PHOTO / VIDEO Protest in front of the Parliament after the Suraia shelter scandal. “Dogs are not goods”
Photo source: SacheVet Association
A protest organized by several associations for the protection of animals takes place on Sunday in front of the Parliament, after the revelations regarding the private shelter in Suraia, Vrancea county, where images of mistreated and killed animals appeared.
The protest is scheduled from 16:00 to 19:00 and is organized by Animal Justice, Ramses Association, Kola Kariola and Sache Vet Association. Several hundred people participate in the demonstration, according to the images broadcast by Digi24.
“We are protesting against the breeders and the authorities! Dogs are not goods. Vetmedan is not an isolated case,” the organizers said in a public message. They say this is not a single incident, but “systemic cruelty” and “death paid for with public money”.
Actress Carmen Tănase and stand-up artist Drăcea, who heads the Ramses Association, are also present at the event.
In the message published before the protest, the organizers also refer to images filmed in a shelter managed by the Association “Support Dogs – Paun” and announce that new revelations will follow.
“Private shelters subscribed to with public money can no longer be called shelters. When the goal becomes profit and the result is death, the real name is different,” they said.
The case of the dogs killed in Suraia
The case of the dog shelter in Suraia commune, Vrancea county, came into focus after images captured by a camera of tortured and killed dogs were published on the social networks of an NGO for the protection of animals.
The activity of the shelter has been suspended. The NGOs went to the site to take over the animals that remained alive, and Marius Chircă, the founder of the Kola Kariola NGO, said that all the more than 200 dogs found alive were removed from the Suraia shelter.
“When I was there, the gentlemen from the DSV and the Animal Police said: “Can you take these dogs on Monday?”. The NGOs in Romania proved to them that all the dogs could be taken from Sunday, not from Monday, leaving them today quietly in the office to do their work regarding the problem in Suraia”, Chircă declared, on Monday in a live on the Facebook page of the NGO Kola Kariola.
Marius Chircă criticized the reaction of the authorities and the measures taken so far. “We are all angry at the way the authorities are handling the matter.” He also claimed that dead bodies of dogs and containers of a substance used for euthanasia, under special regime, were found around the shelter.
“I saw that around the shelter were found dead bodies of dogs and bottles of an extremely dangerous substance that kills. How these substances with special regime got around the shelter, God knows. In the second second, the Environmental Guard was supposed to be there,” he declared.
Tens of thousands of dogs killed for 9 million euros, public money
The case of the shelter in Suraia, Vrancea, is not a singular one. Investigative website Snoop discovered another shelter that is being targeted with charges such as “killing animals with unlawful intent.” It is about the shelter of the Aspa Ivets Association in Uzunu village, Giurgiu county, which has ten criminal cases, all opened in the last five years. It still works now.
Snoop also revealed that more than 64,000 dogs were euthanized in Romania in the last three years, half of them at four shelters managed by veterinarians who turned the procedure into a business. This is because the public policy of the state is built in such a way as to encourage the killing of dogs, and the costs have exceeded 9 million euros.
