The municipality of Pristina has started work on the capital’s public shelter, starting with catching dogs on the street and placing them in shelters and, according to the municipality, adopting them.

Since in Prishtina thousands of dogs live on the streets, this shelter will not be able to provide housing for a large number of dogs, therefore it is extremely important that the main focus of the work of the shelter should be the promotion of adoptions, and the adoption of as many dogs as possible, making sure that the dogs end up with responsible owners who respect the needs and freedoms of the animals.

Community involvement and transparency in such initiatives are essential. The municipality must cooperate with the community, and notify the citizens of every action of catching and treating dogs, including the place and time of catching dogs, as required by AI (MAFRD) 02/2023 for Shelters of Companion Animals. Many activists and citizens take care of a large number of dogs in the capital, therefore it is very important that these citizens are informed about the actions of the municipality.

Unfortunately, so far, many community dogs who have been gentle and have been cared for by citizens and activists, have been taken by the municipality, and for a very quick time, according to the municipality, those dogs have already been adopted. It is a little strange that dogs are taken from the street and adopted in less than 24 hours, and we ask the municipality to be transparent and share with the citizens the adoption process and the conditions of keeping of these dogs. The municipality should concentrate on urgent cases that need shelter (sick dogs, dogs that cause attacks, injured dogs) and think of a strategic approach to catching dogs, so as not to endanger public safety by freeing up territories for new packs of stray dogs who are not adapted to the community.

The CNVR (catch-sterilize-vaccinate-release) method should also be active at all times, for dogs living on the streets and unable to be sheltered or adopted. Activists witness the continuous birth of puppies on the streets, therefore it is extremely important to control the reproduction of dogs on the streets, and the CNVR method is the most effective way to achieve this goal. We have been informed that the Municipality does not have an active CNVR project and this will cause the dogs on the streets to multiply continuously. We asked from the Municipality of Pristina to consider the need for CNVR as soon as possible.

On the other hand, it is important that the municipality also focuses on dogs with owners. One possibility would be to offer free spaying/neutering to owned dogs, which are the main source of increasing the number of street dogs. According to our organization’s research in 2022, more than 50% of owned dogs in the municipality of Pristina are not castrated/sterilized, and half of them are allowed to roam freely on the streets, thus contributing to increasing the number of stray dogs.

Identification with microchip and registration of dogs is also an obligation at the local level, and we expect from the municipality of Pristina (but also other municipalities) I&R initiatives for owned dogs, to ensure that all dogs in Pristina (but also in other municipalities) are identified and registered in the central register of animals.

Education and information is another fundamental measure of dog population management, therefore initiatives that target raising awareness and informing the public about responsible dog ownership should be implemented in parallel with any other measure aimed at reducing the stray dog population, humanely and sustainably. Our organization has informative and awareness-raising materials, and we are ready to share these with the municipality of Pristina and other municipalities, in order to raise social awareness for responsible keeping of dogs and their humane treatment.

Any intervention for the management of the dog population must also be accompanied by the collection of data in the field (number of dogs, reproduction status, level of welfare, etc.). Our organization has carried out the counting of dogs in Pristina 4 times, and we are ready to support the municipality again for the collection of these data.

Ensuring the welfare of animals, cooperation with the community and transparency, education and information of the community, promotion of adoptions, besides being the only right way to reduce the number of dogs on the streets in a sustainable way, are also legal obligations arising from legal and by-laws, and we expect that each shelter or animal treatment center respects the obligations set forth by law.

Our organization remains committed to helping local and central institutions design and implement measures that focus on animal welfare and public health and safety, in a humane and sustainable manner.

In the meeting we had with Director Bekim Brestovci, we were promised transparency in the measure of adoptions and cooperation with activists. In the following weeks, we will inform you about the other details that came out of that meeting.