Round up at Cernavoda – The first 20 dogs rescued

After four years of a slackening off of the number of stray dogs being rounded up, the dog catchers were back in town on Friday, October 14. In Cernavoda, Romania, a campaign initiated by the city council administration to capture and eliminate stray dogs, is once again underway.  The staff at Save The Dogs immediately sprang to action and, despite many difficulties, succeeded in rescuing more than 20 dogs. This represents our second largest rescue mission this year, after the saving of 30 dogs in Odessa, Ukraine.

In order to accommodate them, it was necessary for us to find temporary housing for the first few days, as the center was already at full capacity. As is standard practice, each dog was submitted to both a medical and a behavioral evaluation over the following days so that we could assess the trajectory of every individual at our shelter. Thanks to the donations received from our supporters, 17 dogs and one mother with her 8 puppies have been saved from certain death, and will now receive the care and affection of our staff members.  

Adriana Susma, Director of Footprints of Joy, said: “We knew that the city council was planning a roundup of stray dogs in the city. We had had a meeting together a few weeks previously and were hoping for a delay in proceedings. When we received the news that the roundups had begun, we raced out to try and rescue as many strays as we could. We know that the fate of all captured animals is suppression, within days of their being rounded up. Despite the ongoing appeal by Save the Dogs and 17 other local associations, the local authorities at Cernavodă obstinately refuse to understand that removing the dogs from the streets resolves nothing at all: it simply gives the false impression for a certain period of time that the number of stray animals has decreased.”

We at Save the Dogs are moving on several fronts to try to stop these harmful actions that are neither sustainable nor ethical. Notwithstanding the lack of cooperation from the city administration, we will not be stopped!