Matasari town
2009
On March, we went back to Matasari in order to check if the municipality caught dogs anymore. Fortunately, the shelter was empty and we had a chat with the director of the society belonging to town hall. He said that until the town hall don’t provide the legal ways to settle a special service ( as the law asks) for stray dogs, he will not deal with this problems anymore and that when they will decide to do something they will contact us. In the same time, he complained about the so many strays wondering free around town.
2008
In September we received some calls from an animal lover telling us about the stray dogs situation in Matasary and how the dogs are caught and kept to starve in a so called shelter. Now, the mayor gave, illegal, this activity of catching dogs to a commercial society. The city hall built 3 kennels !!! where this society caught 55 and they were keeping them there, eating each other. The owner of this society received from the city hall , unofficial, 1 Euro for the daily food.
When we went there with the DSV inspectors for the first time, that owner didnt let us in for 2 hours while he cleaned and put some food to boil.
Bellow is the "food": some cereals( that are meant for farm animals) bioled in a pot.
Even the DSV inspectors were astonished by this situation and by what they found there. Officially and legally this "shelter" dont exist anywhere. After days of pressures, many articles and broadcasts in massmedia, we together with the Police and SVD free all the dogs, until there will be something better there.
2005
In February 2004 we sent press articles and emails to the European Parliament informing them about the stray dogs hunting and asking them to take measures. It seems that they took into account our intimations and requested to the Romanian Government to investigate what happened and to present them a report.
Two office wokers from the National Sanitary Veterinary Authority came to Tg-JIu to investigate what happend last February. When they met "Pro Animals’ representatives they started threatening them saying that they bring big prejudices to the country by informing abroad and they must be carrefull……….
Although Pro Animals made the intimations based on proofs, the office workers listened only what those who organized the hunting ( the mayor of Matasary, the former director of SVD, Ana Telescu, The Chief of the HUnters’ Agency, NIcolae Tonca,)had to say. They didn’t ask Pro Animals to present them their proofs, like tapes, witnesses, press articles etc in order to have an objective report.
Finally, after their ‘ investigations’ their unofficial ( for the moment) conclusions were " the hunting was legal" and " no one can be punished". Unfortunately, the report which contains wrong informations, will be forwarded to the European Parliament.
But, we can’t let things like this. Dogs were hit with shovels, clubs, chased and shot under our eyes.
We are waiting to receive from NSVA the official report and will see what’ s to be done. Probably, we will send again all the documents we have to the European Parliament informing them about this visit and about the coruption from
September 2004
Unfortunately, despite our proofs they were find not quilty by the Court of Law from Tg-Jiu
June 2004
A good news and a big accomplishment is that thanks to all the protests letters received by the authorities from the animal lovers from all over the world, and also to all the intimations we made to the national authorities and to the local newspapers, the Director of DSV, Ana Telescu was dismissed from her position, due to the
We also made a penal complaint aganist her and against the mayor, Gaspar Gheorghe, to the Court of Law and to the Police. They are now under investigation.
7th of February 2004, Matasari locality, mayor – Gheorghe Gaspar.
On Friday night ( 6th of February 2004) we received a phone call that on Saturday, 7th of February, in Matasari will take place the same action, of shooting the stray dogs, organized by the mayor of that village, Gheorghe Gaspar, in co-operation with The County Association of the Hunters
So, on 7th of February, in the morning we arrived there together with two journalists from two local newspapers: Roxana Stoian – "Impact in Gorj" and Mihaela Barceanu – " Informatia Gorjului".
What we saw is beyond imagination: people that receive social help from the city hall , armed with shovels , stones, clubs , in their hands, were chasing the stray dogs( were hitting them in the heads) between the blocks and forward them towards the hunters who were shooting them. There were nightmare scenes that may seem incredible.
The dogs that had been shot were collected by those people and there corps were put into a trailer and carried away.
We tried to stop all this slaughter but it was impossible.It seemed that all the inhabitants were involved in this, it was like a uprising. No one listen us, people were behaving very bad, rude with us , some tried even to hit us, the car, to scare and threaten us. We were just four and they were almost an entire village.
We filmed some scenes but we couldn’t do more because the driver of the trailer tried many times to run over a Pro Animals’ representative with the trailer. Also the hunters headed the gun towards us, threaten us and wanted to take our camera. We managed to film a little inside the trailer, which was full of dead dogs.
We were completely shocked, we couldn’t belive people can be so savage, one can see their hate in their eyes.
Afterwards, we went to the city hall and at the police from Matasari. We saw the documents were the mayor, Gaspar Gheorghe, asked the Hunters Agency’s help for shooting the dogs. It was all on the papers.
The two journalists from the local newspaper wrote many articles about this. We contacted some national newspapers which wrote some articles about this slaughter.
We sent many intimations to the romanian authorities and also launched an international letter of protest againts this illegal and inhumane hunting.
The director of DSV (Sanitary Veterinary Direction) from that time, Ana Telescu,( who was aware of the hunting and with whose agreement took place this slaughter) deliberatly wrong informed the romanian authorities and affirmed that the hunting was necesary because there was a rabies area in Matasari. According to the chief of the DSV laboratory and to many other proofs this was a lie because there wasn’t any rabies area.
So, this action was not only an illegal one but very cruel and inhumane.
You can read more about the stray dogs’ hunting that took place in Matasari in February 2003 and 2004 in the press articles from the PRESS.
"PRESS RELEASE"
For immediate publication
SCANDALOUS ILLEGAL SLAUGHTERING OF STRAY DOGS IN MATASARI – ROMANIA
On Saturday, 7th of February 2004, Pro Animals representatives, accompanied by two local journalists, witnessed and partially filmed the mass slaughter of the stray dogs of Matasari, a small village located about 300 km from
The massacre has been organized by the mayor of Matasari, Gaspar Gheorghe, who officially requested the intervention of the Hunters Agency to shoot the strays. Most of the habitants of Matasari also participated to the slaughter. Armed with shovels, stones, clubs, they were chasing the strays, hitting them in the head, followed by the hunters who were shooting the dogs.
Pro Animals strongly condemn this cruel and absurd slaughter, which has been executed in complete illegality regarding the law of stray dogs’ management. Such a slaughter also took place the last two years in Matasari, on the same date.
Despite numerous protests from Pro Animals towards the Court of Law, the Police, and some Ministers, Romanian authorities remain indifferent to these scandalous violations of the law that take place in Matasari and in other municipalities."
8th of February 2003, Matasari locality, mayor – Gheorghe Gaspar.
An action of shooting the stray dogs took place on 8th of February 2003 in Matasari locality, ( a small village near Tg-Jiu, 30 km distance) Gorj county, from the order of the mayor in co-operation with The County Association of the Hunters, director Nicolae Tonca.
Because we had many proofs ( video tape, photos, a body of a dead dog shot etc) we sent many intimations to the romanian authorities ( Court of Law, the Police, some Ministers etc) who , unfortunately, didn’t take any measure in order to punish those responsible for this slaughter.
Postat in Matasari |
