Target: Dr. Alexandru Nicolae Bociu, President, National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority, Bucharest, Romania
Goal: Strengthen enforcement against stray-animal abuse, improve shelter standards, expand sterilization programs, and prosecute anyone proven responsible for cruelty.
Thousands of stray animals across Romania remain vulnerable to violence, abandonment, and inadequate shelter care. On International Animal Day, more than 70 nongovernmental organizations marched in Bucharest to demand an end to what campaigners describe as persistent failures in the country’s treatment of homeless animals.
Advocates highlighted widespread street abuse, weak enforcement, and substandard conditions in some shelters. Animals subjected to cruelty often have no identifiable owner or advocate to pursue their case, while perpetrators frequently remain unknown. Poor management also allows uncontrolled breeding to continue, increasing the number of animals entering already strained shelters and leaving more dogs exposed on the streets.
Romania needs a coordinated national strategy that prevents suffering instead of repeatedly reacting to it. Expand large-scale sterilization and registration, enforce humane shelter standards, strengthen inspection and prosecution capacity, and require local authorities to maintain transparent records. Where evidence establishes animal cruelty or illegal shelter practices, pursue meaningful penalties against those responsible.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear President Bociu,
More than 70 animal welfare organizations recently gathered in Bucharest to demand stronger protection for Romania’s stray animals. Their concerns include street abuse, inadequate shelter conditions, weak accountability, and a management system that has struggled to prevent repeated animal suffering.
ANSVSA has an essential role in shelter oversight and national animal-welfare policy. Please intensify inspections, require immediate correction of serious welfare violations, expand sterilization and registration programs, and strengthen cooperation with police animal-protection units so cruelty cases do not disappear when offenders are difficult to identify.
Where investigators establish criminal abuse or illegal shelter practices, ensure the evidence reaches the appropriate authorities for prosecution. Romania needs a humane, preventive system built around sterilization, responsible ownership, proper shelter care, adoption, and real consequences for cruelty. Turn this national outcry into lasting protection for stray animals.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Dan Phiffer
