An Open Letter to Minister Jakovina, Media, Citizens...

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Since the responsible authorities ignore comments from citizens, associations and professions by implementing policies that exclusively serve personal interests and oppose elementary logic and common sense, we demand an urgent meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, mister Jakovina, in the name of NGOs, rescue animal shelters and concerned citizens.

We hereby appeal to our citizens to demand from the responsible Ministry and ministers as well as the Croatian government to review the work of veterinary inspectors in order to prevent further jeopardizing an already incomplete animal care system.

Dear Minister, media, citizens...

... is Croatia, being only a step away from the EU, under the threat of a total collapse of the system (if it can even be called a system!) of taking care of and homing rescue animals?

CROATIA TODAY

The practice so far in the Republic of Croatia, with some exceptions, consisted mainly of wastefully spending taxpayers' money to murder rescued animals.

Local self-government units have signed a large number of multi-million contracts with private vet stations whose pounds officially became shelters, and therefore those who run them are supposedly animal protectors and at the public's service. A few exceptions are represented by some units of the local self-government that do not kill their dogs and who spend their taxpayers' money responsibly. Although rare, these exceptions prove that a different way is possible. Out of the total 24 registered shelters only six do not kill their animals, and out of the six only one is run by a private veterinary practice.

Parallel to this lucrative business allowed and approved by our state, NGOs, activists and volunteers are trying to organize a system that the state couldn't - they are founding shelters, rescuing dogs from the pounds, homing, undertaking spay/neutering programs, educating children, the young, the elderly... all with the donations from the same citizens on whose account the private vet stations make multi-million annual profits.

It is not only that our state does not make any effort to build a functional, sustainable and humane system that will be used to permanently and systematically solve the problem by introducing education programs, prevention and spaying/neutering of street animals and so on, but also the efforts of those who work on this problem are being sabotaged through the responsible institutions.

ABSURDITIES THE LOCAL WAY

The latest such move, which is the motive behind this letter, is the implementation of Article 23 of the Ordinance of conditions that need to be satisfied by animal shelters, which orders shelters (where the dogs are micro-chipped and vaccinated against rabies!) to check the effectiveness of the vaccine!?

Article 23 of the Ordinance prescribes keeping the vaccinated dogs on observation in the shelter for six months after being given the vaccine or testing the number of titre anti-bodies which is done following the vaccination and serves as proof that the vaccination is working.

This kind of practise does not exist anywhere in Europe! There are no shelters outside our borders that are obligated to undertake such a practice.

The controversial testing is done worldwide only in the event of animal border crossing - when animals enter our country from countries known to have a high risk of rabies.

Why does Croatia, categorized as a country free of urban rabies, treat its shelters the same as it would the animals coming from countries with a high risk of rabies? There are many absurd and non-logical facts: citizens can adopt a dog straight from the street and have him/her vaccinated and chipped at the vets, without checking for titre anti-bodies, however, a dog that ends up in a shelter should go through the long winded procedure of staying at the shelter and being homed. Furthermore, a dog that’s been adopted for example in Slovenia, can cross the Croatian border providing he/she has been vaccinated and micro-chipped, whilst a dog from a Croatian shelter, in order to be adopted, also must pass the titre test.

The implementation of the disputed article would signal the collapse of the homing system for shelters in Croatia, as due to the prescribed procedure, dogs in shelters must spend a minimum of 40 days there or 6 months if the testing is not carried out.

What happens to the 18 shelters that murder dogs after 60 days? Those dogs have no chance of being adopted. Most of them received the death sentence the day they were brought to the shelter.

For years, veterinary inspectors have ignored the provisions of Article 23, aware that it is illogical and unjust and not able to be implemented in practice.

The new Ordinance is being made and therefore it is logical to expect that the controversial article should be left out, however, with little regard for common sense, the intention of the veterinary inspection is to prescribe the same article in the new Ordinance, and vet inspectors have in the meantime begun ordering shelters to carry out this article that has been ignored for years!

Apart from the obvious absurdity of the disputed article, its implementation would cause additional unnecessary expenses, which is another blow to shelters that don’t kill the animals.

