Dalida Kozlic L.L.B, lawyer and activist writes:

The most notorious illegal dog catching group works for PC “Veterinary station Novi Grad” Ltd., owned by PC “Lokom” Novi Grad. They are infamously known as the Lokom dog catchers”.

The Lokom dog catching service was established by the authorities of Novi Grad Sarajevo on the 30th May of 2013. This so-called “Hygienic service” was not established and registered neither in accordance with article 29 of Bosnia’s Act Protection and Welfare of Animal nor in accordance with the bylaws that hygienic services must fulfil.

Since then, thousands of stray dogs have been killed in Sarajevo.

This illegal hygienic service invoices for food, medications, veterinary services, placement, fuel, and catching of dogs for placement in shelters. Note that these invoices are for dogs that are dead, killed by the service.

Evidence for this was presented to the Bosnian police officers and prosecutors in 2013. The Prosecutor’s office of Canton Sarajevo started investigating the allegations and evidence that I presented in numerous criminal reports against Lokom. It is one of the most severe violations of the Criminal Code in Bosnian history.

The official document signed by the main prosecutor of Canton Sarajevo Dalida Burzic provided the following information: “…funds that had been allocated for dogs were stolen without any doubt, and the question remains where dogs have disappeared to…” The number of this case is T 09 KTP 0072282 16 2.

PC “Lokom” Ltd. is owned by municipality Novi Grad. In 2014 Lokom established its own veterinary station that has been financed by authorities that pay for dogs to be killed. In PC “Veterinary station Novi Grad” Ltd. thousands of dogs are killed and no one has ever managed to visit the area where the dogs are placed. Establishment of the Lokom’s veterinary station claims that the hygienic service and the shelter for stray animals have been established as the part of the station, but in reality the situation is different.

The Act on Protection Act and Welfare of Animals of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a lex specialis (the main legislation) in the field of treating animals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Act, as well as related by-laws, is the main legal framework for all other laws and by-laws that are enacted by the legislative authorities at any level of organization of authority in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which regulate the keeping and treatment of animals.

According to provisions of the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals every municipality is obliged to establish and finance shelters for stray animals as well as hygienic services that are obliged to catch and transport stray animals to the veterinary stations and shelters.

Two very important ordinances were legislated in 2010: Ordinances on both establishing shelters and the conditions that shelters for stray animals and hygienic services must fulfil.
Both ordinances provide very strict and humane ways of establishing and maintaining of shelters and hygienic services.

In order to establish a hygienic service and a shelter for stray animals, legal persons shall fulfil very strict conditions that are provided by the Act and these ordinances. If conditions are fulfilled, then a legal person is entitled to get necessary permissions and to establish a hygienic service and a shelter.

Lokom and its veterinary station have never fulfilled the conditions nor obtained necessary permissions, but its dog catchers have been catching dogs illegally for years.

This illegal dog catching service is one of many illegal hygienic services in Bosnia that receive money from budgets of different municipalities. Those hygienic services kill stray animals, but they receive money for food, medications, treatments, catching of stray animals as well as their placement as if they were alive.

The public must know that this hygiene service is illegally formed within P. C. “Lokom”. It is not licensed and registered by the court for an activity of removal of stray dogs. Despite this fact, these illegally acting dog catchers of “Lokom” have been catching and killing stray dogs for almost four years. We know that a legal shelter for stray animals is not formed by the municipality of Novi Grad, yet the municipality has formed an illegal pound in  the veterinary station “Novi Grad” Ltd., which is located in Reljevo.

You can read about and see the documentary about dog catchers of Lokom here on this post in In Memory of Vucko. The direct link to the documentary is here.

Authorities of Breza have been harassing me and my family for years because of our legal investigations and rescue activities, and the mayor and his cronies are united against stray animals in my own town just because of a desire for personal revenge.

The Mayor of Breza, Munib Zaimovic, issued an illegal decision to engage dog catchers of Lokom to catch and kill dogs in Breza. Also, he signed a contract with PC Veterinary station of Novi Grad. Lokom dog catchers have been trying to catch dogs in Breza since then.

After I had filled a criminal report and an official complaint to the veterinary inspection, we managed to stop them in their illegal activities, but the first time they had visited Breza it was in secret, and many dogs had been caught and then killed.

