Fighting for the "wrong" side

Civil war started in Romania in September 2013. Romanian people had to decide if they can find it in their hearts, in their conscience to be murderers or not; a lot of them had abslotulety no problem with supporting or even taking part in killing the stray dogs, moreover, they found great pleasure in it. It was a very troubling time for this nation, one when we all learnt that we lived in the same city, street or even building with sadistic people, who have no problem in taking another being's life...made us wonder if they only prefer four legged ones.
Madness and hysteria took over very quickly; all over the media, there were stories and pictures of a boy who was savagedly killed by a pack of stray dogs. Behind the tragedy, there were a lot of questions going through my mind, like "where was this boy's parents or grandmother?" "why don't his parents seem affected by what has happen to their little boy?" "why isn't anyone asking the grandmother what she was doing all that time?". I suddenly felt trapped in one of those movies where a person is being burried alive and nobody can see that person is yelling and struggling for her life. In this case, I saw everyone getting so angry, so incredibly focused on killing every dog on the street, I couldn't believe what was happening. Everyone on TV was getting so far away from the truth and they were so fatefully sticking to what they all wanted to be the "truth", it scared me to death. One could see the hate growing and growing until their faces changed right there, for everyone to see and copy. For weeks I was under the impression I am having an awful dream and that I have lost my voice. Nobody would listen to reason; I looked around me and I saw people transforming into horrible beasts who were willing, if not happy to kill, in cold blood, all dogs, for the simple reason they were there and they couldn't defend themselves. People I had known for years seemed complete strangers and I could hear the TV "talking" through their mouths; they repeated word for word the hateful speachess spread on all TV channels. Was I in a zombie movie??
Moreni was not going to miss this boat, of course. Few days after the "Ionut tragedy" a rabbid fox was found killed by a pack of stray dogs...what a surprise! They started collecting stray dogs for the "official" purpose of keeping them under quarantine; few of them survived this quarantine, although there weren't any signs of rabies. Obviously, people who hated stray dogs found themselves very inspired by the new "trend" and started poisoning a lot of animals. The police doesn't care, they never did, but the Mayor showed himself being "concerned" about this phenomenon...but this didn't disturb his new hobby, trapping and killing dogs inside the public shelter. To this day he'll say he never killed a dog; to this day, we can't understand how a public shelter which was closed down by the DSV (food authority) in 2012 for improper conditions, can be reopened, by the same institution, even though nothing has been invested to improve those same issues it was closed for.
So, it quickly became obvious I was on the "wrong" side. People were shouting and pointing at me; i found myself surrounded by a "pack" of angry and very uneducated people and two reporters who were keen on "digging up" an interesting story about "unloaded trucks of stray dogs in a village where concerned citizens were appauled and scared for their lives". I could have laughed of the absurdity of the situation...instead, I feared for my life, seeing so much stupidity and ignorance. They were all repeating the hatefull speaches that had become so popular on TV. I even touched a woman and  shake her a bit to help her turn back to reality...she seemed to be possesed by something. Reasoning with them was out of the question! They wanted nothing, except for the dogs to be gone!

Take them all home!!!
I am sick to my stomach whenever I hear this sentence. There isn't anything more stupid to say to a person who loves stray dogs and who has struggled for years and years to get to the bottom of this problem. It is as if one would say to a driver who is complaining about the holes in the street "you fix them" or " you lay on top of them, so your car doesn't get broken while running over them". Whaat?? Same with stray dogs. But, as sick as I am  of hearing people say that, during this civil war (which is not over), anyone who took or wanted to take a dog off the streets, had "blood on their hands", or needed "special authorization" to do that. Whaat?? Do you people ever hear yourselves while speaking?? I even remember a Finish lady saying in a comment how she did her part and adopted two Romanian stray dogs (traveled to Romania and paid all the expences for it) and this very "concerned mother" told her she is a "children hater" and that she has blood on her hands. Since September 2013, Romania was taken over by "concerned mothers" who weep the future of their offsprings (who will, for sure end up killed by stray demented dogs), who spend a considerably long time on Facebook (don't they have children to raise?) making up new adjectives for that poor boy and strongly suggesting all stray dogs must be killed..."for the sake of our children", not for our sadistic pleasure, of course! God help the children of Romania! Their "concerned mothers" sure won't!

Do you know who you live next to?
More and more people had to ask themselves this question, after discovering they lived next to sick bastards who love to torutre and kill animals. Their time has finally come and they are very happy and pleased to show their "dirty secret" to the world. Except, in Romania, it's not dirty at all. Moreover, reporters, entertainers, artists are warmly encouraging it; the police is kindly stepping back, letting the people release their anger and pain; that innocent boy's death must me avenged. 
Horror stories about dogs being tortured and killed were present daily, all over the Internet. One can't say Romanians aren't creative when it comes to finding new methods of killing the "children eaters". Naming them gives me the creeps, so I won't...we all remmeber the horror stories.
As I said, reason has nothing to do with our people; so what if hundreds of children die every year in car crashes, because of poverty and neglect, raped or murdered..."that is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT story"...a very kind sir enlightened me, after pushing me in the street. "Thank you, sir! I now see the light! Finally!" So what if people kill thousands of children all over the world, we can live with that. But for a dirty beast to have the audacity to kill one of ours...they all must die!

