straydogs.ro – Our dog pets and pests

Straydogs.ro is a refference, news site dedicated to the issue of stray dogs, especially in Romania.

Far from being solely Romania’s concern, the high population and increasing aggressiveness of free-ranging urban dogs (stray dogs or simply “strays”) became a constant and to a certain extent also expected presence on the streets of urban areas throughout the former Soviet  Union and the Balkans. Balkan countries – Romania included – provide case studies on ecology and ethology of free-ranging urban dogs and  implications of this phenomenon. And thus, as far as stray dogs are concerned, Romania is part of a group which – in addition to Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania (to cite just a few examples) – should also list India, Greece, China, Iraq etc.

In Romania free-ranging urban dogs are usually referred to as: câinii maidanezi – maidanezii [ownerless and stray dogs – the strays], câinii comunitari [community/communitarian dogs], câinii vagabonzi [vagabond dogs], or  câinii străzii [street-dogs]. The on-line Romanian Explicative Dictionary lists the word maidanez as a noun or adjective denoting both ownerless dogs and vagrant, stray dogs [câine fără stăpân, câine vagabond]. According to the same source, there is also the word vagabond, which is a noun or an adjective referring  to humans and animals alike.

Perhaps, the most suitable translation of maidanezi into English is “stray dogs”. This concept  is used rather indiscriminately by animal rights and animal protection organizations, petition sites, the media, and tourist guidebooks. Whereas, terminological refinements seem to be the appanage of human health and dog control strategies research instead. In this case, the term “stray” makes reference to “roaming” and not “lack of ownership”.

During the  2008 parliamentary elections, maidanezii were regarded by the commentators of Romanian political scene as the third most important problem of  Romanian municipalities. But a national plan was not outlined for dog population control and for stray dog bite prevention. What is also noticeable,  the strategies  proposed (either by the animal welfare organizations or by the government / municipality authorities) are rather addressing the first problem: the one of dog population control. Whereas, the issue of stray dog aggression is made an appendix of the one concerning their number.

As matters currently stand, there aren’t any blogs or websites dedicated exclusively to the phenomenon of free-ranging urban dogs in Romania (except the websites of several animal sheltering, fostering and re-homing organizations and of several petition sites). This field seems to be more developed outside Romania (India and Russia being cases in point). The Romanian issue was explored in a movie by Alexandru Solomon: Viaţă de câine (A dog’s life) (1998). It is also from time to time discussed on several blogs. For example, the matter was awarded ample attention on the blog of Iulian Urban (Romanian Senate candidate for Ilfov county, elected senator in 2008).

The website is intended to have an impact on several levels: it will provide access to information, education, and resources for advancing public policies and civic initiatives. As stated, it will present documentation and host a platform for exchange of best practices and experience. The working languages of the website will be Romanian, English and Polish. The English platform lists books, studies and articles dealing with the phenomenon of stray dogs outside Romania. In comparison, the Romanian and Polish pages are focused on more specific areas.

Ideally, straydogs.ro should be developed also on the basis of the feed-back provided by internauts visiting our website. The pictures you download on the forum will be presented in the photo gallery MaidaneZOOM. Furthermore, more elaborate comments and articles you wrote on the topic will be hosted in the section on Articles, studies.

Adriana.Mica[at]straydogs.ro