Two dogs have been saved.

Please send emails demanding that this situation be stopped, send them to your embassies, international animal welfare organisations (you can find details of these here) as well as to the mayor of Breza to the following email addresses: nacelnik@breza.gov.ba, vijece@breza.gov.ba, and  privreda@breza.gov.ba 

Draft of a letter:

The Bosnian Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals is one of the best in Europe but no one is interested in this. Corrupt authorities are often involved in illegal killing of stray and wild animals because of money laundering.

Stray animals are victims of killing and torture. Politically eligible persons construct so-called shelters for stray animals, which have the function of concentration camps, and they invoice false spay/neuter programs, as well as for the food that would never be given to animals. They invoice for veterinary examinations and treatment, and at the end means for euthanasia. In reality, the stray animals are abused and killed. It represents a series of violations of the Criminal law as well as the Animal Protection and Welfare Act of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The actual Animal Protection and Welfare Act is an absolutely enforceable and functional law and it is not enforced because of political interests and money laundering.

The illegal dog catching service of PE „Veterinary station Novi Grad“ Ltd., which is owned by PE „Lokom“ Ltd. Novi Grad Sarajevo is one of the most notorious examples of organised crime and illegal killing of stray animals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. If you engage those people to catch dogs in Breza, you will be directly involved in organised crime and therefore criminally responsible. A mass of evidence has been presented to persecutors and those who are criminally responsible for those offences will be prosecuted. The question is: will you be one of them?

The problem of overpopulation of stray dogs is a direct consequence of the failure to implement, as well as a series of obstructions and misuse, of the Act on the Protection and Welfare of Animals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The law came into force in 2009. The Act on Protection Act and Welfare of Animals of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a lex specialis (the main legislation) in the field of treating animals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Act, as well as related by-laws is the main legal framework for all other laws and by-laws that are legislated by the authorities at any level of organization of authority in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which regulate the keeping and treatment of animals.

According to provisions of the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals every municipality is obliged to establish and finance shelters for stray animals as well as hygienic services that are obliged to catch and transport stray animals to veterinary stations and shelters.

Two very important ordinances were legislated in 2010: Ordinances on both establishing shelters and the conditions that shelters for stray animals and hygienic services must fulfil.
Both ordinances provide very strict and humane ways of establishing and maintaining of shelters and hygienic services.

By attempting a partial and non-systematic implementation of the Act, the agony of stray dogs on the streets as well as citizens will only further widen, and budget funds will be spent on non-purpose, illegal and unsystematic attempts to solve the problem. Instead of solving problem with a legal solution, authorities have been financing the killing of stray animals in illegal pounds for years. Financing of illegal pounds is a violation of the provisions of Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals, as well as a serious offence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There are many illegal shelters for stray animals that are established and led by persons who are close to Bosnian authorities. In these places animals are beaten, cut, clubbed, raped or tortured in many horrific ways and they do not have water, food, adequate accommodation. They freeze or they are exposed to extremely high temperatures.
While all these atrocities happen, local authorities finance people who own those shelters.

There are many illegal hygienic services that receive money from budgets of different municipalities. Those hygienic services kill stray animals, but they receive money for food, medications, treatments, catching of stray animals as well as their placement as if they are alive.

A failure to implement the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals is the result of a series of abuses and obstructions as well as the authorities dealing only with the consequences and not with the causes of the problem, and causes are the abandonment of animals, irresponsible ownership and uncontrolled reproduction.

Increased numbers of dogs on the streets is always and only a direct result of irresponsible ownership, and failure to implement preventive measures that are provided by the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals, such as punishing those who abandon animals; the full identification of ownership and pets; spay/neuter projects with vaccination and tagging of stray animals in an appropriate form and number, and education and information campaigns which are aimed to raise public awareness about the causes of the problem.
The Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals very clearly and precisely provides solutions for dealing with an overpopulation of stray animals in Bosnia. The first legal obligation of authorities is to build shelters for stray animals, which purpose is to care for stray animals until they are adopted. Conditions that all shelters must fulfil are provided by the Ordinance on the establishment and the conditions that must be fulfilled by shelters for stray animals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another legal obligation of authorities is the registration of ownership of animals.

the State Veterinary Office enacted the Ordinance on registration, micro chipping and identification of ownership of animals Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2017, but a unified register of ownership of animals has not been established. Abandoning of animals by their owners is a direct generator of the problem, and the cause of abandoning of animals is the policy of impunity of people who leave their animals.

