CROATIA ... A LAND OF CRUELTY?

[Guest guest]

 

Animal Friends Croatia [prijatelji.zivotinja]

CROATIA ... A LAND OF CRUELTY?

an essay expressed by

Croatians... for the world to read

" A small country for great holidays

.... But a small country for great

cruelty! "

Our

familiar tourism slogan could soon appear with those extra words you see above.

 

Why? ... Because if we take some of the following facts into consideration, my

country Croatia shamefully stands out amongst others by it's appalling

treatment towards animals ... and the situation is getting worse.

Until

recently, we were proud of our population of griffon vultures, about one

hundred of them. Now we have only fifty. Half the population

were poisoned in just one day during a bear hunt. No attempt was made to

even look for, let alone punish the culprit. Excuse the pun, but this incident

was barely reported or written about in Croatia, or anywhere else.

Just as a comparative example, Romania

has a population of two griffon vultures and spends millions of euros on them.

In Croatia,

50 or so are killed annually...

Likewise, we could have been proud of our bear population, which was one of the

largest in South Eastern Europe; but instead

we decided to give up this wonderful creature for the sake of hunting.

Ironically, a bear is actually featured on our five-kuna

coin.

So, for a couple of thousand euros, foreign hunters can come to this country,

kill a bear, eat lunch and go home with its fur as a trophy.

With no proof to back up their claims, local hunters blamed our bears for the

mysterious deaths of sheep on the island

of Krk.

Just another excuse for these misunderstood creatures to be hunted and shot.

Local authorities didn't even respond to solutions offered by respected foreign

experts. Instead they continued to insist on extermination.

The hunting lobby is strong in this country; therefore offers by foreign

environmental organizations are often ignored.

At

a sitting of the hunting alliance, The President of the Croatian Republic,

Stjepan Mesic stated that

various negative stories about bears and other animals tend to circulate

amongst those who do not know a lot about hunting.

In fact, misinformation circulates amongst much of the Croatian public, mostly

uneducated about animal welfare. Completely unproven claims of rampaging bears

and other wild animals ripping whole herds of sheep to pieces just give more

credibility and support to the country's hunting lobby. Because of this

ignorance, bloody sports and killing for pleasure seems to stand proud in our

countries cultural curriculum.

The way things are going at the moment, the only place we are likely to see a

Croatian bear in the future is on our five-kuna coin.

 

Croatia is probably

the only country in the world where a hunter can openly say on national television

that he has killed somebody's dog, cat, donkey etc. - and that he will also

kill others.

Hunting grounds start as close as three hundred metres

from private land. Hunters take full advantage of this and intentionally kill

" everything that moves " . They know too well that the law allows them

to do so, and they stretch that law to extremes.

It is simply repulsive to watch these hunters - macho he-men in military dress,

armed with guns and lead by dogs. They set out on their heroic crusades - the

killing of " dangerous wild beasts " - such as rabbits, pheasants and

foxes ... It's pathetic.

However,

hunters are not the only ones who use loopholes in our catastrophic Animal

Protection Act. Croatia's

entertainment industry regularly uses animals as stage props. The performers

hurl them around the stage, batter them or sacrifice them in the course of

" artistic expression " .

Up to a point, public activities like this might get condemned - and there is

talk of bringing charges, but the sentiments are short-lived and soon

forgotten. These occurrences are overshadowed by other, more inane news

incidents, which the media would rather make space for.

Although

we are a small Central European country, we are the largest world producer of

chinchilla fur, with up to 50% of the total world production.

These small South American animals are kept throughout their life in cramped

cages. And when their time comes, their necks are broken - then they are

skinned. These poor creature's pelts proudly contribute to Croatia's export economy. In just 6

months, Chinchilla Co. Ltd. produced 10.5 tonnes of

carcasses of these small rodents.

Even though more and more people in the world support synthetic fur, and are

against the production of natural (animal) fur, Croatia is not interested in

banning fur farming. Croatia

is not interested in the fact that the anti-fur movement is gaining strength

all the time and that a large number of civilized countries across the world

condemn this kind of cruelty. But in our country, a woman thinks she is not a

'real woman' without a fur coat.

" In

Croatia,

we ask ourselves, in which century and time are we

living: the stone-age or the third millennium? "

With

regards to animal species from other continents, it is necessary to mention

ostriches, which are presently one of the growing problems in Croatia. There are more and more

breeders of these African birds, even though there is no legislation in our

country on the keeping and slaughter of these animals. The bringing of such

legislation is sought from authorities. In the meantime, neighboring Austria

has banned the slaughter of ostriches.

