ROXANA PENCEA, TUDOR BRĂDĂȚAN I STRAY DOGS IN ROMANIA Introduction In Romania, dogs without an owner are also called vagabond dogs or street dogs, and represent, to­gether with community street dogs(which are some­what taken care of but live in the public domain), a subject for high media coverage, in particular due to cases of attacks against humans. Attacks by dogs with or without an owner are recorded all around the world. Romania has seen 11 deaths caused by attacks from street dogs since 1990 1 . However, other coun­tries face such tragic events as well. 17 people have died since 2005 in The United Kingdom as a result of attacks by dogs that do have an owner 2 . Some of the animal attacks most publicized in the Ro­manian media are those by dogs without an owner. The entire issue is covered extensively by the domes­tic media, with over 12 thousand articles containing the words“dogs without an owner” and almost 25 thousand articles containing the words“street dog.” The situation of street dogs has generated heated debates between animal lovers and those who will see the streets clear of the quadrupeds at any price. The debates are most often restricted to the law­fulness and morality of the act of ending the life of unclaimed or unadopted dogs, a method which is preferred by authorities and receives generous bud­gets but has proven ineffective in the medium and long run. While solutions have been sought all these years, the situation has remained almost unchanged – large numbers of dogs in the streets and ineffective authorities. Both the dog lovers and the advocates of eradicating dogs from the streets have a degree of success in influ­encing the legal framework and the authorities’ activi­ties. Dog attacks resulting in human deaths will, how­ever, cause decision makers to listen more closely to advocates of killing the dogs. The often undocument­ed and emotional arguments from both sides divert at­tention and prevent awareness of a very serious issue that has been addressed by authorities only superfi­cially and occasionally. In this confusing environment, decision makers, whose interest in the matter is already very low, fail to consider action strategies that are very well grounded in science and have genuine chances to significantly reduce the stray dog population. 1. Street dog, article accessed on 13 December 2014, at http:// ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maidanez 2. Veterinarian, Ana Maria Ciobanu, Decât o Revistă, issue#14, Winter 2014 1. Causes and consequences of the stray dog situation Dogs are one of the most common domestic animals in Romania. They are divided into two wide catego­ries: dogs that depend on humans and dogs that do not depend on humans. Dogs that have an owner are divided into pets 3 , yard dogs 4 or guard dogs in traditional households, and working dogs. The latter category includes dogs trained for guard and protec­tion, hunting dogs, dogs with various functional roles in state entities(army, police, customs, civil defense), and therapy dogs. Dogs somewhat independent from humans 5 (but not from resources derived from human activities) are those born in the street, which find their own water and food, particularly from garbage and waste. They do not survive very long and have extremely vulner­able puppies. Ownerless dogs that are partially ad­opted by the community or individuals(for example, restaurant dogs, site dogs, etc.) are a subdivision of this category. These are fed more or less regularly, most of the time receive no medical care, and no one takes responsible ownership of them(vaccina­tion, neutering, providing shelter, etc.). There are also dogs that are completely independent from humans, namely feral dogs; these are first-, second- or third­generation dogs that have become wild and live on forest edges or in the fields, far from human settle­ments. They feed themselves by hunting and do not eat garbage or waste. Both the authorities and animal lovers identify the same reason for the large number of stray dogs: a lack of effective programs to neuter dogs, with or with­out an owner, compounded by a constant practice of abandoning unwanted puppies or adult animals. Many cultural factors contribute to this situation. Male dogs are the primary choice for guarding yards, and an owner may go through several dogs until 3. In most cases pets have responsible owners, who provide them with proper food and medical care, and are often breed dogs, trained and taken very careful care of. 4. Yard dogs, in both rural and urban areas, just like lost dogs, behave like stray dogs because of the negligence of their owners who make it possible for them to get out of the yard. 5. Interactive map: Cities with the largest number of stray dogs of Romania and cities with the least number of streets dogs, accessed on 10 December 2014, at: http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri­maidanez_in_bucuresti-15564485-harta-interactiva-orasele-cel­mai-mare-numar-caini-fara-stapan-din-romania-topul-oraselor­fara-maidanezi.htm, 12 September 2013. 1