Dog owners will have to sterilize their dogs and those interested in adopting a dog from the municipality's shelter will have to pay a fee, according to a new Bucharest municipality project. The project of the General Council of Bucharest (CGMB), which is currently up for public debate sets a fee of RON 170 (or some EUR 38 ) for any individual or company that wants to adopt a dog from the Bucharest Municipality’s dog shelters. Adoption will however remain free of charge for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO).

Dogs may be adopted only by those who can prove they have good housing conditions, food and medical assistance, if this draft comes into force. Individuals and companies willing to adopt a dog will have to fill in an adoption form, while the NGOs can adopt dogs after signing a protocol with the Authority for the Supervision and Protection of Animals (ASPA), an institution subordinated to the Bucharest City Hall, according to the project.

The new CGMB project also requires that all dog owners in Bucharest with dogs older than six months to sterilize them within one year from the moment the decision comes into force. The only exceptions will be the working and hunting dogs registered at the Bucharest Kennel Club, the trained dogs of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as dogs whose health conditions cannot support the sterilization procedure. Also, any individual, company or NGO in Bucharest who owns dogs older than 4 months will have to register them at ASPA, within six months from the moment the decision comes into force, via a microchip implant and by completing a form.

According to representatives of the Bucharest Municipality, this new project is necessary as studies show that some 30 percent of the stray dogs in Bucharest come from “private abandon”, such as unwanted puppies or adult dogs. The project is up for public debate until April 30, 2013. The entire project under debate is here.

The first stray dogs census carried out in Romania showed that the number of dogs living on the streets of Bucharest amounts to a total of over 64,700, according to a partial count conducted by ASPA in September 2012. The error margin was of +/- 10 percent.

ASPA captured around 3,500 stray dogs in 2012. From this total number, some 2,000 were returned to the streets, 1,400 were adopted and over 40 were put down. Over 6,500 stray dogs were sterilized in Bucharest last year, with total costs of some EUR 200,000.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Photoxpress.com)