Two years ago, the Mayor of Tirana launched a CNVR program. It seemed a good program: it envisaged the catching, registration, vaccination, sterilization, tagging and release of stray dogs into their territory. Five veterinarians were and still are entrusted with the treatment of stray dogs.

However, this is only paper: fact is, dogs are killed. People witness that stray dogs are caught and never come back. The same is happening with already treated and tagged dogs.

Animal rights organizations in Albania have recently discovered that the Consumer Department bought T61- more exactly, an amount enough to kill 3,300 dogs. Actually, they just got confirmation of what they had feared for a very long time.

T61 is a euthanizing agent that contains a curare-like paralyzing drug. Its use is enormously cruel and highly controversial. The concern is that if T-61’s paralyzing ingredient took effect before the tranquilizing component, it would paralyze an animal’s breathing before the sedative component kicked in. This could cause extreme distress to the animal – conscious but paralyzed and unable to breathe. Yet almost without exception, the use of neuromuscular blocking agents in animal euthanasia is considered unethical. The vast majority of animal euthanasia is carried out by means of sodium pentobarbital, and there is strong consensus among humane organizations and veterinary groups that this is the single most humane euthanasia method.

This picture is the proof of stray dogs’ bitter fate. It contains part of the list of medicines that the Consumer department signed after the tender. Look at number eight: 230 vials of 50 ml. The quantity needed to put a dog down is JUST 5 ML.

It means that the mayor and his thugs came up with a plan to kill 2,300/2,500 dogs per year.

This is the clinic where stray dogs are supposed to be neutered. 

The number of stray dogs in Tirana has actually reduced. But that had nothing to do with the supposed CNVR campaign, but because of a murderous and criminal campaign. The practice of killing stray dogs is inhumane. Moreover, it does not constitute a lasting solution. No sterilization means that the dog population will increase again and again. This is a short-sighted policy because it costs the state without end and most important, because it causes the death of countless innocent lives. The only humane solution is CNVR.

An effective CNVR program should be combined with:

Awareness-raising measures targeting the population as a whole and the children in particular, and

Actions targeted to assure a responsible dog ownership, that include the registration of dog owners and the microchipping and tagging of dogs, and the punishment of citizens that do not obey to these rules  and that dump dogs.

At this time, the protests in Tirana are taking place against:

• Erion Veliaj, Mayor of Tirana
• Hermiona Hajdini, chief veterinary officer of the clinic of Kombinat, a suburb of Tirana.
• Rudina Hoxha, Director of the consumer department and the veterinary staff where the dogs are being murdered.

All of them are guilty of this mass killing of stray dogs.

They don’t have neutered the dogs, nor treated them and released them in remote areas outside of Tirana. Erion Veliaj, Rudina Hoxha, Hermiona Hajdini and their staff of veterinarians are killing innocent animals, taking them from citizens that looked after them every day.

PETITION TEXT:

To the Attention of the Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj

Iam upset learning about the mass killings of stray dogs in the streets of Tirana.

I ask you to respect the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals, ratified by your country, which decides that when the number of stray animals is a problem, the country must act appropriately in a way that does not cause pain and suffering to animals.

Please launch immediately a REAL dog population control program and show that the city of Tirana respects animals. Dumping dogs is a cruel crime that needs to be severely punished and you must assure it. 

Your country is stuck in the Dark Ages. You are putting your city and your country to shame in front of the world.

Personally, I will not visit Albania, and I will ask all my acquaintances to do the same, until this situation will be solved. 

Sign OIPA Petition and stop mass killing of dogs in Tirana!

The petition will be sent to the Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj.

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Most Portuguese bullfights (corridas de touros) are held in two phases: the spectacle of the cavaleiro, followed by the pega. In Portugal, the main stars of bullfighting are the cavaleiros, as opposed to Spain, where the matadores are the most prominent bullfighters. Nevertheless, bullfights with matadores are frequent, notably with Portuguese matadores who practice their trade in Spain and who, when in Portugal, replace the sword in their final strike with a bandarilha. Examples of famous Portuguese matadores are Vítor Mendes and Pedrito de Portugal.