In Croatia we vaccinate foxes orally and there has been no record of an increase in rabies, and the last case of rabies in humans was noted in 1964.

The purpose of this measure obviously isn't rabies prevention and citizen protection, also proven by another absurd fact that cats don't have to be vaccinated against rabies, even though all the statistics show that cats are the most common rabies carriers.

By manipulating the dangers of rabies, veterinary inspection could destroy the current dog homing system and the control over rabies containment, compromise its professional work, and lose the public's trust.

Since the responsible authorities ignore comments from citizens, associations and professions by implementing policies that exclusively serve personal interests and oppose elementary logic and common sense, we demand an urgent meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, mister Jakovina, in the name of NGOs, rescue animal shelters and concerned citizens.

We appeal to all citizens to demand from the responsible Ministry and ministers as well as the Croatian government to question the work of veterinary inspectors in order to prevent further jeopardizing an already incomplete animal care system.

We hope that the amended Ordinance of conditions that will encourage instead of boycott the homing of rescue animals will be enforced and so we expect an urgent response from the Minister on this matter.

Association Victories, protection and promotion of animal rights (Udruga Pobjede, zastita i promicanje prava zivotinja), Osijek
Animal Friends (Udruga Prijatelji zivotinja), Zagreb
Animal shelter of the association Salvation (Sloniste za zivotinje Udruge Spas), Varazdin
Animal shelter of the veterinary station Felix (Skloniste za zivotinje veterinarske stanice Feliks), Virovitica
Animal shelter Friends (Skloniste za zivotinje Prijatelji), Cakovec
Animal Protection Association Alliance SUZA Zagreb (Savez udruga za zastitu zivotinja grada Zagreba)
Croatian association of animal protectors Noah's Ark (Hrvatska udruga zastitnika zivotinja Noina Arka)
Association for animal protection Snoopy (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja Snoopy), Pula
Association for animal protection Give Paw (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja Daj sapu), Vukovar
Society for animal protection Dubrovnik (Drustvo za zastitu zivotinja Dubrovnik)
Sibenik youth association S.U.M. (Sibenska udruga mladih S.U.M.), Sibenik
Association for animal protection "Rocco" Vinkovci (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja "Rocco" Vinkovci)
Association for welfare and protection of cats "Mijau" Rijeka (Udruga za dobrobit i zastitu macaka "Mijau" Rijeka)
Association for animal protection Hand to Paw (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja Ruka Sapi), Pula
Association for animal protection Victus (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja Victus), Slavonski Brod
Association Golden Age (Udruga Zlatno doba), Ivanic Grad
Association for animal protection Happy Paw (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja Sretna sapa), Novi Vinodolski
Little Paw - Association for animal protection (Sapica-Udruga za zastitu zivotinja), Zapresic
Association for welfare and protection of cats "9 Lives" (Udruga za dobrobit i zastitu macaka "9 zivota"), Osijek
Association for abandoned and wounded animals HappyEnd (Udruga za napustene i ranjene zivotinje HappyEnd), Pazin
Association of animal lovers "Brave Pero" (Udruga ljubitelja zivotinja "Hrabri Pero"), Slatina
Association for animal protection "Little Paw" (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja "Mala sapa"), Novska
Animal friends society Faun (Drustvo prijatelja zivotinja Faun), Kutina
Association for animal protection Jolly Friends (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja Veseli prijatelji), Daruvar
Association for animal protection "Sirius" (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja "Sirius"), Pozega
Association for welfare and protection of cats "Pussy" (Udruga za dobrobit i zastitu macaka ''Maca''), Osijek
Association Stop speciesism! (Udruga Stop specizmu!), Zagreb
Association for animal protection Futura (Udruga za zastitu zivotinja Futura), Zagreb
Association for protection and promotion of animal rights Rina (Udruga za zastitu i promicanje prava zivotinja Rina), Sesvete
Association for helping rabbits and hares "Zecovi" (Udruga za pomoc zecevima i kunicima "Zecovi"), Zagreb

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