Alliance of Animal Rescue and Welfare Organisations

Alliance of Animal Rescue and Welfare Organisations in BiH condemns the adoption of the proposed Law on Changes and Amendments to the Animal Protection and Welfare Law by the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH

Political Bartering with lives of thousands of abandoned dogs

In the greatest post-Dayton deception of Bih public

For weeks we have been witnessing the most brutal and shameless manipulation in BiH, conducted by SDP and their rabid supporters against abandoned animals and all who have provided arguments in support of consistent application of the current Animal Protection and Welfare Law, against the changes aimed at legalising mass killing of animals and a reward for those who did nothing for four years. The largest political party in BiH chose this very issue as its strategic aim – kill anything that walks on four legs, deceiving the disenfranchised and exhausted people with a fabricated dilemma: “man or dog”, while other real political trade-offs happen far from the public eye.

As a result of this, at a session held on 5 December 2013, thanks to the votes of SDP, SDA, part of SBB, DNS, and NSRzB, the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH adopted in the second reading the proposed changes to the Animal Welfare and Protection Law, proposed by Nermina Zaimović Uzunović (SDP), providing for euthanasia of animals after 15 days spent in non-existing shelters; this is in preparation of mass killings of animals with no possibility for their adoption. The House of Representatives thus became an accomplice in this cheap political deception of the public, cheated into rescuing incompetent mayors from being held to account for their work, under the guise of “caring for public safety”.

Alliance of Animal Rescue and Welfare Organisations finds these changes unacceptable, as they intend to turn shelters into mass extermination facilities and slaughterhouses, aimed at exterminating man’s best friend. Therefore, members of the Alliance from across Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with other activist, call on the delegates at the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH to refuse this shameful and uncivilised proposal – taking into account the official position of veterinary medicine in BiH, uniformly against these changes, and recognising the real arguments for refusing the proposal, as follows:

1. The proposed changes in no way contribute to any solution to the problem of abandoned animals in BiH;
2. The proposed changes make the provisions of the current Law utterly impossible to apply and introduce total confusion with conflicting requirements;
3. The proposed changes increase considerably the cost of implementation of the current Law;
4. Mass killing of healthy animals is not the path to a solution;
5. Shelters are not a preventive measure,
6. The proposed changes are not an EU standard;
7. The proposed changes will not improve public safety since they will only lead to a new rise in dog population;
8. The proposed changes exonerate all those who spent four years doing nothing.

We call on all the diplomatic missions in BiH to condemn this uncivilised act and use their authority to pressure the BiH authorities to stop the adoption of these changes and amendments to the Law.

Alliance of Animal Rescue and Welfare Organisations:
1. Život Sarajevo
2. Avlijaner Sarajevo
3. Av Mau Sarajevo
4. Anđeo Sarajevo
5. Help Animals Sarajevo
6. Šapa Zenica
7. Nirina Tuzla
8. Spas Bihać
9. Kerber Banja Luka
10. Šapa u srcu Banja Luka
11. Prijatelji Mostar
12. Šargo Travnik
13. Lesi Doboj
14. SOS šapice Gradiška
15. Posljednja oaza Orašje
16. HBŽ “O” Glamoč
17. Prijatelji životinja Sanski Most

and numerous activists from Bugojno, Velika Kladuša, Prijedor, Cazin, Glamoč, Lukavac, Sanski Most, Lopare, etc.

Sarajevo, 6 December 2013