AR-News: (US CA) Romania Is Dog Hell

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

by Hank Pellissier, special to SF Gate Monday, March 29, 2004




   



In 2001, Nancy Janes was on a hiking tour of the Carpathian Mountains in 
Transylvania with a group from the San Francisco Chapter of the Sierra Club. 
Everywhere they went, she was appalled by the condition and neglect of the 
country's stray dogs. She learned that people hunt, poison and torture them, and when 
she returned to the States, with two of her fellow hikers, she established 
Romania Animal Rescue Inc. (RAR), a nonprofit organization that seeks to 
alleviate canine suffering in the former Eastern Bloc nation. Nancy's ally in Romania 
is animal rights activist Dana Costin, who she found via the Internet by 
typing in "Romania Dogs" on Google. Costin is now the RAR's on-site operations 
manager in Romania, and Janes serves as its education and development director 
from her Bay Area home in Livermore. 



Let's talk about the Romanian people first. Dana, you are Romanian -- can you 
tell me what life is like there for the human population? 
Daily life in Romania is marked by poverty. It is said that eyes are each 
soul's mirror. Well, everyone notices that Romanians have a sad look in their 
eyes. Unemployment is a big problem -- alcoholism, also. Feelings of hopelessness 
and despair are common. We hoped for a better life after the overthrow of 
Ceausescu, the dictator. We believed in our authority's promises, but, with each 
passing day, we stop believing anymore -- and, when somebody stops believing, 
trusting and hoping, they're almost dead! 
Why are there so many stray dogs in Romania? 





full story:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2004/03/29/urbananim
al.DTL 
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