Death sentence issued for strays in Romania

Vlad Odobescu and Charles McPhedran | Special for USA TODAY

BUCHAREST, Romania — Prowling the dark streets of Bucharest, packs of stray dogs have been a major nuisance for years in this formerly communist country.

The curs tear through garbage and bite thousands of people a year, even killing three people. The mauling of a small child sparked outrage across the country and spurred the parliament to act over the objections of animal activists.

Tuesday, Romania's parliament voted to round up an estimated 64,000 stray dogs and have those that go unclaimed "euthanized."

The vote was welcome news to Andreea Felicia Anghel, mother of Ionut Anghel, the 4-year-old boy mauled to death last week while playing in a park.

"The dogs must be sent to shelters, and all possible measures need to be taken, so nothing like that happens ever again," she said.

The parliament acted after protests Sunday in which several hundred people came out with banners reading, "My country is not a kennel."

Romania's president has said he will sign the bill into law. A public referendum that had been scheduled to give residents the chance to decide the matter was canceled.

Animal activists called the vote barbaric and said they would take their case to the European Commission to get the law thrown out. Romania is part of the European Union.

"We would like to replace the word 'euthanasia' with 'killing,' because euthanasia sounds nice, but it's not being properly used," said Gabriel Paun, a spokesman for Four Paws, an animal rights group.

Dog attacks scar thousands of Romanians each year here. This year so far, 9,670 people have been treated for bites from stray dogs in the Romanian capital, according to Bucharest's Matei Bals hospital.

In recent years, a Bucharest woman was killed by a pack of strays, and a Japanese tourist died after a stray severed an artery in his leg.

Attila Biro, a journalist in Bucharest, says he called the city's dog-catchers Tuesday after a woman was bitten near his block.

"The dog was hidden in the block by a couple," Biro said. "Finally the dog catchers came, and they recovered the dog."

When pro-Soviet dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu was in power in the 1980s, he remade the capital by demolishing older homes and constructing Soviet-style high-rise apartment buildings. Many of Bucharest's 2 million residents were forced into the new apartments from which pets were banned, so they had to abandon their animals to the streets.

Ceaucescu and his wife were executed by firing squad Dec. 25, 1989, after they were caught trying to flee the country amid protests against his rule.

McPhedran reported from Berlin