04/09/13 5,000 Kuna for Discovering the Person Who Killed a Dog with a Firecracker!
Citizen who wished to remain anonymous offers donation to Animal Friends for punishing Beba's killer
- Died in a pool of blood with her face blown off: reward to the individual willing to testify against the person responsible for the dog’s death in order to result in a criminal conviction
The news of Sunday's tragedy in which an unfortunate female dog died in the throes of pain from the effects of a firecracker prompted an indignant citizen to contact the Animal Friends and offer a money reward for the finding and conviction of the person responsible for causing serious injury with a firecracker to the dog named Beba from Zagreb. The citizen, who wished to remain anonymous, offered a reward of 5,000 kuna to any individual whose report and testimony would lead to the sentence for the person responsible for harming and killing the dog.
The police are still searching for the person who threw a firecracker into a courtyard in Vrbik in Zagreb, causing the death of a mongrel female dog named Beba. The firecracker blew off Beba's lower jaw and tongue and took an eye, and left her staggering around the yard whimpering until she fell down and remained lying in shock in a great pool of blood. The police arrived 45 minutes later with a veterinarian, who had to euthanize Beba. The person who in a similar manner blew off the head of a dog named Misko with a firecracker in Galizana near Pula on the last New Year's Eve, also to date remains unknown to the police. Misko had to be euthanized due to serious injuries as well.
Citizens have been increasingly organizing themselves to save the animals, disgruntled with frequent cases of neglect, abuse and murder of animals, which often go unpunished. Last year activists from Association Victories of Osijek jumped a fence at a house in Beli Manastir and released two dogs whose lives were in danger, although the veterinary inspection had claimed that the dogs were not being neglected. Last month citizens took away a sick and malnourished St. Bernard from her owners in Zagreb after the veterinary inspection turned a deaf ear to numerous reports from the SUZA organization.
Citizens' reactions and the monetary donation for finding and convicting the perpetrator hint at the distrust that citizens have of the operation of relevant institutions. Severe neglect, torture and murder of animals is a criminal offence, punishable by law of up to a year in prison and the removal of the abused animal, but in most cases the police are unable to find perpetrators or do not respond to citizens' reports. The apathy of the veterinary inspection presents an even greater problem, for it is the only body which can legally help animals and punish owners, but in the majority of cases it respond to citizens' and organizations' reports by simply leaving the sick and abused animals to fend for themselves.
It is outrageous that the Ministries responsible leave it to compassionate citizens to take justice into their own hands in order to help other living beings since it is obvious that the police and veterinary inspection take no interest in animal protection, and the perpetrators go unpunished. The disregard for the citizens' and animal protection organizations' demands to establish the Animal Protection Inspection and the Animal Division of the police is another sign of the apathy of relevant institutions.
Citizens' actions openly state: we are sick of the animal abuse and killings that go unpunished; we are sick of the lack of enforcement of the law! Animal Friends reminds all that radical reform of the veterinary inspection is necessary in order to efficiently implement the Animal Protection Act and other legal provisions. We do not want animal abuse cases to remain just shocking and bloody news in the media, for that only serves to entice potential abusers to commit new massacres and mutilations. More specifically, abusers are aware that no harm will ever come to them in Croatia for blowing off an animal's head or mutilating and torturing animals in other horrendous ways due to the relevant institutions' reluctance to act.
A petition to reform the veterinary inspection can be found here.
You can find out more about a new case of the veterinary inspection's inaction in response to numerous reports of neglect and abuse of dogs on Animal Friends web site.