The Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA), after several months of work by the working group (where our organization is also a member), has published for public consultation the draft of the National Strategy for the management of the population of dogs with and without owners.
During the work of the working group, our organization has repeatedly suggested that the measures proposed in this strategy be based on the humane and effective guidelines of world organizations such as ICAM Coalition and WOAH (former OIE).
In this strategy, Mrs. Alexandra Hammond-Seaman was also involved, within the EU project “Support to establishing disease surveillance and control programs and alignment with Chapter 12 of the acquis”, in the capacity of an expert with more than 20 years of experience, to propose measures of sustainable and humane.
The draft strategy envisages measures that focus on the sources of the problem, such as: identification and registration of dogs with keepers (owners), breeding control, sales control, cross-border control of the movement of dogs, control of reproduction with the CNVR method and assessment of the dynamics of dogs in municipalities to have a clear overview of the specific needs of temporary shelters for dogs that roam freely or are abandoned on the street. For the implementation of these measures, approximately EUR 8.5 million have been foreseen for the next 3 years.
We invite everyone to read the draft of the strategy and action plan, and if they think that certain measures are missing in this draft, to write to us at the email address info@animalrights-rks.org or to contact MLGA for proposals. It is important for citizens to be involved in decision-making, especially for topics that directly affect our daily lives. Our organization will give some final comments on these drafts and any comments or suggestions from you can help us a lot.
The deadline for comments is August 18, 2022.
We thank the Government of Kosovo, which has treated and is still treating this problem with priority, and the MLGA for the good work and for leading the process of drafting the strategy to improve the situation of stray dogs in the country!
Such work has never been done before and we are happy that something is moving in this direction.
We will keep you informed about the next steps.