The owners of animals will be able to keep, without the neighbors’ consent, at most two dogs or two cats if they live in apartments and at most four dogs or four cats if they live in private homes. If they want to keep more pets, the persons will have to ask for the neighbors’ consent. Also, the owners will be obliged to behave non-aggressively towards pets, not to abandon them and not to drive them away. A bill to this effect was drafted by PPPDA MP Arina Spătaru. The bill was proposed for public debates and is to be registered in Parliament, IPN reports.

Arina Spătaru said the goal of the bill is to reduce the number of pets without a shelter. “We have many citizens who denounce cases of attack, bites and scare involving stray dogs and cats and we have the local public authorities that most of the times do not have sufficient instruments and also tools offered by the Government to the responsible authorities for solving the problem. We must reduce the number of pets without shelter first of all by registering all the pets with owners. By this bill, we will create a national database of pet owners,” said the bill author.

Under the bill, the local public authorities will be obliged to identify and register pets without shelter and to set up temporary shelters for animals without a home with own funds. The pets could be transported by public passenger transport only after ensuring the passengers are safe –small pets in special cages, while aggressive dogs in muzzle and on a short leash. The carrying of dangerous animals of such breeds as PitBull, Boerbull, Bandog and their half-breeds by transit transport is not allowed.

The bill provides that only animals with incurable diseases, those infected with rabies can be euthanized. In case of legitimate defense, the animals that attack humans when there is a danger to the life and health and dogs without owners that form part of the category of aggressive and dangerous dogs will be euthanized if they are not adopted. The pregnant animals and animals with young will not be euthanized.

According to the bill, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research will have to implement educative programs in cooperation with animal protection NGOs so as to prevent cruelty to animals. The Government will have to initiate the procedure for ratifying the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals that was signed in Strasbourg on June 23, 2003.