Pettition - English

To:

Główny Lekarz Weterynarii (Chief Veterinary Officer)

Główny Inspektorat Weterynarii (General Veterinary Inspectorate)

ul. Wspólna 30

00-930 Warszawa

tel. 22 623 20 89

wet@wetgiw.gov.pl

A few years ago the village of Wojtyszki in the district of Sieradz became the site of a huge concentration camp for animals brought there from the area of the Łódź province. Its capacity is a stunning 3 thousand and it keeps on growing in size. It is a branch of a company run by Longin Siemiński, registered as a “hotel for animals and domestic birds”, seated in Łódź, ul. Kosodrzewiny 56.

The facility in Wojtyszki is everything that a shelter for homeless animals is not, and its activity has nothing to do with care or protection. Without any kennels, out in the open air, thousands of dogs swarm in herds, quickly becoming feral. In such conditions individual approach to an animal (medical treatment, prophylactics or even keeping record) is impossible, while any control of the fate of incarcerated animals is fictional.

In the years 2005 – 2010 this “hotel” took in around 5 thousand homeless dogs for the total sum of ca. 16 million Polish złoty. Currently it is home to around 2.5 thousand dogs. Whatever happened to the other thousands? The numbers have no documentation whatsoever: neither related to adoptions nor death or putting down for humanitarian reasons. Instead of registering new arrivals, the concentration camp used to create false documents, and recently also double chipping.

The Veterinary Inspectorate has been allowing for these dealings to continue for many years and is therefore largely responsible for the creation of a concentration camp in Wojtyszki as well as the lack of control over the situation. Despite one of its primary duties being to ensure that the provisions of the animal protection act are being followed, the Inspectorate would tolerate capturing homeless animals with no legal regulations which ought to be proclaimed in the acts of commune councils and which appoint a supervised shelter and determine the fate of the animals captured. It was for numerous years that the Inspectorate condoned the unlawful hunt for animals for profit.

For as long as a decade during which Longin Siemiński’s “hotel” business continued to flourish, the Veterinary Inspectorate failed to impose any formal supervision, let alone stop the functioning, of the facilities in Łódź and Wojtyszki, thus failing to fulfill its statutory duty. In September 2010 the facility in Wojtyszki was registered by the District Veterinary Officer in Sieradz as a shelter under its auspices, but this fact did not bring any substantial change in the conditions in which animals are kept. Neither did it shed any light on the fate of the missing thousands of dogs admitted earlier. The Inspectorate also seems to have ignored the fact that the permission to run the shelter issued by the Brąszewice commune head pertains to capturing animals in this one commune alone.  

We are asking the Chief Veterinary Officer to stop the operation of the described facilities, as it leads to no control over the fate of thousands of homeless animals, and ultimately to a humanitarian catastrophe which soon may become unavoidable.

The undersigned:

Agnieszka Lechowicz

Stowarzyszenie Obrona Zwierząt

28-300 Jędrzejów

Poland

www.obrona-zwierzat.pl

e-mail: soz@obrona-zwierzat.pl