Hounded by stray dogs, Kosovo's capital pays people to adopt them June 11, 2024

Canine love: Sami Haxhaj with the 10 street dogs he adopted (Armend NIMANI)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Hounded by stray dogs, Kosovo's capital pays people to adopt them

The mayor of Kosovo's capital is offering to pay people almost a third of the country's minimum wage every month if they adopt a dog, in a new attempt to get packs of strays off the streets.

With Pristina overrun by up to 4,000 street dogs, according to activists, stray dogs have become a major headache, with many people saying they have had to flee from large, aggressive dogs.

However, a shocking, widely shared video of a small street dog being beaten in the street by a young man drew attention to the problem and animal lovers came out to protest at the end of last month.

“This is not an isolated case, this happens to dogs every day all over Kosovo,” said animal rights activist Argjenta Dociqi on Facebook.

“When we hurt animals, they become aggressive towards us,” said student Berta Meha, who was at the protest in Pristina's main square with her father.

But this lesson is not learned by many adults, said the 11-year-old. “If we feed them and don't hurt them, they won't be aggressive,” she told AFP.

- 50 euros a month - Mayor Perparim Rama, who has a feeding policy and doesn't hurt them, is not aggressive.

Mayor Perparim Rama, who has spent most of his life in Britain, hopes that his ambitious new scheme, “A home for every dog”, will solve the problem and help change attitudes.

The city will pay families 50 euros monthly for each street dog they adopt.

“Keeping a dog is expensive and not everyone can afford it,” the 48-year-old architect told AFP. “That's why we're helping families who adopt street dogs.”

The city has already started rounding up street dogs, and Rama promised that “they will continue every day until we remove all of them”.

He said they would be kept in large shelters, where they would be vaccinated, sterilized, and prepared for adoption.

Mechanic Sami Haxhaj was among the first to accept the mayor's offer, adopting 10 dogs from the municipality.

“I want to do something for them,” said the 52-year-old, who has built a row of kennels in a fenced yard in Sibovac, west of Pristina, where the dogs can play safely.

He would even like to adopt 10 more.

“I'm happy to have given them a roof over their heads, enough food and space,” he added.

The city said that other people should “follow Sami's example and give all street dogs a home”.

- For the dogs -

But some people are not at all happy with the mayor's idea, considering it a waste of money.

“We must be drowning in money to give money to dogs,” said Mirsad Balaj, 65.

“All dogs must be sterilized so that they no longer reproduce or the entire state budget will go to dogs,” added the pensioner.

Elza Ramadani, director of the local Animal Rights Foundation, said that the city needs to focus on the root of the problem, “the uncontrolled breeding and abandonment of dogs by a large number of people who don't see them as members of the family”.

Architect Bajram Kazagiqi said that dogs were also “residents of this city”.

“If we want to take care of the people of our city, we must also take care of street dogs as members of our families,” said the 62-year-old architect.

Mayor Rama insisted that, with a budget of two million euros a year, “we can seriously hope to solve the problem... if the calculation of the number of street dogs in the capital is correct”.

“Someone had to start this war,” he said.

However, Ramadani does not expect the number of dogs in Pristina to decrease overnight.

“That will happen perhaps in 10 or 20 years when we show more love for the dogs and society wants to adopt them.”

Ismet HAJDARI

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