So, what's to be done?
We, as a rescue, tried to save as many dogs as we possibly could. We were the "evening dogcatchers", trying to get whatever the dogcatchers missed that day to safety. It was a mad time, for everyone. People were fighting everyday in the street, defending the dogs or the dogcatchers; the poor animals were screaming and fighting for their lives, children didn't know what was happening, some of them were crying, some helped the dogcatchers to trap friendly dogs; the ones that did get away, came out after the dogcatchers left and were so confused, looking everywhere for a way to get out of this crazy world.
This experience showed me, if neccessary, that dogs are truly intelligent beings who understand what is going on. They knew what was coming and they begged us or their protectors to save them. Brenda, one of our rescue dogs, jumped into our car, she was determined to live; Shana, a GSD girl I had barely knew before, followed me for days up the stairs, trying to get me to save her. Dogs that we were feeding for years in the street followed us home, daily, begging for their lives...they knew death was right around the corner.
The first three weeks of this civil war took us completely by surprise. We all knew the authorities are corrupt and had it in for the stray dogs for a long time, but we never expected so much brutality, greed, so little respect for their word...despicable human beings who are worth less than frozen dog pooh.

We all try to make it doing what we know best. We are broken people, sad and helpless, taking part, unwillingly, in this filthy, disgusting page of our history. I wonder if the mothers of Romania are pleased now? If their children have a happier life, in a country where stray dogs are being tortured and killed in ways a normal person can't even imagine. And I wonder if it is all worth it, seeing how in a few months thousands of new dogs will be born unwanted and dumped on the streets.

In the end, I would like to say a prayer for all those of our dear friends who died, for no good reason. I hope you are in a better world, one that deserves you!

Thank you Elin Lonberg for the photos!

The unwanted puppies – direct result of people's indifference

They are everywhere; they come in all sizes and colors, and they all have one thing in common: they are not wanted, not planned and not cared for. But, for us, they are the ones responsible for it.

Right from the start food is never enough for them, there is no warm place for them and there is never a good word for them. They are the proof of our incompetence, our indolence and nobody wants to be reminded constantly about their failure. So, they need to suffer for it!

There are two kind of unwanted puppies, those born on the streets and those thrown on the streets, sometimes before even opening their eyes (under 14 days of age). No matter how they end up on the streets, they are treated as plagues or threats to society. They are sick, dirty, full of fleas, tick or larvae; they are dragging their weak bodies, begging for food, making noise with their desperate cry for help, thus they make us feel disgusted, angry, sickened…but never compassionate.

7 days old puppies, abandoned in the dumpster; they had been crying for almost 20 hours of cold and hunger and nobody cared to help them

 

 

Puppies come into this world not asking for much from the start. They get by with only scraps of leftovers, they wag their tails to everyone that passes along and sometimes they follow people around town, wanting to feel like they belong to someone. They are sometimes so unbelievably hungry or wet and cold or sick, that it is hard to imagine how they go through life in such impossible conditions. Many of us would not make it for a day in their place and would probably make a huge drama of it, but not them. The unwanted puppies are reduced to silence by humans, because they have no right to demand to be treated with respect or decency…they are the UNWANTED. 

Maybe half of them die in their first year of life due to terrible illnesses such as Parvovirus, Distemper or of hunger and cold, run over by cars, tortured and killed by people. The ones who do survive grow into young adults, fully prepared to take on their given blame: they are responsible for making people feeling unsafe on the streets, for the noise and dirt, for the flees in the parks, for the tourists avoiding visiting our country; they are also a tool for Mayors and politicians who use the stray dogs to blame each other, to get ahead and be elected with the solemn promise that they “will put an end to this problem”.

 

Every year people abandon thousands of unwanted puppies from their homes; it’s what they are used to do and don’t feel any remorse about it. They are totally ignorant about the consequences and often complain about their safety on the streets without ever considering they are to blame for it. They are the owners of the dogs who give birth twice a year, but the dogs are totally responsible for everything and should be grateful they, the owners, allow them to share their back yards and, occasionally, some leftovers. 

From an early age, dogs understand they have no right to live on this earth and that they should suffer all their lives for the audacity of being born when nobody asked them to. They learn that they can’t expect much from people, except your every day kick in the head. People are very inventive in showing their contempt towards stray puppies; their size or weakness don’t impress them, only the fact that they can’t react to being tortured…they can’t defend themselves. 

Living on the street might be hard to understand for young puppies at first. Questions such as: “why is there so much food around, but never for us?”, “why do people throw rocks at us, when all we want to do is lick their hands?”, “why doesn’t anyone hear our pain?”, “why does our tummy always makes noises and hurt?”, “ why were we born if nobody needs us?” are never answered for them. After a while, they adjust, they resign themselves to being the underdogs, the forgotten, the oppressed and, if something bad happens, the RESPONSIBLE. 

Left to the authorities, puppies stand no chance to survive. They are the weak link that must perish, so the mighty human can feel good about himself. We lie to ourselves that a hand full (compared to the huge number that is yet to be abandoned by those who refuse to spay/neuter their own animals) of tortured dogs in the public shelters will solve the problems and help us sleep better at night.

                         These photos were taken in the public shelter of Moreni in 2011

People in Romania are so numb and indifferent to everything, they don’t even see the problem anymore, except when a tragedy occurs. Then, it’s time to take out our pitches and forks and kill all that moves. After that, we can go back to sleep and totally ignore everything that goes wrong in this country.

So, what is left for these tormented souls to do? How are they ever to please us, their “friends”, their “companions”, the ones whom love they yarn to conquer, if all they ever do is wrong to us? Stray puppies are convicted right in the second after they were born for the capital crime of not being able to prevent that. But how could they?

Their life is one of torture and pain; every second of it, their life is dedicated to begging for our forgiveness for being born unwanted.