Bucharest Plans Crackdown on Stray Dogs After Executive Savaged

[DoozyDog]

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Bucharest plans to double the number of dog catchers after a Japanese businessman was savaged to death by one of the 200,000 strays that roam the Romanian capital.

Hajime Hori, the 68-year-old former head of ball-bearing maker JTEKT Corp.'s local unit, was killed yesterday outside his apartment in the affluent neighborhood bordering Palatul Victoriei, the seat of Romania's government, police said.

``We are taking radical measures after this tragic event,'' Bucharest Vice Mayor Razvan Murgeanu said at a press conference today. The city will increase the number of dogcatchers with tranquilizer guns to 12 teams of two from six.

There's one stray dog in Bucharest for every 10 citizens, and more than 80 people a day report for medical treatment and anti- rabies shots after canine attacks in the city, which is aiming to become a European Union capital as early as next year. The wild dogs originated in the 1980s under the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, who tore down sections of the city for building projects and prompted dog owners to put their pets on the street.

Magda Popescu, communications director for Bucharest's Animal Supervision department, which is in charge of dog catching, said it's difficult to hire people to deal with the strays.

``The problem is that nobody wants to do this kind of work,'' she said in an interview today. ``We're always advertising positions and can't fill them.''

`Shocked'

Hori, who become the head of the Romanian-Japanese Business Association when he left JTEKT in 2002, was bitten after he parked his car Sunday afternoon and died in the hall of his apartment building as he tried to reach the security guard, Police spokesman Christian Ciocan said in an interview with Realitatea Television.

``We're very shocked,'' Elena Palencu, director of personnel of JTEKT Romania, said in a telephone interview.

Realitatea carried reports throughout this morning on the attack under the headline ``Jungle in Bucharest'' and the Libertatea newspaper carried a front-page photo of a snarling dog.

Foreign visitors often associate Bucharest with strays and many residents and businessmen demand city hall solve the problem before Romania joins the EU. Packs of dogs can be seen in most Bucharest neighborhoods and nights throughout the city are punctuated by frenzied barking.

The U.S. State Department has a travel advisory on its Web site advising its citizens for avoid stray dogs in Romania. In 2003, two U.S. soldiers working at a Romanian air force base were treated with rabies shots after being bitten.

Bardot Protest

President Traian Basescu led a campaign to collect and sterilize stray dogs when he was mayor until 2004. Officials had considered killing dogs, though scrapped plans when actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot led a protest.

Murgeanu, the deputy mayor, indicated that the attack on Hori may lead to the extermination of some of the stray dogs.

``When we wanted to put an end to this problem we received protests of a humanitarian nature,'' he said in an interview with Realitatea. ``This problem has only one solution and that, however painful it is, must be a radical one.''

Realitatea television broadcast images of the thin, black and white mixed-race dog that witnesses said bit Hori. Officials haven't yet seized it, the channel said.

Many Bucharest residents feed stray dogs and occasionally let them stay in the halls of their apartment buildings, feeling that they increase security.

Popescu said the dog catchers, who caught 20 dogs in the area of the attack Sunday, caught 1,100 stray dogs in Bucharest in the first 17 days of January alone. She said half of them were adopted although they usually end up back on the streets.

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