I am reading an article from the Mail Online Dated 28 April 2013. It is just before the time that Romania joined the European Union. Members of the European Union need to be in alignment on a whole range of issues including animal welfare. This must happen otherwise they don’t fit in. Greece is a country which never fitted in with the European Union. They should not have been a member and they should not be part of the Eurozone. The EU pretty well destroyed this country.
But the European Union was overly keen on expanding membership and Romania joined resulting in mass emigration to wealthier northern European countries.
In this article in the Mail Online written by Liz Jones we see the dire state of affairs with respect to animal welfare in this, now, European Union country (at the date of this post having joined some years ago).
Liz Jones entered an animal shelter in the country and describes it as something like in the film Midnight Express. If you not familiar with that film it’s about a Turkish prison, a nightmare world full of pain, darkness and cruelty.
In this animal shelter (the word “shelter” is entirely inappropriate) there are eight dogs in each cage. Liz notices a small grey dog who is incredibly still and obviously utterly depressed. She has a vivid wound from a spraying operation.
The person on duty is a huge man who is known locally as The Butcher. He tried to avoid being photographed (it appears he succeeded). He picks up the small grey dog who suffered from cataracts, grabbed her by her leg and carted off like a carcass. He shoved her into a cage where she slumped onto the cold floor dejected and humiliated. There is no bedding, no water and no food. Liz Jones is compelled to do something about it.
She travelled to Romania, to this shelter with the three founders of the charity K-9 Angels. She opened the cage and scooped up this quiet dog who you can see in the photograph on this page. She wrapped her up in a hoody with the intention of smuggling her out of this hellhole.
She named the dog Hilda and tried to warm her up. The student who she was with haggles with The Butcher to allow them to take the dog out. This dog is one of 3 million strays in the country. The country is corrupt and the way animals are treated is mediaeval a Romanian lady says. She says that they are stoned in the street. Romanians throw puppies out and the dogs are beaten. She is ashamed.
Liz tells us that at a zebra crossing a pregnant female dog crossed the road and a car swerved to deliberately try to run over the dog. She met a black dog who had been picked up from the street. She had been beaten with an iron pole and was so traumatised that she had lost her ability to bark.
At that time almost 5 years ago, Madalina, the Romanian with whom Liz was talking, said that the best people will go to live in the UK and that is what has happened. This can’t be good for Romania and although I believe in immigration I do not believe in mass immigration on the scale which has happened.
Liz asked Madalina why the conditions at the shelter were so bad. She says that it is not the worst in the country. In a pound in the capital of Bucharest she said that dogs are so hungry that they eat each other. Each town has its pound animal but many dogs are simply killed by wardens before they get there.
There simply isn’t the money to deal with stray dogs humanely. The Romanian authorities disseminate propaganda saying that dogs taken to the UK are sold for meat.
Jumping forward; Hilder is now happily living in London. Although she was found to be suffering from hypothermia and polycystic ovaries. She was emaciated and placed on a drip and heated pad. Her veterinarian believes that Hilda would not have survived one more night in that ghastly pound.
The tragedy of all this is that the lazy bureaucrats who manage the European Union do not think to force Romania to improve their animal welfare. The laws are unenforced and their attitudein towards animals general are very poor, indeed backward and ignorant. This country should not be in the European Union. The Eurocrats have failed. Brexit followed. Next will be the gradual erosion and downfall of this failed attempt at a federal Europe.
