Last week, we received information from Bardh Abazi, a devout activist for the protection of street animals, that some puppies were stuck in a pipe of an apartment building, in one of the neighborhoods of the capital.

Unable to save the puppies themselves, due to the inconvenient location, and due to the need to intervene to reach them, they contacted the Municipality of Pristina, namely the Directorate of Public Services to ask for help and the Police Kosovo to react and help. After several calls from activists but without any serious response, our organization has demanded action and accountability from the institutions responsible for reacting in cases like these, when animals are in danger of being mistreated. Any action or lack of action that causes pain or serious discomfort to the animal is considered a criminal offense according to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kosovo, therefore, ignoring the problem of puppies stuck in a place where without institutional rescue they would have died in pain.

The contractors of the municipality of Pristina, together with the inspector of the municipality, went to the scene the following day and intervened to save the puppies. The puppies have been rescued and are safe for now.

We thank the Directorate of Public Services of the municipality of Prishtina and the Termokos company for acting with professional ethics and responding to the call for help, and we also thank activists such as Bardh Abazi, Dea Hysa, and Ermal Osmani, who have not stopped searching for solutions until the puppies have been rescued.

Unfortunately, life for street dogs means exposure to many dangers, including cases like this, and not all dogs are lucky enough to be noticed and rescued by the people/community.

Therefore, this is one more reason to urgently and seriously work on sustainable and humane solutions to reduce the number of dogs on the street.