When the registry of tagged animals and owners of animals is established, it will enable the identification, prosecution and punishment of abusers of the law. The implementation of repressive measures will directly affect the consciousness of citizens and achieve the functions of general and special prevention and repression. Because of the absence of a register of breeders, illegal breeding causes increasing of numbers of stray animals.

Although it is their legal obligation, municipalities and cities refuse to finance construction and maintenance of shelters for stray animals because of poor financial conditions, but we witness everyday improper and illegal spending of budget funds. Also false information about the cost of maintaining shelters are published. If violators of provisions of the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals are punished, the funds raised from fines ought to be directed to the construction and maintenance of shelters for stray animals. Also implementation of the Act of Protection and Welfare of Animals can be financed by funds collected from obligatory vaccination of dogs against rabies. Until shelters for stray animals are built, municipalities can help by financing of feeding of stray animals, and authorities are obliged to implement spay/neuter projects.

If the shelters for stray animals, which must be “centres for treatment and adopting of stray animals,” are built and maintained in accordance with state regulations and ordinance, and if there is an appropriate policy of establishing and managing shelters, the cost will be low. Quality education and raising awareness of citizens will increase the percentage of adoption of abandoned animals.

Hygienic services are directly related to the existence of shelters for stray animals and because of this, establishment of hygienic services cannot be an independent measure to solve the problem and to decrease population of stray animals. Hygienic services must be established in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance on the establishment and the conditions that hygienic services must fulfil in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The purpose of a hygienic service is capturing and transport of stray animals to veterinary stations and shelters. Certainly the establishment of legal hygienic services is necessary, but hygienic services cannot exist and work without implementing all other legal obligations of authorities, especially without building shelters. If hygienic services work without implementing all provisions and measures provided by Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals, those services do not solve the problem and they are a perfect ground for different abuses and misuses.

Only by full implementation of the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals, misuse and illegal killing in shelters and hygienic services can be prevented. Also, all responsible authorities such as the Veterinary Office, the Veterinary inspection, authorised official veterinarians, police, etc., must be involved in the implementation of the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals, and it is their legal obligation. Authorities have failed to fulfil their legal obligations and many authorities responsible for implementation of the Act have actually violated the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals. Such illegal behaviour must be punished and prevented.

Preventing of abuse, which are particularly related to the fact that stray dogs can “disappear” is only possible by consistent implementation of all the measures stipulated by the Act on the protection and welfare of Animals in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the SVO, Inspectorates of veterinary inspection, authorized official veterinarians, police officers and others. Such engagement is so far absent, even in many of the cases of violations of the law by those responsible for its implementation.

You should be aware that the partial and manipulating misuse of the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals only makes an even greater and longer-lasting problem. Problem of overpopulation of stray dogs can be solved by registration of ownership of dogs, engaging a certified trainer for the protection of animals to educate people, assistance in developing of a strategy to solve the problem of stray animals and finally building self-sustaining shelters for stray animals.

Without complete and consistent implementation of the Act on Protection and Welfare of Animals, the problem of overpopulation of stray animals will not be solved. It is important to end the illegal practice of partial implementation of the law which is a criminal offence and which causes the problem to become even more complicated and difficult.

I ask for your involvement in these matters, to ensure the safety and well-being of the strays of Bosnia Herzegovina.

Best,

______________

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Monstrous Killing and Injuring of Stray Dogs in Zenica, Bosnia!
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Another Dog Tortured by Wire in Bosnia
DOG TORTURED WITH WIRE IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA!
Puppy burned alive in Bosnia Herzegovina!
Dog Beheaded in Bosnia

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This site is dedicated to Vučko. Read his story and don’t let him have suffered and died in vain. Please help the stray dogs and cats in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The situation there is utterly dire, Vučko is but one amongst many horrifically abused animals. Go here to find out how to help them.  Money is needed for food, medicine and foster housing. Even just one dollar or one euro will help.