Florian Bichir: “The policemen who accompanied the American officials to Otopeni Airport had to slow down and wait for three stray dogs to cross the street.”
“New York Times” immediately added in its electronic page that: “president Bush’s security has different breed of assailant to guard against while he attends the meeting of NATO leaders” and referred to the city’s stray dogs.
The American newspaper depicts an apocalyptic Bucharest: “Special squads of dogcatchers are already stationed along the road from the airport to the Palace of the Parliament, where the meeting will be held this week, to prevent the beasts from harassing delegates on foot or nipping at the wheels of their motorcades. Meanwhile, the rest of the city remains under a worsening canine occupation. The city government reports that 9,000 people are bitten each year here by dogs, though those numbers include bites by strays and pets."
Sounds like a Hictchcock scenario, just that instead of birds, the dogs are keeping this city under siege and harass the delegates..
Bucharest, once named the “Little Paris”, was mentioned throughout the international media after a stray dog interrupted the first GT3 FIA race that ever took place in Romania. The dog slowly crossed the track and as he managed to get to the stands without being hit by any of the cars, it was scared away by the mechanics who tried to catch it. The dog went back to the tracks and barely got away from a fatal impact with the cars who were speeding at about 250 km/h in a straight line.
Add to that the fact that businessman Hajime Hori died after being bit by a stray dog in 2006, in downtown Bucharest, near the Government building. The emperor’s subject has already met his ancestors while “Boschito”, the stray dog became a star and emigrated.
Due to the lack of measures taken by the city’s administration, the stray dogs are now a national brand, although Bulgaria and Turkey had the same problem for years. Besides handicapped children, homeless people and beggars the stray dog add to the symbols that create Romania’s fame around the world.
”Evenimentul zilei” launched a campaign (“What can we do about the stray dogs?”) as we got enough of the lack of actions and arguments between animal rights organizations and the city’s government. The forum witnessed a series of fervent debates. Some accused us of instigating to a killing spree of the dogs, having forgotten that it’s forbidden by the law, while others asked us to wipe them out by any possible means.
We confronted radical and extreme solutions in a delicate matter, where the neutrality and moderation are already considered to be a sin. During the debate EVZ organized, the authorities faced the animal rights associations.
In a characteristic Romanian style, nothing was solved. The debate let us find out that no one currently knows how many dogs are on the streets these days, as the identification process was forgotten. They all agreed on the fact that the dogs must be neutered. Whether they’ll be kept in shelters or sent back to the streets after that, is already another question without an answer. At least we made another step!
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