The Animal Protection Act places an obligation on the municipality to care for homeless cats and dogs. Under the law in force, all homeless animals in the city are the property of the municipality. The mayor cannot act outside the law, so he does the minimum—mainly commissioning the capture of stray dogs and sending them to shelters. Last year—as councillor Irena Dul informs us—the municipality paid nearly PLN 29,000 for 18 dogs handed over to a shelter (from January to September), and more than PLN 40,000 for keeping them before transport. It is easy to calculate that the mayor sent each dog away at a cost of nearly PLN 1,600.
But what about stray cats? The mayor is not as concerned with cats, even though he should be.
Ordinary residents of Bolesławiec care for and feed the cats. Several months ago, they established the Animal Aid Association. In May, they submitted a letter to the Municipal Services Department containing proposals for protecting cats. They asked the mayor to prepare an appropriate resolution regulating the issue of both cats and dogs. They also requested money—PLN 90,000 for treating and sterilising cats and for educational activities increasing residents’ awareness of the obligations involved in keeping and breeding dogs and cats.
They waited almost half a year for the draft resolution to be brought before the City Council. However, the mayor’s officials designed the resolution so that the annual cost of caring for homeless dogs and cats would amount to PLN 690,000. They added cat food costing PLN 80,000 to the requested PLN 90,000, PLN 120,000 for catching and keeping dogs, and PLN 400,000 to finance the expansion of the shelter in Dłużyna near Zgorzelec, where our dogs would be sent. Irena Dul, who voted for the resolution, says directly:
—In my view, the draft resolution was prepared cleverly, so that after reading the explanatory note (with the cost estimate), one would have doubts about the expenditure. The resolution itself did not specify any amounts—the councillor Dul adds.
Anna Ryżewska, president of the Animal Aid Association, agrees with this opinion:
—It seems that the shelter in Dłużyna was only meant to artificially increase the cost of introducing the programme. Grażyna Strzyżewska (head of the Municipal Services Department) said a year earlier that there was no money for Dłużyna.
Even though Strzyżewska already knew a year earlier that there would be no money for the shelter in Dłużyna, she entered PLN 400,000 in the cost estimate as the estimated cost of participating in the investment. In this way, she raised the total expenditure from the city budget on helping homeless animals to PLN 690,000.
After reviewing the cost estimate, the councillors raised an outcry and rejected the draft, apparently failing to read that the city did not have to contribute to the shelter’s expansion at all. The Association would have been satisfied with any amount that could support its care for homeless cats. Because of the councillors’ carelessness, we therefore have no plan for protecting homeless animals. The cats are left to the mercy of residents, while dogs are transported around the country—at the price of a trip to Egypt (PLN 1,500 per animal)—to whichever shelter will accept them.
An important issue related to the city’s approach to caring for animals is also the disregard shown by some councillors, the mayor and officials associated with him towards the Animal Aid Association. There is a striking lack of partnership in dealing with residents who, through their own efforts and resources, care for animals belonging to the city.
—Genuine concern for homeless dogs would not exist without the Association’s members—says Anna Ryżewska. The Association includes community carers (cat mothers and fathers): people who feed and treat cats day after day, regardless of the weather or circumstances. From their household budgets, they pay for bowls, blankets and beds, deworm the animals, and buy vitamins and other necessary medicines. They also replace shelters, because people can abandon kittens with them after noticing that someone regularly visits and feeds cats in a particular place.
—The authorities of Bolesławiec pretend that the problem does not concern them, while animal lovers will somehow manage—says Ryżewska. —Unfortunately, we will not manage, because there are more and more animals and sterilisation is essential. In Bolesławiec, community care for homeless cats is being provided on behalf of the city—says the SPZ president indignantly.
Since January this year, and probably since mid-December 2009, dogs have not been caught because there is no appropriate agreement with the company that had previously kept the animals. At the end of January, unsterilised female cats will start having litters in allotment gardens, sheds and block basements. In the urban ecosystem, people are essential for a homeless animal to survive. The residents of Bolesławiec understand this, so they give money from their household budgets to the “furry ones.” But will they be so kind to the councillors and the mayor when they reach the ballot boxes in autumn?
Two councillors voted for the resolution: Ewa Ołenicz-Bernacka and Irena Dul. Thirteen councillors voted against it, and three abstained.