the irresponsible keeping of animals.
If word got out that several people were rigorously punished, it would be a different story.
In addition, we believe that it is very important for the media to spread the story about mandatory norms, to inform people that keeping dogs is followed by some obligations, and that sanctions follow for those who do not comply with the binding norms.
We believe that work should also be done on the promotion of castration/sterilization as the most humane way of fighting to reduce the number of strays, mainly through the reduction of unwanted illegals who end up en masse on the streets and from which new strays multiply later, and there is no end there. We believe that it is quite normal that once a week, as part of the training of veterinary technicians, sterilizations of dogs are organized, some owned, some neighborhood - dogs that live peacefully in settlements and whose castration would check for unwanted litters.
Just imagine how many neighborhood bitches there are in the settlements, whose sterilization would reduce the number of puppies. Just take the example of the settlement of Rijeka, where there is one pack that brings dozens of new dogs into the world every year, and if the females were sterilized and returned to the settlement, they would live normally and peacefully for the rest of their lives, and there would be no reproduction. That proposal of sterilization as part of the education of veterinary technicians was met with a response in the sense that it is impossible because the Veterinary Station is not an institution that can provide such educational services, and that it would be necessary to work on some changes in the very acts of the Veterinary Station in order for this to be possible. Well, why is it impossible to change it...
Imagine if fifty dogs could be sterilized for free every year, how much it would contribute to reducing the number of strays on the streets.
n49: After the meeting, do you think that everything agreed, if anything was agreed, will remain a dead letter?
DD: it was agreed to conduct a survey of dog owners in the settlements, to visit several settlements, list the owners and their dogs, and to submit that list to the veterinarian, who will check chipping and other mandatory veterinary procedures.
Those who disobeyed the law and did not comply with the legal obligations would be given a period of 15 days, after which an audit would be carried out and those who did not chip their dogs within that period would be fined. It should be covered by the media, so that people understand that they have to behave more responsibly with their dogs...
We think that this activity must be carried out by competent institutions, and not by some citizen associations, because it is questionable what kind of reactions we will encounter in villages and settlements by doing work for which we are not competent, and we would also like to mention that it is not a problem for us to do it if we get permission from the authorities.
In addition, we agreed to investigate how far the question regarding the incinerator has come, because we received information that the request for location was sent back in the 11th month of last year.
As we concluded that this issue is also decided by politics, and that the strays must be divided according to the 4-4-2 or 2-2-1 principle, let's have a little joke at the end.
We will continue in this direction even after the implementation of this project, which was financed by the Department for Professional and Administrative Affairs, and whose implementation began at the beginning of the seventh month of last year, and we had a two-month break in the pre-election and post-election period because we did not want our activities to go unnoticed due to the aggressive marketing of political parties during that period, which would "eat" our news in the popular saying. posters all over Brčko.
Next week, we will repeat the pasting of posters around Brčko, we mainly think of rural areas, and we believe that all this, along with media announcements, will contribute to a better situation in this area.
In the end, we would like to mention that the most important thing is the honest attitude of the authorities and the desire to solve this problem, because it is very simple, provided that they want to.
So let's conclude:
The people must behave in accordance with the law, and those who do not do so must be punished, because here in Bosnia and Herzegovina, repression is the best prevention.
We must start with the promotion of castrations/sterilizations, and introduce these procedures into the education system as part of the education of veterinary technicians, and perform these procedures on a weekly basis for about fifty dogs per year.
Of course, work must also be done on freeing up capacity in the asylum, but we believe that it is easier to work on solving the causes of all these problems, and that, therefore, the consequences will be less.
n49: Do you have anything to say in closing, a message for the owners?
DD: These activities are organized under the slogan "Responsible owner", and I would like to end with that... Responsibility is not a choice but an obligation!
Sanctions follow for non-negotiables, but work must also be done on tightening the penal policy, because the 30 KM fine that is currently prescribed by law, among other things, is ridiculous.
[Very peculiar. This is a genuine problem...so why no mention of the wondrous organisation that's shipping these unwanted animals abroad?]