The civic association "Homeless Animals Without Borders" to AHV: Who is it for to have dogs on the street?

dogs
Homeless dogs / SP. archive

"The latest statement from the Food and Veterinary Agency to the daily newspaper "Sloboden Pechat" is the culmination of hypocrisy, ignorance and determination in the attempt to sabotage every effort by citizens, activists and associations related to reducing the population of homeless animals and opened more questions from the citizens with half-hearted and selective reasoning, rather than giving answers about their actions and competences" - they say to a reaction from the civil association "Homeless Animals without Borders", after AHV stated that veterinarians should not treat dogs without proof of their origin.

The AHV stated yesterday that, if the activists want to help deal with the problem of street dogs, they should report them to the municipality or directly to the shelter, whose teams will catch them and after carrying out all the necessary procedures, they can be given to the activists of housing.

Associations for the protection of animals have been in the function of the system for years, which undoubtedly institutionally fails in solving this problem. It fails, precisely because those whose competence is the solution of this problem and for which they are paid by the citizens, refuse to work in that direction and to cooperate with activists and associations. Not only do they refuse to work and cooperate, but they also continuously obstruct the work of these individuals, and through a five-fold increase in the prices for issuing certificates for change of ownership, which are often used by activists and associations in the process of housing homeless animals . So instead of 120 denars, now they pay 600 denars for this service - say in their reaction from the Association.

From there, they add that the Food and Veterinary Agency interprets freely The Law on the Protection and Welfare of Animals claiming that the municipalities are responsible for collecting the homeless animals, not the activists, and hence they believe that all homeless animals should be reported to an approved shelter for further treatment, which according to them is an illogical statement.

According to the official data available on the AHV website, the register of approved shelters includes a total of 18 shelters with a total capacity of 453 dogs. Out of 18 shelters, 4 are registered in the territory of the City of Skopje, with a total capacity to treat 211 dogs, or almost half of the capacity at the state level. This indicates that the rest of the country has a serious lack of capacity to deal with the homeless animal population. Furthermore, the existence of shelters means nothing in the context of the treatment of homeless animals. If a shelter does not have an agreement with a specific municipality (through public procurement), it cannot provide any services for treating and caring for homeless animals, because there is no one to pay for those services. At the moment, out of a total of 70 municipalities (with the exception of the City of Skopje, which is served by PE "Lajka") in the country, only 22 have concluded an agreement with some of these shelters for the services of catching and treating homeless animals (the data is taken from the system for e-procurement). In addition, some of the contracts are concluded for amounts that cover the treatment of a limited (and very small) number of animals, and the shelters may only act according to a previous order issued by the municipality, for a specific number of animals, in a specific location - reads the reaction from "Homeless Animals Without Borders".

They think that АXB as the competent authority for the implementation of the Law on the Protection and Welfare of Animals, it is obliged to possess this information, it is obliged to control whether the municipalities implement their responsibilities, it is obliged to control the fulfillment of the minimum legal conditions in the sheltersm a a large part of them, as they claim, they do not fulfill them despite the work permit received, and it must have the full picture of what problems citizens and animals are facing, before making statements that limit citizens from acting in the absence of a systemically functional solution.

- Unfortunately, all actions by the Food and Veterinary Agency indicate that it does not know the conditions on the ground at all, there is no scientific research on which to base its decrees, there is no strategy for action and dealing with the lack of interest of the municipalities to bear responsibility and respect the legal obligations, but also how they have a strategy to obstruct the efforts of the citizens who solve the problem on the ground with their own funds, despite the fact that they pay for these services to the state, the municipalities, the agency through taxes in order to implement their legal competences. So from here we ask again the unanswered question for years: Who is comfortable with dogs on the street? – respond from Mrnational association "Homeless Animals Without Borders".

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