February 03, 2006

Fighting Rabies by Massive Killing?

Early this week municipal authorities of Belgrade announced massive "destroying of stray dogs and cats" as a measure for preventing rabies.

Rabies is one of the most dangerous infective diseases common to animals and humans and thus has to be treated responsibly and efficiently. However, we energetically oppose to the massive and non-selective "destruction of stray dogs and cats" as a measure for treating rabies and we demand that the national institutions in charge prevent such treatment of animals in Belgrade Municipality.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) agree that massive killing of stray dogs and cats do not contribute to control of infective diseases such as rabies. The only efficient method to prevent this disease from spreading, is a vaccination programme.

Massive and non-selective "destruction" of stray animals in Belgrade is the strategy to cover the lack of capacity and interest of the persons in charge from the Ministry of Agriculture, Woods and Waters, Veterinary Direction and Department for Health Protection and Welfare of Animals, to confront responsibly the problem of stray animals in our country.

In Belgrade there is no systematic enforcement and control of vaccination of owned dogs. On the other hand, programmes of vaccination and sterilization of stray dogs and cats have been run by NGOs (ORCA and others) and citizens, some of them being financed by the Belgrade Municipality. In some parts of Belgrade these programmes have been very intense. The most obvious case is New Belgrade, where more stray dogs have been vaccinated than owned dogs!

Animal protection societies have appealed several times to the national structures to start preparing a Law on Animal Protection which could represent a legal framework for humane and efficient programmes of stray animal control, which would also lead to prevention from rabies. But the Ministry of Agriculture, Woods and Waters has until now always ignored such initiatives, which made it impossible for local authorities to start implementing such programmes.

On Friday, the Coalition of Animal Protection Societies of Belgrade prepared a press conference where we informed the public about the strategies for prevention from rabies in our country, and pointed at the directions for solving the problem of stray animals, as well as the incapability of our national authorities to contribute to a proper solution.

We demand that the Veterinary Direction of Serbia 

1. immediately releases the public tension to which they have contributed by their own incapability

2. hands out to the public and to NGOs all relevant documents proving the cases of rabies, which represent the legal basis for the recent decision on special measures

3. ensures a quarantine for all captured animals, and enables them to get back to their owners or care-takers after the end of the quarantine

Finally, we appeal to all care-takers of "municipal dogs" to remove their dogs from the street if it is possible, to report each case of catching to ORCA (+381 64 2353259 or orcabeograd@yahoo.com) and to demand Veterinary and Ecological Inspection to put these animals in a quarantine, and to free them if they show no symptoms of rabies.