Miracle in Romanian Parliament-mass dog killing rejected (for the moment)‏

I thought you all would like to read this, it was sent to us today from the very respected Carmen Arsene...

Dear all,

"the worst possible thing is to have in mind that when you push the button on it’s written “yes”, you directly killed and, some of you, will do it tomorrow. You will kill directly with your hand, you will kill live creatures like us and you will not be aware of it today, maybe nor 10 years later, as other compatriots did not realized it, too. But I'm sure a day will come when you realize that you killed directly. And I deplore you for that day" said the leader of the Parliamentary Group of Minorities, deputy Varujan Pambuccian, addressing to his colleagues during a speech in which he urged the deputies not to vote for murder.

The law project PL 912, made in the form of mass killing of dogs through the order and contribution of PDL party, has debated yesterday in the Chamber of Deputies.
To be passed, 167 deputies (out of 333) had to vote "yes", so any member present would vote for euthanasia was very important for PDL party.

The nightmare has started from Sunday when I found how many efforts make the party in power, PDL, to implement mass killing. PDL’ deputies have been called by SMS to obligatory be present for voting on Tuesday. The directive of the party, came from the Romania ’s president, Traian Basescu, was all to vote for euthanasia.
On Monday I found out the vote is proposed to be secret and I realized that our chances were terribly decimated, and we don’t have any hope.
Then, yesterday morning two buses arrived to the Parliament with people, organized by the PDL, to counteract the “waves” made by animal lovers and claim euthanasia.

The plenum has started. PDL leader officially makes the proposal the vote to be secret. PSD president, Victor Ponta (husband of Daciana Sarbu, deputy in European Parliament and member on the Welfare and Conservation Intergoup of Animals, who always supported us) said: "we were voted by those in the balconies and by those who watch us now at TV. It is their right to know how we vote and our obligation is to assume our own vote. If you want to hide yourselves behind the the cards do it. We, PSD, PNL, PC, we will not vote, we will not introduce our cards vor voting and you will remain alone to respond to this new your contempt to your electorate." The first victory was: put to the vote of the deputies, the proposal for being a secret vote has been rejected.

PDL leader calls a break of 10 minutes for consultation. It became more clear the scramble fight of PDL to get euthanasia and how much important the stray dogs are for the interests of many!
Each group leader has brought together their people and have started to dispute the right for living.

After the 10-minute consultation, PNL leader, another party sustaining us, Eugen Nicolaescu, starts speaking and announces that the parliamentary groups leaders have concluded that the law must be returned to the Committee for public administration and to be discussed during the next 2 weeks.

The second victory: with 247 for (of 291 total) the proposal for being sent back to the Committee,  was approved.

a team from a veterinary college in Holland has also near us at the plenum

Why PDL has voted the law to be sent back to the Committee? Because, once the proposal for the secrecy of the vote had failed, they realized that the law will be also rejected or a lot of risks to be rejected are, so that the sending back to the Committee gives them a chance next time. But we have the new chance as well, to take out mass killing and come back to the initial form of the legislative project, sterilization and return, that, once adopted and applied, leads the stray dogs to become history.

If in the last week we fought the law of mass killing to be rejected now we can fight again for a real, effective, civilized law for managing the strays.

FOR THE STRAY DOGS AND FOR US YESTERDAY WAS A STUNNING WONDERFUL DAY.

I would like to thank you very much for your exemplary support you give to animals in Romania, for the demonstrations you organize in your countries, for the email and fax protests, for sterilization campaigns, for adoptions and for everything you do directly or indirectly for our animals. Without you, many would not have happened ever!

Sincerely,

Carmen Arsene