Stray mother dog and her puppies - World Animal Protection - Better lives for dogs

Our responsible dog ownership education program to be adopted by Romanian schools

News

Following a successful pilot in 23 Romanian schools, our education program to reduce cruelty to dogs will now be rolled out to schools across the country

‘Let’s learn about animals’ has been developed to teach young people about responsible dog ownership.

It is set to make a real difference to the lives of thousands of dogs by tackling unnecessary cruelty, and aiming to reduce pet abandonment in the long term through educating future generations.

Combatting cruelty through education

Thousands of dogs are cruelly killed each year in Romania. Around the world, authorities often cull dogs in attempts to reduce the number of stray dogs, or to end the threat of rabies.

dog_sits_near_woman_on_streets_of_romania

A stray dog sits near a woman on a street in Romania

Our experts have trained teachers, local authority representatives and non-government workers to roll out the program across the country.

The proactive education program will improve knowledge, influence perceptions and change people’s attitudes towards dogs where conflict exists.

Our second big success for Romania’s dogs

It is also thanks to our supporters that the pilot has been such a success.

This year, more than 60,622 supporters signed our petition to the Mayor of ConstanČ›a, Romania, urging him to end the city’s cruel ‘catch and kill’ policy for stray dogs.

After we handed over the petition in September, the Mayor’s team promised to introduce a humane dog population management policy. This included the implementation of the ‘Let’s learn about animals’ program. We look forward to seeing it in action in ConstanČ›a, as well as other Romanian cities taking part.

Find out more about our work protecting dogs around the world.