Three companies recently signed contracts with the Bucharest municipality for gathering stray dogs from the streets of the Romanian capital city.

The city hall will pay about EUR 50 for each dog caught from the streets, which, with an estimated number of 65,000 dogs, would lead to a budget of around EUR 3.2 million.

The three winning firms are Elen Basic Business, whose main activity area is consultancy for business and management, Terra Marique and Best Marketing, both which have add-on activities for terrestrial transport.

Seven companies submitted offers for the contract. One, Puppy Vet, had not complied with the bid requirements, while Turbo Pet Mobil, Pet Stuff Univers and Radius vet withdrew from the bid.

The winners have already started catching the stray dogs from the streets of Bucharest, using 11 cars and 32 people compared to three cars and eight catchers, which is the normal staffing level of the Authority for Animal Protection and Supervision.

The teams of catchers are currently catching dogs from around schools and kindergartens, ahead of the start of the school year on September 16.

The next step will then be to catch the dogs in Bucharest's parks.

The Romanian Parliament recently approved the piece of legislation allowing stray dogs to be euthanized 14 days after being caught, if nobody adopts them. This was triggered by the death of a four-year old child who was fatally mauled by stray dogs.

editor@romania-insider.com