This is the irony, because everything that is repulsive to the " West "

- just a border away - is allowed in our country; from the hunting of protected

species to the farming of fur and the slaughter of ostriches.

Unfortunately,

the problem does not just lie in the farming and slaughter of animals from

other continents. In all countries around the world, animals such as chickens,

pigs, cows, horses and sheep are nothing but articles to serve and fulfill meat

eaters. That is the common state of world animal farming for the masses. In

some countries such as Great

Britain there are rules, which are supposed

to be followed when slaughtering animals. This is to reduce their pain of death

to the minimum. But in Croatia

they are inconsiderately slaughtered without anesthetic. Their teeth, wings,

tails and testes are cut with no thought given to help reduce their pain.

Passing through any Croatian rural settlement, anyone can see for themselves

how such barbaric techniques are used to put animals to death. Veal calves, for

example, are hung alive, upside down and their throats cut to drain their

bodies of blood as the heart continues to pump.

Also

located in Croatia are some

of the largest chicken farms in Europe, as

well as some of the larger European farms for milk cows and pigs. Similarly, we

can 'boast' about our huge turkey, calve and beef cattle farms ... all run

using barbaric slaughtering methods.

Favourite specialties and popular meals are young

pigs and lambs. Particularly ugly sights are the numerous restaurants along

busy Croatian roads, with skewered baby animals turning over fires in front of

the restaurant entrances.

There

is no celebration, wedding or holiday without a roast or an excess of meat

fare.

However, probably one of the greatest problems occurs in the Adriatic

Sea, which is almost totally depleted of fish. Fishing trawlers

have ruined the seabed, by dragging their nets, and have over fished the entire

area. Apart from our local fishermen, the Japanese are now assaulting the Adriatic Sea using new, more intensive methods.

We

take this opportunity to consider some of our folk traditions, such as the

beheading of bulls on the island Korcula. In fact

this wasn't even a tradition in the first place. It was introduced as a tourist

attraction, but instead gave rise to criticism and repugnance. Thankfully, it

was given up after just two seasons.

What

else can we expect? What other horrific ideas lie in the heads of our people or

tourist associations? People who are more concerned about

profit rather than conserving their depleting natural resources and native

animals. The Croatian public must stand back and realize that they are

ecologically out of sync with global concerns about the environment, species

extinction and the ethical treatment of animals.

Is Croatia

becoming the slaughterhouse of Europe?

Whilst

some countries laws prohibit the abuse of animals, our country seems to revel

in it ... as a tourist attraction.

The number of vegetarians worldwide is steadily increasing and health

organizations around the world are supporting vegetarianism as healthy and

ethical choice. But in our country, authorities still have no understanding for

the introduction of vegetarian meals or food labeling into public institutions.

In Croatia,

nobody has yet been punished because of cruelty to animals.

Almost anything is tolerated. Pet owners can abuse their animal with no worry

about being charged with cruelty. Therefore, it's no surprise when dogs and

cats are abandoned and thrown out onto the street during the holiday season.

They finally end up in a pound where they are killed within a shorter time

limit than the law permits.

At

the beginning of this article we parodied, " A small country for a great

holiday " . This is the advertising slogan of the Croatian Tourist

Association. It's inspired by a seldom seen natural beauty of our land - its

large potential for eco-tourism and the production of ecological (organic)

growth and health food.

The purpose of this article is not to dispute that, but to seek an answer to

the questions:

" Why is Croatia

turning to blood thirsty tourism of killing donkeys and bears?

" Why is Croatia

killing and selling of rare songbirds?

" Why is Croatia

farming animal species endemic to other climes and the opening of new

hunting-grounds? "

At

the same time, our rural tourism - illustrated by the beauty of ancient castles

- deteriorates further, as they become overgrown with nettles and acacias. What

was once among the cleanest rivers and springs in this part of the world are

now undrinkable, poisoned a result of bad planning of industrial waste zones.

The resulting cruelty and negligence towards all the animal species that share

these expanses with us is overwhelming.

Even though we are a 'small' country, Croatia is unfortunately also a

land of great cruelty.

An article by the

Croatian Animal Welfare Group, Animal

Friends.

Edited and revised by LGGN

 

http://www.looking-glass.co.uk/news/library2002/2002-5-east-europe.htm#croatia