OCTAVIA NASR, CNN ANCHOR: In Romania, the problem is too many dogs. More than 18 million dogs are likely to be roaming the streets of the country's capital by the year 2006. Bucharest has only 14 vets and one dog pound with space for just 700 animals. We have more now from Romanian Television. But we want to caution you, some of the pictures may be disturbing.</s>TANIA SIPERCO, ROMANIAN TELEVISION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dogs have been constantly disappearing from the Depesht (ph) municipal shelter for the last 16 months. On the 1st of June, animal rights activists caught the caretakers red handed. On that day, 37 dogs received formaldehyde shots in the heart and were dumped in a pit. One dog was</s>DR. AMIR KHALIL, PRESIDENT, VIER PFOTEN (through translator): Killing of the animal is never a solution, this is our experience. We must castrate them and bring them back to the same street, for Romania is a big animal lover. I never find in Bucharest an emaciated dog. All the dogs</s>SIPERCO: Bucharest residents only have to make a phone call. The Vier Pfoten staff picks up the strays and takes them to the vet clinic to be vaccinated and neutered. After recovery, the animals are tagged and brought back to their dwellings.</s>TRAIAN BASESCU, BUCHAREST MAYOR (through translator): The stray dogs of Bucharest will become the community's dogs in about two years and a half. When I say community's dogs, it means the dogs will be neutered, tagged and monitored both by the city hall and the non- governmental organizations. This way, their number will be reduced by natural death.</s>SIPERCO: Ten thousand dogs were neutered in Bucharest since 1998, but the city's strays are set to exceed 300,000. A bill regarding animal protection was proposed to the parliament last fall, but it has not a dog's chance to pass in this electoral year. It is a time when acts, such as the one
Romania Faces Problem of Too Many Stray Dogs