A Japanese man was killed in Bucharest, Romania on Sunday January 29th, when he was bitten by a stray dog and bled to death. The stray dog bit him and severed a major artery.
As a result of this tragedy, the Romanian government is going to improve their program for dealing with the stray dogs. They plan to only allow an unclaimed dog to spend 3 days in confinement before they "put it down", among other things like sterilization. They had planned several year ago to begin immediately killing all captured stray dogs, but the Brigitte Bardot Foundation fought them on grounds that it was inhumane.
Interestingly enough, their website hasn’t updated the news section to reference this story, but instead headlines with "Once again, Romania distinguished itself in matters of animal cruelty." and talks about the latest victims – bears and wolves. It seems to me that the latest victim is a result of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation’s programs and not Romania’s animal cruelty.
To me their is no excuse for putting a captured stray animal back on the street. If the BBF doesn’t want them killed, then they should pay for the upkeep of the animals with their own money, or Romania should relocate them to France. At the very least, the foundation should help the family of the victim bitten by the dog that they helped keep on the streets.
Having lived in Romania, I’ve got several unique and funny stories about the wildlife in the streets. My wife likes to tell the story about the time I battled a pack of stray dogs with a broomstick, apparently it was pretty funny to watch…
One more thing you have to see to believe… In Romania, the stray dogs actually use the crosswalks to cross streets! They will walk down the sidewalk to a crosswalk, wait for the light to turn green, and only cross on the green light. "Natural selection" in action??? I can’t explain it, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes countless times…
Tags: Romania, stray dogs, Bucharest, Brigitte Bardot, Bucuresti, animal rights
This is a great picture of how Eastern Europeans handle disasters. If life hands you lemons… This dude is water skiing on the streets in Belgrade, Serbia. 
