BUCHAREST: In a steel-mesh pen at a compound in eastern Romania, a dog licks icy water from a metal drinking bucket while another chews listlessly on dried feces scattered on the hard ground.
The scenes, captured on video, are among the findings from an undercover investigation into conditions in Romania’s publicly funded shelters for stray dogs, carried out by the international animal welfare organization Vier Pfoten, known as Four Paws.
Between Jan. 8-18, the animal welfare group sent investigators to nine shelters in different parts of the country, documenting what it describes as “high death rates and disturbing conditions” amounting to “systemic neglect.”
The welfare group found overcrowded kennels, dogs suffering from untreated open wounds, and many living in kennels exposed to freezing winter temperatures.
Romania has an estimated 500,000 stray dogs, one of the largest populations in the European Union. Many thousands of strays are kept in shelters, from where they can be adopted, or, in some cases, euthanized.
