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

<http://www.prijatelji-zivotinja.hr/index.html> Friends.

Edited and revised by LGGN

 

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

ia