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Behind the Scenes of the 2005 European Basketball Championship

Prior to the current Serbian administration, Serbian politicians promised to improve animal welfare laws yet the horrendous conditions for all animals still exists in Serbia. Today these same politicians ignore the pleas and cries from their own citizens and individuals abroad including Brigitte Bardot to stop the torture and murder of animals The following photographs depict how the current Serbian administration is administering animal control. These animal control methods were employed at an accelerated rate prior to the European Basketball Championship.
Serbian streets continue to be inundated with companion animals (dogs and cats). Animal control in Serbia consists of; paying hunters for each animal killed (hunters present the animal’s tail for payment), poison such as T-61 and Kreozan which kills by suffocation, drenching the animal with gasoline and burning them to death and other barbaric methods such as beating, stoning and hanging.

These brutal killings have accelerated in the capital city of Belgrade, this past year in what seems to be a state sponsored massacre. The government’s objective appears to be to present the city as an attractive destination for tourists visiting sporting events such as the “Belgrade Marathon” and the “European Basketball Championship”. Even dogs that are sterilized (spayed / neutered) by reputable organizations such as “Foundation Brigitte Bardot” and fed by animal loving Serbian citizens have disappeared. According to these citizens, what is even more astonishing is the lack of coverage by the Serbian media of this slaughter. Serbian media continues to portray friendly dogs as rabid, vicious killers to their audience which makes one wonder, have things really changed since the media controlled Milosevic regime?

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please send a letter today to the following email addresses expressing your outrage.

Just copy
info-AT-fibaeurope.com; basketbh-AT-bih.net.ba; nora-AT-basketball.bg; office-AT-basketball.bg; office-AT-hks-cbf.hr; lidija.pleic-AT-hks-cbf.hr;
fjugnet-AT-basketfrance.com; bgasperin-AT-basketfrance.com; bueker-AT-basketball-bund.de; helbasket-AT-otenet.gr; segreteria.generale-AT-fip.it; lbs-AT-lbs.lv; office-AT-lbbf.lt; nb-AT-basket.ru; bf-AT-basket.ru; kyuba-AT-yuba.org.yu; secretaria-AT-feb.es; emirt-AT-tbf.org.tr; tbf-AT-tbf.org.tr; fbu-AT-voliacable.com; kabinet-AT-predsednikscg.yu; predsednikvladesrbije-AT-srbija.sr.gov.yu; kabinet.minpolj-AT-minpolj.sr.gov.yu; kabinet-AT-minttu.sr.gov.yu

Ms. Brigitte BARDOT letter to Serbia’s President, Boris Tadic

Paris, April 25, 2005

Cabinet of President of Republic Srbia
g. Boris TADIC
Andricev Venac br. 1
11 000 BEOGRAD
SERBIA and MONTENEGRO

Open letter

Dear Mr. President,

It’s with a bruised heart and a mourning soul that I appeal to you to end the revolting massacre of Serbia’s stray animals. A number of accounts, accompanied by photos illustrating the horror of the cruelties inflicted on these innocent beings, have reached my Foundation. These accounts denounced the atrocity of the eradication campaigns, led at the request of the authorities.

Vilified by the media, these dogs and cats are becoming the scapegoats of a part of your population, which seems to take sadistic pleasure in savagely torturing them. Equally, death squadrons methodically patrol each region of Belgrade in order to mass poison the few survivors of this eradication. The detergents and other products that are used generate intolerable agony and suffering. Furthermore, what about the corpses of the dogs whose fur is carefully removed?

I know that your country and people are attempting to heal wounds, which were inherited from a shameful and violent war. However, that was ten years ago. Today is the time for the reconstruction of hearts and a long forgotten humanity.

The knowledge of atrocious acts committed regularly on stray animals crosses frontiers. Your people have shown their bloody and criminal behavior towards animals. Your capital is becoming, like Bucharest, a window of horror. Neither the Belgrade marathon, nor the 2005 euro basketball can justify this barbaric “cleaning”. You have the power to change all this and to restore Serbia’s dignity. Push the elaboration of an animal welfare bill, which favors sterilization and vaccination campaigns for stray animals, similar to Greece and Turkey. Teach your people that animals, even strays, have the right to our respect and compassion.

