Romanian shelter offers humane alternative to stray dog culls

Every day at dawn, eight veterinary vans pull out of the Smeura animal shelter, deep in a forest in central Romania, and fan out to villages where they sterilize dogs for free.

The pilot programme run by German animal welfare association Tierhilfe Hoffnung has one main aim — to show there is a better alternative to the country's policy of culling unwanted animals.

Romania authorised the capture and euthanasia of strays in 2013 after a child was killed in an attack. Thirteen years on, animal groups say the country still has one of Europe's largest populations of roaming dogs, estimated at 500,000.

The shelter itself has been taking in strays, and sent more than 2,200 of them out for adoption last year alone. But as each one leaves, another arrives.

"The dogs keep coming," Tierhilfe Hoffnung manager Matthias Schmidt said. "If we want to solve the problem, we have to sterilize intensively and en masse in order to achieve this result."

Calls to end euthanasia have increased since an investigation by international animal welfare organization Four Paws earlier this year found evidence of systemic neglect, overcrowding and abuse in publicly funded animal shelters.

"In the next five years we want to solve the problem ... by identifying (dogs), vaccinating against rabies, registering them in a national program, and sterilizing them," Schmidt said.

So far this year, Smeura has carried out nearly 40,000 sterilisations, of both strays and pets, at the mobile units and the unsubsidised shelter, one of the largest in the world, sprawling on the site of a former fox farm.

This week in the village of Cateasca, a steady stream of owners brought their pets to be treated.

The procedure was good for the animals and public safety, said Iulian Stoica, who had come with three dogs. "I think it's better not to over-populate the streets with abandoned puppies," he said.

-Reporting by Andreea Campeanu, writing by Luiza Ilie, editing by Andrew Heaven/Reuters