Proposals of the Animal Friends Association for Amendments and Additions to the Decision on Requirements and Methods for Keeping Pets and Ways of Dealing With Abandoned and Lost Animals in the City of
Reproduction control
Article 6 of the Decision reads as follows:
The guardian is required to control the breeding of pet animals and ensure proper and legal requirements for keeping them.
Breeding control methods can be: preventive action, spaying or neutering of animals.
The proposal of the Association:
The guardian is required to control the breeding of pet animals and ensure proper and legal requirements for keeping them.
Breeding control methods can be: spaying or neutering of animals or in case that spaying/neutering is not possible, the preventive action.
The guardians must take care of the offspring of their own pets, and in the case of uncontrolled reproduction, when they do not want to take care of the off springs themselves, they are required to bear the costs of their care.
Explanation:
It is important to emphasize that the "preventive action" should be considered as option only if someone has no possibility for some reason to spay/neuter the animal. If the formulation "preventive action", "spaying or neutering of animals" remains, this will make it easier for the guardians of pets to choose the "preventive action". In this way, they avoid responsibility for the breeding of the animals in their care, given the fact that the animal may escape, get lost or be abandoned – and if the animal is not neutered/spayed there is every possibility that it will breed uncontrollably on the streets. Therefore, we suggest that the "preventive action" should be prescribed as the way of controlling the reproduction of pets only if there is no possibility of spaying/neutering.
Also, we suggest adding a sentence accentuating that the guardians must take care of their pets' babies or bear the costs of their care. This emphasizes the responsibility of pet owners for their offspring, if they are not controlling their reproduction. As an association we are committed to regulate neutering of dogs and cats as required for all those who do not want to have the babies of the animals in their care, or who cannot/do not want to take care of the young ones themselves. Therefore, this proposal is going in that direction.
Dog keeping – keeping the dog on chain
Article 12 of the Decision reads as follows:
A dog that is kept in an unfenced yard or garden should be chained or housed in a fenced enclosure that will ensure the animal will not have option to wander around on their own.
The guardian must not keep the dog on leash using the chain that is less than 3m long or three times the length of the animal measured from the tip of the tail to the tip of the nose, and in determining the length of the chain the length that is more favourable for the animal is used.
The enclosure referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be less than the minimum area specified in Annex 2, which is an integral part of this Decision.
The proposal of the Association:
The movement of a dog that is chained or kept in an enclosed area must not be restricted in any way that would cause the unnecessary suffering, pain, injury or fear to the dog. The dog must not be permanently chained nor permanently kept in a fenced area.
If there is a justified impossibility of fencing the area in which the dog would be kept, the guardian must not chain the dog to a length shorter than 3m or three times the length of the animal measured from the tip of the tail to the tip of the nose, if it is more than 1 m.
Enclosure referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be less than the minimum area specified in Annex 2, which is an integral part of this Decision.
Explanation:
We believe it is necessary to add a sentence that the dog must not be permanently chained or permanently kept in a fenced area (boxes and similar), in order to meet the daily need of the dog for the movement, and is also prescribed in the Animal Protection Act by prohibiting the restraint of animals' movement "in a way that causes them pain, suffering, injury or fear, and in contravention of the provisions of this Act". This means that the dog needs to be taken for daily walks or unleashed with supervision, because the dog is allowed to be chained tie only if there are no conditions for fencing the yard or part of the yard, and must not be permanently chained or permanently reside in the cage.
We would like to add that the dog can be chained only if there is justified inability to fence the area (fencing around the yard or creating cage, if there are no conditions for the fencing of the yard) in which the dog would be situated. This is to avoid that the dogs are automatically put on the chain, which is a routine practice in Croatia. As the keeping the dogs on a chain is less present in Zagreb than in rural areas, we believe that this provision formulated in such way would favourably impact the awareness of dog guardians and encourage them to fencing the area rather than keeping the dog on a chain.
With regards to the maximum length to which the dog can be chained, it is important to add that the triple length measured from the tip of the animals tail to the tip of the nose is related to dogs, whose length is greater than 1m. This will not disadvantage the smaller breeds of dogs, whose triple length from the tip of the tail to the tip of the nose is much less than 3m. Three meters should be the minimum for dogs regardless of the size of the dog, and in case of the larger breeds that length should be greater than 3m.
Cat keeping – feeding sites
Article 16 of the Decision reads as follows:
The Animal protection organizations, to which the city's governing body for utilities approves the installation of feeding site for cats in public areas, are obliged to spay/neuter, vaccinate and clean of parasites the cats in their care, and mark them according to the rules of the veterinary practice.
In case there is suspicion of an outbreak of infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, the protection of citizens is carried out by legal persons engaged in health care services and private health professionals in cooperation with the competent authorities determined by the regulations on veterinary practice.
If the association does not care for the cats as defined in paragraph 1 of this Article, the feeding site will be removed at the expense of the association.
The proposal of the Association:
Animal protection organizations are allowed to organize the feeding sites for cats in public areas, based on a decision of the city's governing body responsible for utilities.
Animal Protection Association applying for setting up the feeding site for cats, shall enclose the opinion of the City Quarter Council, in whose area the feeding site is planned to be installed, on the proposed or agreed location. If the Council does not agree with the proposed location, then it is necessary to arrange an alternative site on its own area.
In case there is suspicion of an outbreak of infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, the protection of citizens is carried out by legal persons engaged in health care services and private health professionals in cooperation with the competent authorities determined by the regulations on veterinary practice.
If the association does not care for the cats as defined in paragraph 1 of this Article, the feeding site will be removed at the expense of the association.
Explanation:
Animal protection organizations are faced with demands that the City Quarter Council shall participate in decisions on setting up the feeding sites. We believe that cooperation and healthy communication with the City Quarters Councils is important for setting up of the feeding sites. But, in practice, it is sufficient that the City Quarter Council expresses a negative opinion and entirely stops the further proceedings and prevent the formation of feeding site.
By placing the feeding sites, cat associations wish to help that city quarter and the city itself, but they cannot always count on the understanding and goodwill of city quarter councils. We propose a compromise solution, where the City Quarter Council is fully included and may not agree with the proposed location, but should arrange an alternative location, and work together with the NGO on a solution.
Department for Animal Protection within communal police department
Association's proposal and explanation:
As the jurisdiction of the communal police operations is very wide, we propose the establishment of the Department for Animal Protection within the communal police department. We believe that the establishment of such department would allow for effective control of the implementation of the Decision on requirements and methods for keeping pets and ways of dealing with abandoned and lost animals. In fact, the communal security guards are responsible for a wide range of tasks, where their responsibilities of supervising the implementation of the Decision are not first on the list. With the best intentions and with the other activities that they are required to perform, the communal security guards have no time to process and create all reports related to the conditions and manner of keeping pets. In addition, it is unrealistic to expect that all communal guards, with no special training on how to properly recognize the neglect of animals and the violation of legal regulations in this area, will be able to adequately assess the conditions of the keeping of animals. Through the education and collaboration we can act to prevent these problems.
Therefore, we believe that the Department for Animal Protection within the communal police, which would be consisted of several communal guards specialized in assessing the conditions and manners of keeping the pets, would greatly facilitate the work of the communal police in general, and successful implementation of the decision.
We suggest that, if possible, such suggestion is incorporated into this Decision, in the form of proposal or otherwise. If this is not legally possible, then we appeal to the City Department for Agriculture and Forestry to issue this proposal to the communal police and offer them cooperation that we hereby offer.