The cavaleiro

During the cavaleiro, a horseman on a Portuguese Lusitano horse (specially trained for the fights) fights the bull from horseback. The purpose of this fight is to stab three or four bandeirilhas (small javelins) in the back of the bull.

Pega de caras

In the second stage, called the pega, the forcados, a group of eight men, challenge the bull directly without any protection or weapon of defense. The front man provokes the bull into a charge to perform a pega de cara or pega de caras (face catch). The front man secures the animal’s head and is quickly aided by his fellows who surround and secure the animal until he is subdued.

The bull is not killed in the ring and, at the end of the corrida, leading oxen are let into the arena and two campinos on foot herd the bull along them back to its pen. The bull can be either killed, away from the audience’s sight, by a professional butcher or, after a good performance, restored to health and released to pasture for breeding. Nevertheless, tradition was so strong at the small frontier town of Barrancos, where the bull was illegally put to death in the arena, that the government was forced to relent and permit the town to follow its ancient matador tradition and kill the bull in the arena.

There are other forms of traditional bullfighting in Portugal, some differing markedly from the version described above.

The public television station RTP usually shows bullfights in prime-time. This has been notoriously criticized by left-wing parties who have tried to ban the programme and, in another instance, rating the show to an adults-only classification.

In Portugal, more than 4,000 bulls a year are killed for bullfighting and other cruel events. Bullfights are also organized on the Azores Island (an autonomous archipelago that belongs to Portugal), such as on the islands Terceira and Graciosa.

February and March 2007, Metris GfK national survey in Portugal: 

“Do you think that bullfighting should be forbidden by the law in Portugal?”, 

• 50,5% of the respondents said “Yes”

• 39,5% said “No”

“Would you want the Municipality of the town where you reside to declare it a town where bullfighting activities are not authorised?”,

• 52,4% of the respondents said “Yes”

• 36,8% said “No”

Despite popular belief outside Portugal, bulls in Portuguese bullfights are always injured with several banderilhas and very often killed (in public in a handful of bullfights, and in private after the ‘show’ for the rest).

THE MONSARAZ CASE

In 2012 a bull was killed unlawfully at the end of a bullfight which took place in the medieval village of Monsaraz, Alentejo, keeping a tradition that the local population has vowed to uphold despite being widely controversial.

After the final stab was plunged at around 8.35pm, the bull was tied to the makeshift sides of the temporary ring, covered with a cloth to shield the killing from the eyes of the 1,000-strong spectators (and by doing so, keep the identity of the perpetrator under wraps) and killed.

According to witnesses there was no sign of police within the ring during the fight, which took place inside Monsaraz’s castle walls. It is illegal to kill the bull in Monsaraz as it was refused permission to be considered an exception to the general rule. There is only one town in Portugal – Barrancos – where special permission has been granted to kill the bull during fights, due to it being a long-standing tradition.

The vast majority of Portugal’s population doesn’t watch, go to or support bullfights. This is only done because the government still allows it. Several activism actions and polls have been made both on newspapers, websites and on social media, where more than 90% of the answers are AGAINST this horrible tradition. These activities are unfortunately sponsored by the municipalities (with taxpayers’ money) and there is currently a petition to try to cut those funds.

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PETITION TEXT:

To the Attention of the Portuguese Government

Hereby to express my deepest indignation for the perpetration of bullfights in Portugal, this brutal and cruel tradition is not supported by the majority of the Portuguese population and neither by the international community.

Bulls are wonderful animals, and they need to be respected and not tortured in order to amuse the persons attending the show. Hurting them for entertainment is an horrific and irresponsible behaviour, that does not consider the importance of this animals’ lives.

I’m asking to stop immediately bullfights in Portugal.

Personally, I will not visit Portugal, and I will ask all my acquaintances to do the same, until this situation will be solved.

Sign OIPA Petition and stop bullfights in Portugal!

The petition will be send to the Portuguese Government.

TORTURE is NO CULTURE!

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