Community engagement is extremely important in preventing incidents between stray dogs and people. Without a human empathy and care for community dogs, we cannot expect an increase in animal welfare nor an improvement in human-animal relations.

In the neighborhood shown in the photo, in Gjilan, some residents have been trying for some time now to get rid of a female dog with puppies, with the sole reason that they are “annoyed” by dogs. One of the zealous activists in Gjilan, Bona Ferati, tried to find another place for the dog with puppies, but the dog and puppies returned to the old neighborhood because it was a familiar place for them to stay there.

It is very disappointing to hear that there are citizens who, instead of taking care of the neighborhood dogs, try to do their best to remove the dogs from the small place where they have found shelter to give birth and raise puppies. Is the fault of the poor dog, that lives on the street, and who is forced to give birth to puppies among the many dangers that life on the street poses?

Our organization has been in constant communication with the Gjilan Police and has asked the police officers to intervene in case the puppy and puppies leave or disappear from the neighborhood because of the residents, and the police officers were at the scene together with Bona, the activist.

As if this unexplained anger of some residents was not enough, they have also organized a petition for the dog to leave. We ask these residents: Where to send the dog with her puppies? Are these same residents willing to cover the costs of shelter, if shelter is eventually found?

Instead of showing even more care for dogs in these cold winter days, we are seeing some people committing to making life of stray dogs even more difficult.

Caring for stray dogs does not require a lot of commitment, if each resident of the community helps a little. Almost every house ends up with food waste, which could feed stray dogs. This would also reduce the possibility of dog attacks, as dogs that are cared for do not pose a risk to the community.

Citizens need to understand that the behavior of dogs towards humans is a direct consequence of the behavior of humans towards dogs, therefore any lack of empathy and any mistreatment of animals, will adversely affect human-animal relations.

Certainly the institutions must be very seriously engaged to fulfill the legal obligations for the management of the dog population, but the community is also very important in this regard. We have received information from the Municipality of Gjilan that they will soon contract veterinarians for the CNVR project, but we will request full authorization for full monitoring of the work in CNVR projects, in Gjilan and all other municipalities, because unprofessional and abusive work has been seen in the past in many municipalities.

If you can not help the dogs, at least do not mistreat them!