Bucharest City Hall plans pet census
The Bucharest City Hall is looking to carry out a pet census, according to a project to be discussed on Thursday, October 24, by the Bucharest General Council, News.ro reported.
If the project goes through, the census will be done by the Authority for the Supervision and Protection of Animals (ASPA). Pet owners will have to declare all the info concerning their animals: race, color, size, sex, age, and name.
The project is aimed at helping manage the reproduction of pets, prevent their abandonment, and make pet owners more aware of their responsibilities.
The census, the first of its kind to be carried out, would take two years to complete and would start 30 days after the approval of the project. ASPA would work with the local Police for this.
The data gathered at the census will be recorded in a register of pets. Census agents are to come at people’s homes from Monday to Friday, between 8:00 and 20:00.
Owners also have the obligation to announce the death of their pet or if they are giving them away so that ASPA can register it in the data base. At the same time, owners are compelled to let ASPA know if they get a new pet or if these gave birth.
The refusal to provide the data or giving erroneous or incomplete data can be fined with sums in between RON 500 (EUR 105) and RON 1,000 (EUR 210), according to the project. If pet owners do not let ASPA know, within 15 days of the event, that their pet has given birth, they can receive a fine of in between RON 400 (EUR 84) and RON 600 (EUR 126).
There are an estimated 11 million pets in Romania: 4 million dogs and 4.2 million cats, according to info presented in the project. In Bucharest, one family out of three is estimated to have a pet.
