President Nurković participated in the session of the Council for Environmental Protection in Berane
President of the municipality of Rožaje Ejup Nurković and Secretary of the Secretariat for Planning, Spatial Planning and Environmental Protection Rusmir Džudžević attended the session of the Council for Environmental Protection in Berane.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, M.Sc Milutin Simović at the third session of the Council for Animal Protection, which was held today in Berane, he called on local governments, the veterinary profession, and the civil sector to take a serious and thoughtful approach to solving problems in the area of animal welfare together and in partnership with the Government.
A joint approach to solving problems such as the growing population of stray dogs, frequent dog attacks on people and numerous cases of inhumane treatment of animals, according to Vice President Simović, is necessary in order to reach systemic and permanent solutions, while respecting the comparative experiences of numerous developed country.
Simović thanked the presidents of the Montenegrin municipalities for their presence, which, he said, shows their attitude towards the importance of the topic and their willingness to meet their obligations in solving problems in this area.
"The scars, stress and tears caused by dog attacks call us to joint, effective and concrete action:
- four-year-old girls from Mojkovac in July of this year
– a boy from Mitra Bakić Street in Podgorica in July of this year
– three children and one adult in just seven days in June in Budva
- four-year-old girls from the village of Ponari in Podgorica in April this year
- as well as numerous other cases throughout Montenegro, such as the one from July 2014 that happened here in the center of Beran, on the street 13. jula, when a stray dog attacked a five-year-old girl.
On the other hand, cases of animal poisoning, such as we had two days ago in Tivat, represent the criminal offense of "torturing and killing animals", but they can also represent the criminal offense of "causing general danger", due to the fact that the poison is scattered on public areas that a large number of people, especially children, are moving around. Such and similar examples of illegal and inhumane treatment of animals are numerous in other municipalities. They remind us of the frequent images of packs of strays, both in the urban neighborhoods of our cities and on their outskirts. Pictures where, due to irresponsible owners, dangerous dogs walk freely in children's playgrounds or park walkways are also a warning," said Vice President Simović.
"And that's why we're all here today - the Government, local governments, the veterinary profession, the civil sector, and we're sending a message of readiness to approach solving these problems in partnership, seriously and thoughtfully." Accepting these as joint problems as a partnership, while forgetting the practice in which energy and time were spent in the search for competences and running away from responsibility and competence," said Simović.
He reminded that the Government, facing these problems and its responsibilities, undertook numerous concrete activities. In May of this year, the Council for the Protection of Animals was formed, which, as he said, consists of professional, responsible and dedicated people from competent state institutions, the veterinary profession and the civil sector. A by-law has been prepared that governs the field of identification and registration of pets and will be published these days. Financial resources were provided and procurement documentation was prepared, in order to upgrade the existing central database of animals and central registration of dogs. Simović also stated that a suggestion was made that funds for the procurement of chips, vaccines and vaccination against rabies are planned in the Program of Mandatory Animal Health Protection Measures.
As he stated, EUR 100,000 was also provided for non-governmental organizations to support shelter construction projects and counting stray dogs. The Strategy for abandoned dogs is also being worked on, for which support from IPA funds has been provided, and communication and cooperation with the International Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has been established.
The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that, in addition to the key reasons he spoke about, numerous other reasons are also important for urgent action at the local level, namely that, for now, only eight municipalities have built shelters, that the state and manner of management even in that small the number of shelters is not even close to a good level, as well as that in just a year and a half, the municipalities allocated around 500,000 euros to compensate citizens due to the consequences of stray dog attacks. He added that a small number of municipalities adopted a decision on the conditions and manner of keeping pets and the manner of dealing with abandoned pets.
"And because of all this, I want to once again invite you to a joint approach in solving this problem in order to jointly reach systemic and permanent solutions, while respecting the comparative experiences of numerous developed countries. In this approach, communication and education of animal owners is necessary, and in the end it will be necessary to tighten the penal policy after everything done to irresponsible individuals. I believe that we will all answer this task together," said Simović.
The meeting of the Council was an opportunity for the Deputy Prime Minister Milutin Simović to award support contracts to non-governmental organizations that were selected through public tenders of the Ministry of Agriculture for the financing of NGO projects/programs in the field of animal welfare protection. In the competition "Construction and management of shelters for abandoned pets", five projects submitted by: NGO "Natura" Kolašin,
NGO "Šapice" Bar, NGO "Mreža" Plav, NGO "Spasi me" Bar and NGO "K9 Montenegro World Animal Protection" Podgorica.
Through the competition "Construction and management of shelters for abandoned pets", five organizations also received support for the submitted projects: NGO "Feniks" Cetinje, NGO "Nikšić Association for the Protection of Animals", NGO "Ruka-Šapi" Podgorica , NGO "Friends of Dogs" Tivat and NGO "K9 Montenegro World Animal Protection".
Based on the proposal of the civil sector and the Veterinary Chamber, Simović also presented two Ministry awards on this occasion - for the greatest contribution to civic activism in the field of animal welfare protection, which was awarded to Bjanka Prakljačić from the NGO "NORA", as well as for the greatest contribution to the veterinary profession in this field. which was awarded to Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Ranko Savić from Pljevlja.
The meeting of the Animal Protection Council was held as part of the scientific and professional meeting "Veterinary Days 2018", which is traditionally held every year in the organization of the Veterinary Chamber of Montenegro.
