FOUR PAWS helps manage the city’s population through neutering and adoption, ensuring the dogs are treated humanely.
FOUR PAWS has, in collaboration with its local NGO partner Animal Society and the city government of Constanta, launched an effort to manage Constanta’s population of stray dogs in a humane manner. For years, the dogs were either caught and taken to overcrowded shelters with little hope of ever being adopted, or killed, as it is not illegal to carry out mass culling of stray dogs in Romania. However, these methods are neither sustainable nor humane. It is therefore positive that the city of Constanta has banned the killing practices and wants to help their stray dogs using humane methods.
With support from the QATO Foundation, FOUR PAWS is implementing its programme in Constanta, which contains several elements that, combined, will contribute to humanely stabilising and eventually reducing the number of stray dogs in the city. The main focus is on the systematic neutering of free-roaming dogs. Furthermore, the programme focuses on improving the community’s attitude towards stray dogs, informing residents about responsible pet ownership and encouraging local adoptions.
"Since February 2021, significant progress has been made for the dogs and the community of Constanta. While solving the problem of overpopulation in a humane way is a gradual process that does not happen overnight, we are proud to have achieved a 78% sterilisation rate of dogs in the industrial areas of the city – where dog densities are the highest – in 2024. Furthermore, our latest research shows that only a very small percentage of the population are puppies. This indicates that the population is slowly stabilising. Transformation is underway in Constanta, and we hope this model will be replicated by other cities in Romania,” says Manuela Rowlings, Head of Stray Animal Care Europe and Community Engagement at FOUR PAWS International.
FOUR PAWS is a global animal welfare organisation founded in Austria in 1988. Today, Four Paws has offices all over the world from where they work to achieve their vision of a world where all animals are treated with respect, empathy and understanding. Four Paws pays special attention to animals under direct human influence such as pets, farm animals, wild animals under human care and animals in disaster and conflict zones.
