The European Parliament finally sent a clear signal to the European Commission approving by a majority the Declaration Deed 26 on the management of the European canine population. Launched by some Euro – MEPs among which the Romanian, Daciana Sarbu, Vice-President of Intergroup for Animal Welfare – the declaration demands development of a normative harmonic framework and above all encourages member states on three key themes in order to achieve an efficient management of straying: the identification and registration of dogs as well as their sterilization as the method of choice to control births.
The approval of the Declaration Deed comes on the eve of the policy document which has to define by the 31st of December 2011, the strategy of the EU (European Union) on animal welfare in the next 10 years, and represents the first step toward an extension of the expertise of the EU to pets which have so far been excluded from the European legislation and have relied solely on the choices made in each individual state. The massive handling of dog breeds from the eastern European countries and the seriousness of the endemic straying in reality like in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, have driven a growing number of members from the European parliament (under pressure from animal welfare associations like Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, Save the Dogs and many others), to sign a document that clears the way for future EU initiatives. The director of Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, Sonja Van Tichelen, participated in the conference on the welfare of pet animals, just having concluded in Riga, Latvia which also involved the president of Save the Dogs as speaker. The theme of responsible handling of dogs carried out by animal activist organizations was the theme dealt by Sara Turetta, who shared the stage with Jenny Vestlund, the president of Friends of Homeless Dogs, one of the partner associations of Save the Dogs in Romania. You can listen to the intervention of our president, in English, by viewing the video below, while all the presentations of the 2011 edition will be published shortly in the section Resources at the ICAWC website.