Petycja do organów UE o ochronie bezdomnych zwierząt

Atha

Petycja na rzecz wprowadzenia rezolucji o ochronie życia bezdomnych zwierząt w UE

Cztery organizacje złożyły 23.04.2009 w Komisji EU w Brukseli wniosek o wprowadzenie rezolucji dotyczącej ochrony życia bezdomnych psów w Europie. Petycję podpisało prawie 60 000 osób, ponieważ jednak potrzeba przynajmniej 100 000 głosów, nadal zbierane są podpisy. Oto angielska wersja treści złożonego listu:

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych] (na samym dole strony; abschicken- wyślij, przy Anrede proszę wybrać Herr-pan lub Frau-pani, Vorname-imię, Name-nazwisko, PLZ-kod, Ort- miejscowość, Land-kraj, -oznaczone gwiazdką pola są konieczne do wpisu danych):

Mrs. Androula Vassiliou
Commissioner for Health
European Commission
B-1049 Brussels
21. April 2009
“Vaccination and Birth Control is better than Culling”
Handover of 60 000 individually signed European Resolution for Stray Animals
in the European Union
Dear Mrs. Commissioner Vassiliou,
dear Mr, Tod,
first of all we all want to express our thanks, having the opportunity to hand over
personally to the European Commission, the signed Resolutions of about 60.000
European citizens from nearly all Member States to end the suffering of Stray
Animals in Europe. Add to this the fact that we still receive new signatures daily
proves the serious Europe-wide engagement of European citizens for these forgotten
animals on the streets of Europe.
Who we are and whom we are representing
Our four Animal Welfare Organisations together are representing the wishes and
concerns of more than half a million European citizens. Firstly, an overview of our
organisations and their differing focuses so you can see our cooperative and
constructive attitude:
The Bund gegen Missbrauch der Tiere is one of the leading Animal welfare
Organisations in Germany and is running Stray Animals Projects in Romania,
politically working on that topic and initiated the Resolution with an event in January
2008.
The Europäische Tier- und Naturschutz e.V. is an Animal Welfare Organisation
working throughout Europe, based in Germany, with projects and partners for stray
animals in many European Members States.
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Tasso e.V. is a an Animal Welfare association based on a private companion animal
registration database with more than 2.5 million members with 4.5 millions registered
animals in Germany and now supporting the development of registration systems of
companion and stray animals in Romania and other EU Member States.
The international Animal Welfare Foundation VIER PFOTEN – Stiftung für
Tierschutz, based in Vienna, has affiliates in eight countries, seven of them in
European Memberstates plus the European Policy Office in Brussels - working on
stray animal projects in many Member States and politically in Brussels e.g. by
organizing a Parliamentary evening and conference on this topic (in association with
the Bund gegen Mißbrauch der Tiere) in October 2008 in Brussels.
What we ask for:
To end the suffering of the stray animals in the European Union by supporting
the respective Member States to end the problem by a systematic and science
based approach and practical help for prevention and sustainable measures
Herewith we ask again urgently the European Union for a European wide solution of
the growing problem of the stray animals on the streets particularly in South- and
South Eastern Europe and the legal responsibility of the European Union for these
animals.
Facts and status quo in Southern and South East Europe
The reason for our serious and urgent demand of the European citizens, represented
by us, and supported by the European Parliament, is the ongoing cruelty to these
helpless animals by catching and killing them in various brutal ways. Dogs are shot,
strangled or beaten to death, sometimes even in full public view. In some so called
‘shelters’ there is a well developed grey or black market with the collection of animals
for money but not taking care of them. Dogs and cats are left to die in an awful way,
receiving no food or water. In some shelters or institutions, dogs or cats are killed
using the cheapest poisons, leaving the animals dead only after struggling for their
lives for hours or days. There are lot of recorded events, we are sure you are aware.
Please be aware, these are ‘real time’ documentaries and this documented daily
cruelty is unacceptable to see or ignore in the streets and backyards in European
Member States.
Our arguments
Stray animals are companion animals gone wild (usually due to abandonment)
and therefore in the scope of the Community Animal Health Strategy and the
legal competence of the European Union has to be considered.
The solution is the implementation of strategies for these animals in the scope of the
Community Animal Health Strategy “Prevention is better then cure”. We
welcome this headline, developed originally for the farm animals, as millions of
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healthy animals having been culled ‘en masse’ due to fear of epidemics. This was a
shock for the European citizens and since then they are paying closer attention to the
ethics of animals and food production. The approach of the “one Health Strategy” of
the EU leads also to the strict enforcement of regulations meaning healthy stray
dogs, who are wildered companion animals, are also brutally killed. Companion
animals like dogs and cats have been domesticated for more than 3000 years and
are expressively mentioned in the scope of the Strategy. So this strategy, taken in
context for the population of stray animals means “Vaccination and birthcontrol is
better than culling”. The European Parliament has amended this in their official
decision of June 2008 in the amendments Nr 16. and 20.
We also need a strategy for companion animals, as there is a growing movement of
people in the European Union with their companion animals. A further argument is
the climate change that will lead us inevitably to new geographical zoonoses risks
also regarding stray animals, e.g. Leishmaniose.
1. Killing of the stray animals is no sustainable solution
