The Party for People, Nature and Animals (PONA) requests the Anti-Drug Division of the National Investigation Inspectorate to determine how products containing ketamine have been used at the sterilization center of the municipal enterprise “Autosalubritate” so as to identify possible channels of drug trafficking. “We ask this Anti-Drug Division to determine why psychotropic substances that can be used by humans are used to sterilize animals in the Republic of Moldova,” the party’s president Ion Dron stated in a news conference at IPN.
According to him, civil society during two years has attempted to obtain the registers and see how many animals have been sterilized and watt medicines were used. “To come into possession of the registers concerning the use of the quantity of ketamine, civil society in February 2020 made an approach to the Ciocana Prosecutor’s Office, asking to check the enterprise’s activity so as to identify possible elements of cruelty to animals. Our intention was to obtain the registers of animals, costs and psychotropic substances used for sterilization. A year has passed and the Prosecutor’s Office hasn’t provided a response,” stated Ion Dron.
The PONA president noted there are two groups of interests that do not want the problem of animals without owners to be solved. These are the purebred dog breeders and the employees of the municipal animal shelter who oppose the implementation of the CMC decision of September 2019, which provides for the creation of registers of pets and animals without owners. “The mayor does nothing because he is advised from behind by groups that do not want the public funds to be monitored. Under this decision, an Animal Protection Section was created at the Public Amenities Division to manage the register of pets and the registrar of animals without owners. Now the mayor wants to transfer this section from the Public Amenities Division under “Autosalubritate”,” stated Ion Dron.
He disapproves of the way in which Mayor Ion Ceban treated the whole animal protection community after a child in Ciocana district was recently attacked by a dog. The mayor’s assertions that there are some who protest at the mayor’s office and earn money from this due to grants are insulting. The mayor tries to shift the irresponsibility and inability to organize things in this area onto those from the animal protection community who do more than the mayor’s office to solve the problem.
Valentina Dudnic, the head of the Public Association for the Protection of Animals without Shelter ALGA, in the same news conference said an efficient sterilization program requires at least six doctors, a surgery hall with 4-5 tables and a unit for the rehabilitation of animals. The sterilization center does not have doctors and the dogs are primarily neutered by students and no accurate records of animals are kept. There are more directors than dogs there and there are no persons who could work there.
The PONA asks the Chisinau Municipal Council to request the mayor to agree the status of the Animal Protection Section as this action is two years overdue, to compete this section with six more personnel units and to allow this to be managed by the Public Amenities Division. The party demands that Mayor Ion Ceban should apologize publicly for his insults aimed at animal protection associations.