With hope that you hear my cry of distress, sincerely yours,

Brigitte Bardot, President

PETA’s letter to the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management

January 28, 2005

Dr. Dejan Krnjaic
Veterinary Director
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management
SIV III Building, First Floor
Omladinskih Brigada 1 11070 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

Dear Dr. Krnjaic:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an international non-profit organization with more than 800,000 members and supporters dedicated to the humane treatment of animals. Our office has recently received several letters and e-mails from Serbian citizens who are deeply distressed over terrible cases of cruelty to animals that they have witnessed in Serbia. The writers claim that there are no national laws in place to prohibit such violent conduct toward animals. We have received heartbreaking photographs taken in Belgrade of dead dogs hanging in public (copies enclosed) and eyewitness statements about dogs being killed via extremely cruel methods by municipalities, including intracardiac (into the heart) injections of dangerous pesticides and by being thrown alive into trash compactors where they are torturously crushed to death. We beg you to act immediately to implement laws that not only prohibit, but punish malicious acts such as these.

Violence toward animals has long been recognized as an indicator of dangerous psychopathologies that do not confine themselves to animals. “Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives,” wrote humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer. “Murderers ... very often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids,” according to Robert K. Ressler, who developed profiles of serial killers for the United States (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Studies have now convinced sociologists, lawmakers, and the courts that acts of cruelty toward animals deserve our attention. They can be the first sign of a violent pathology that includes human victims.

Animal abuse is not just the result of a minor personality flaw in the abuser but rather a symptom of a deep mental disturbance. Research in psychology and criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty toward animals don’t stop there; many of them move on to their fellow humans.

The FBI has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appear in its computer records of serial rapists and murderers, and the standard diagnostic and treatment manual for psychiatric and emotional disorders lists cruelty to animals as a diagnostic criterion for conduct disorders.

A study conducted by Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in the U.S. found that people who abuse animals are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against humans. The majority of inmates scheduled to be executed for murder at the state of California’s San Quentin penitentiary “practiced” their crimes on animals, according to the warden.
Cruelty to animals must be addressed by judicial systems in every country to deter violence against animals and people alike, and promote a safe, compassionate home for all citizens. We urge you to do everything in your power to ensure the passage of national animal protection laws in Serbia, and stand poised to assist you in any way needed in this important undertaking.
May we please hear from your office?
Thank you very much for your valuable time and attention.
Most respectfully,
Teresa Lynn Chagrin, Animal Sheltering Advisor
Domestic Animal and Wildlife Rescue & Information Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
501 Front Street, Norfolk, VA 23510 USA

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

President of Serbia, Svetozar Marovic
kabinet-AT-predsednikscg.yu

Office of Prime Minister VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA
predsednikvladesrbije-AT-srbija.sr.gov.yu

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management
kabinet.minpolj-AT-minpolj.sr.gov.yu

Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Services
kabinet-AT-minttu.sr.gov.yu

2005 European Basketball Championship Sponsors and Participating Basketball Teams

FIBA (International Basketball Federation)
info-AT-fibaeurope.com

Bosnia & Herzeg.
basketbh-AT-bih.net.ba

Bulgaria
office-AT-basketball.bg; nora-AT-basketball.bg

Croatia
office-AT-hks-cbf.hr; lidija.pleic-AT-hks-cbf.hr

France
bgasperin-AT-basketfrance.com; fjugnet-AT-basketfrance.com

Germany
bueker-AT-basketball-bund.de

Greece
helbasket-AT-otenet.gr

Italy
segreteria.generale-AT-fip.it

Latvia
lbs-AT-lbs.lv

Lithuania
office-AT-lbbf.lt

Russia
nb-AT-basket.ru; rbf-AT-basket.ru

Serbia & Montenegro
yuba-AT-yuba.org.yu

Slovenia
kzs-AT-kzs-zveza.si

Spain
secretaria-AT-feb.es

Turkey
emirt-AT-tbf.org.tr; tbf-AT-tbf.org.tr

Ukraine
fbu-AT-voliacable.com

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