As it is proven by statistics and science based research by the WHO and some other
institutes, killing is not leading to a sustainable result, as the habitat’s capacity will
recreate a pack in a few years. We can present you herewith the summary of the
current best practices in India by the leading Animal Welfare Organisation there.
2. Killing of stray animals does not mirror the Animal Welfare Principle of the
Amsterdam Treaty (Protocol 31)
Stray animals are part of the European civilisation. Therefore, the killing of these
animals is neither a tradition nor an act of religious rites or part of the cultural heritage
therefore there’s no derogation of the protection of these animals.
The protection of the animals will be strengthened too in the draft Lisbon Treaty,
there the animal welfare is even in the proper text of the treaty. This also shows the
growing meaning and impact of animal welfare in Europe.
Another aspect is that the cruel methods used to kill these animals in the streets (as it
happens very often) is giving a very bad example for the children and the public and
is also hindering an ethical based development of those societies. This approach of
showing cruelty as a normal behaviour is ‘numbing’ the society to the truelly shocking
nature of the animals deaths and deeply contradicts our educational projects and
teaching respect and responsibility for animals as sentient beings in schools.
3. We need a European wide compulsory registration of companion and stray
animals
To create the culture of responsibility of humans for their animals – this is the ethical
outcome of the basic principle in the Treaty – this responsibility has to be
strengthened by law and implemented as strictly as possible. This might also support
the control of the movement of animals and the illegal trade of puppies, the control of
diseases and to get relevant data about stray dog population development.
4. We need an information and communication strategy for the European
citizens in the respective Member States
As some of the old Member States (in the Southern part) and almost all new Member
States (in the Eastern part) of Europe don’t have a tradition or a have a legal roman
tradition – and more than this no experience of Animal Protection - the population
has to be educated and informed, from a young age, in schools. The public has to be
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informed as well. They have to be aware that stray animals as comperse of nature
also need our respect and are part of our society.
On the political and professional level the respective target groups like veterinarians
and juridical and administration citizens have to be educated and trained. Here we
count on the future European Animal Welfare Centre, mentioned in the Community
Animal Welfare Action Plan.
5. We need a European wide and systematic birth control and vaccination
program in the respective European Member States
As there are some hotspots in Member States and in countries where the
government and the municipalities have not enough financial and personal capacity,
there has to be training and some unique support measures, as investment in
professional solutions.
What our organisations have done
Our organisations have so far given many projects an enormous amount of financial
support and information. More than this hundreds of thousands of private and
independently acting people in these respective countries have spent a high amount
of money to bring to an end, the unnecessary suffering of stray animals. These
projects already show positive results in some regions and cities, also assisting on
the legislative level in some Member States like Romania and Bulgaria.
However, as long as the European Union is not competent, there are limits. The high
number of stray dogs populations is asking for a unique and systematic and
comprehensive control.
The political support in these countries is needed and investment of money has to be
distributed effectively, monitored and controlled in a professional way. In some cases
the national veterinary services and the mayors want to be active and want to spend
money but don’t have a budget for this activities.
Finally, as long as there is no legal competence of the European Union, and no
sanctions by not taking the rule of law, the decision making political persons will not
respect even the existing laws and certainly will not give any financial resources for
this topic. They will continue to kill using the barbaric methods described previously.
This is beyond the limit of permissable activities of the citizens, deeply unhappy with
this current climate and demanding change. There have to be developed systematic
solutions, politically and legally supported Europe wide and on European standards,
starting in the hot spots.
As long as there exists this limitation in the economic and personal capacity and in
the political will of the respective persons – even with the support of hundreds of
thousands of single solutions and projects - there will be no sustainable solution to
end the suffering of these animals in Europe.
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We offer cooperation to the European Union
As part of a public private partnership the Animal Welfare Organisations are able to
continue supporting the Member States to solve the problem with proven projects,
birth control measures, vaccination, education, training and consulting. But there is
the need that the European Union shows its legal competence and will support
European training projects (e.g. TAIEX programs) where there are not enough
resources in the Member states.
We have started various activities and we would like to also support the European
activities in any way possible.
Finally we thank you for your open minded attitude and hope we can continue this
dialogue either personally or in the framework of the advisory board of the animal
health strategy.
With kind regards
Bund gegen Missbrauch e.V.
Europaeischer Tier- und Naturschutz e.V. (ETN)
Tasso e.V.
Vier Pfoten - Stiftung für Tierschutz

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