10/11/24 Dogs at Karepovac Could Have Been Burned Alive Because Split Lacks a City Shelter!
The associations warn that the City of Split must provide shelter-level conditions for confiscated dogs
- Already traumatized dogs lack housing, bedding, and socialization, are confined to their kennels, and the workers urinate in the bushes
After the relocation to temporary accommodation in Karepovec of 42 remaining dogs out of the 60 or so that the Split psychiatrist Tomislav Pelivan kept in captivity for dog fighting, relocationto temporary accommodation in Karepovec, there was hope that Split would finally address the issue of abandoned and abused animals. But after a fire broke out a few days ago at the Karepovac landfil, the only thing that could have fatally affected the dogs placed in the boxes in the immediate vicinity was the direction of the wind, which would have carried the smoke towards their temporary kennels. Representatives of several shelters, which are members of the Animal Protection Network, urgently headed to Split and took over several dogs that were in the boxes most exposed to the smoke. But they were shocked by the inadequate conditions in which they found the dogs.
"At Karepovac, the dogs lack even the basics like housing and bedding, lying on bare concrete or wooden planks, and the storm and cold come and the frightened dogs have nowhere to hide. They do not leave the kennels because there is no space for walking, running and socializing, leading to muscle atrophy and poor mental health. The staff’s facilities are unusable, with no electricity or sanitation, forcing them to relieve themselves in the bushes. Access to the shelter is difficult, especially when the weather is bad. There is no website or publicly available information about the dogs. All of this is completely unacceptable, and the dogs are deteriorating physically and mentally," they say from the Animal Protection Network, representing 56 animal protection organizations.
They also add that a few months ago they contacted the foreign organization Network for Animals, from which they offered the help of a behaviourist to assess and socialize the dogs free of charge for the City of Split. They also asked for information on the price of dog houses. However, the City of Split has not yet responded to numerous attempts to establish communication regarding this offer of help, which is very necessary for the dogs and favourable for the authorities in the City of Split.
"It is worrying that the dogs are in some kind of temporary accommodation, which cannot exist independently, without any legal regulation of the conditions of keeping animals. In order for such accommodation to be considered acceptable, it must be under the responsibility of a registered animal shelter and the conditions in it must not be lower than in a registered shelter that must operate in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation on the conditions that animal shelters must meet", warns Animal Friends Croatia. They point out that the dogs could have died during the fire due to the lack of an evacuation plan.
The city of Split currently keeps dogs in inadequate housing without legal regulation, thus violating the Animal Protection Act and the shelter guidelines that clearly requires the conditions for keeping dogs in shelters, none of which are met. "We urge the City of Split to urgently fulfill all legally required conditions and ensure that the registered shelter that takes care of dogs in temporary housing can provide dogs with conditions equal to those in the shelter. We appeal to the City of Split to start construction and registration of its own shelter for abandoned animals as soon as possible", says Animal Friends Croatia.
The associations advocate that all shelters in Croatia be registered with the Ministry of Agriculture and be under the supervision of a veterinary inspection in order to ensure the welfare of the animals. They point out that by registering their shelter, Split will reduce the allocation of financial resources for the care of abandoned and confiscated animals in the long term. At the same time, they point to the city of Dubrovnik as a positive example, which, after taking care of dogs in an unregistered shelter in ®arkovica, established its own shelter to which previously unadopted dogs were transferred, solved the problem of taking care of abandoned animals and already concluded contracts with some local communities. Dubrovnik has even taken in some of the most vulnerable dogs from Karepovac.
Therefore, the associations emphasize that this horrific case, where a psychiatrist bred dogs for dog fighting, is just one of many that have yet to be discovered, as well as that Split has a permanent problem with abandoned dogs and a lack of shelters. That's why Animal Friends Croatia and the Animal Protection Network launched a petition for Split, as the second largest city in Croatia, to build its own registered shelter for abandoned animals.
