THE 2005 EUROPEAN BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Like many countries of the world, Serbia has a problem with stray animals on the streets of its cities, especially in its capital, Belgrade. Every day additional animals are added to those who were abandoned earlier. Furthermore, Serbian culture works against sterilization (spay / neuter) and adopting mutts. Many Serbs that do own dogs opt for status symbol, pure bred dogs.

How are Serbian authorities dealing with the situation? They deal with it like many non-European, third world countries, by turning a blind eye to the horrid animal abuses and telling the world they are deeply concerned about animal welfare. (They have ignored pleas from the Bridgette Bardott foundation to stop barbarically killing the dogs and cats).The Animal control methods used to kill the stray dog and cat population include poison, Serbian authorities paying hunters by the tail to shoot dogs and of course Serbian citizens taking the situation into there own hands.

For example, in Belgrade the �Association for Citizen Protection � Zemun� placed signs on buildings asking residents to stay away from certain streets on a particular day and time period because the organization was �going to destroy stray dogs that are roaming in their own neighborhood�. One wonders what happened to these dogs. One can only imagine that the lucky ones got away with simply being poisoned to death.

Of course these methods of destroying adoptable animals have been used in the past in Serbia. However the killing has increased at an enormous rate recently, especially in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

Since the war ended in 1999 it seems Belgrade wants to present itself as a cosmopolitan world city. Stray dogs present a bad image especially during the popular spring Belgrade marathon and the upcoming European Basketball Championship to be held September 23 thru October 2 of this year.

One only hopes the European Basketball Teams appreciate the sacrifice the stray animals are making. They are being murdered in horrendous ways to prepare the city for the influx of foreign visitors.