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'Dogs before women'
02/03/2001 11:18 - (SA)
Bucharest - French actress Brigitte Bardot declared Thursday "Dogs Day" in Romania, sidelining the country's Women's Day, as she fought the extermination of hundreds of thousands of stray dogs.
And she presented Bucharest mayor Traian Basescu with a declaration of support signed by French actors Gerard Depardieu, Sophie Marceau and Jean-Paul Belmondo among others.
"March 1, which is Women's Day in Romania, (should) become Dogs Day," she said after meeting Basescu, who plans to round up 200 000 strays before slaughtering them if no other solution is found.
"We have got to find 200 000 owners to save these dogs," said the animal rights activist, while admitting that "in a poor country, it is difficult to look after a dog."
Under the Bucharest plan, stray dogs will be rounded up by municipal authorities and taken to kennels for about 10 days before being slaughtered. Dogs will be spared if they are offered a permanent home.
Basescu sought to downplay the scale of the slaughter. "Euthanasia of the strays is the last thing we wanted. Dogs will be put down when vets decide to," he said.
Last year nearly 20 000 people were bitten by stray dogs in Bucharest, according to health officials.
The number of stray dogs in Bucharest currently stands about 300 000 for a human population of two million, while their numbers are increasing by about 15 percent a year, according to official figures.
Bardot said her foundation would be continuing sterilisation and vaccination programmes for the canine strays. - Sapa-AFP
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