Cat welfare in Croatia

Is Cat welfare in Croatia on the up and up? Croatia has recently introduced the Animal Protection Act (drafted in 2006 I believe -see Croatia Animal Protection Act). It came into force on 1st January 2007. It is quite good. It's introduction and enactment was, one could argue, forced on the Croatian government as it is seeking to become a member of the EU. Their application is still on track despite high levels of organized crime in Croatia.

Can you force animal welfare on a country? Is the new legislation just a piece of paper? The penalties for a conviction of animal cruelty under the Act are quite substantial (the equivalent of about £5,000 -£10,000 GPD) but imprisonment is not an option. The biggest problem is enforcement which is dependent on commitment and resources. There is organized crime and hunting seems to be largely unregulated and the new legislation does not regulate hunting. Is a country in which there is organized crime able to adopt a caring and more up to date attitude towards animals and cats (my area of interest)?
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Photograph of cat hanging from a tree: this is taken from the Animal Friends Croatia website. I provide a link in exchange: Animal Friends Croatia. If you object please tell me and I'll rectify the situation quickly. Who could do this and why? For what purpose? It seems to be a case of gratuitous violence serving no purpose. This is great cruelty towards cats in Croatia. Under the new legislation this would be a crime under article 4 of the Act. The cat seems to be a domestic tabby and white cat.
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Obviously decent legislation is a good start, but only a start. Peoples' attitudes need to be updated, particularly in the villages, where it is commonplace, apparently, to see dogs permanently chained up. This is considered normal, obviously. The people who do this cannot have any sensitivity towards an animal's mentality. There is a huge amount of ignorance on the subject of an animal's ability to suffer emotionally. With this I am afraid to see backward and ignorant attitude it is hard to see progress being quick.


Typical macho alpha male man with alpha dog - Split, Croatia. Photo by joao ornelas. When I see this I don't get good vibes on cat welfare in Croatia. Am I being prejudiced?

There are many instances of animal cruelty in Croatia. It seems to be a male dominated state. Open cruelty seems to have gone unpunished. Animal cruelty and for me cat welfare in Croatia has almost been ignored. One group of people with the correct attitude are the people who run Animal Friends Croatia. They have done good work. There is a long way to go, in my view.

There will be change, yes, but it will take tens of years perhaps 2 or 3 generations before cat welfare in Croatia is on a par with the best countries in the world for animal welfare. This is my personal view. If your differs please make a comment.

Cat welfare in Croatia - source:

• Animal Friends Croatia
• Myself

From Cat welfare in Croatia to Cats and the Law

Cat owners vote Democrat

Rescue cat available for adoption through Independent Animal Rescue, Durham, NC as at July 2008. I hope he/she has a home by now and that the home is a democrat home! Photo by KelliAmanda

Cat owners vote Democrat- why? Cat people are independent people. Independent minded people ask questions. They think outside the box. They are more inclined to challenge the Status Quo. Cats are also independent animals. They are solitary hunters in the wild where there is sufficient space but can adapt to live in groups either as feral cats or in the human home with other cats or dogs, for example.

In contrast dog people are pack animals. They like the concept of family, the Status Quo; the cosy paradigm of family living with the dog at the master's feet, by the fire, after a hearty evening meal. All is well with the world. The master of the house is the man of the house and it has got to stay that way. Dogs are pack animals too. They look up to the top dog, the master of the house, the male human.

This means that dogs would vote republican and cats democrat. Or in the UK, cats would vote labor or liberal (or for an independent candidate, if available) and dogs would vote conservative.

Apparently, Barack Obama, the new President of the United States, has decided to buy a puppy for his daughters. On the face of it this goes against the above theory. Yet Barack is adopting a dog for the family. He is being democratic. And the family would, it seems, prefer a dog. Maybe they would like a dog first then a cat.?

If he had a free choice would be prefer to adopt a cat? Remember, cat owners vote Democrat (generally -there will be wide spectrum of attitudes in both parties with a large overlap).

Cat Owners vote democrat to Home Page

Photograph: published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License

Cat Welfare in Romania

Cat Welfare in Romania is poor because animal welfare is poor generally. Why is that? There are a number reasons and they start with the communist dictatorship history which it seems stultified the usual growth of a nation. There is no doubt that Romania is lagging behind most states of Europe, certainly the more established countries. Romania recently (on January 1st 2007) became a member of the European Union, the EEC (European Economic Union).

Good cat (my area of interest) and animal welfare legislation is more than simply drafting an enacting the law. There has to be a will to carry it through by rigorous enforcement. And as important is the fact that there has to be a change in attitude towards animals by those who keep them. That means the general population or a large part of it will need to adjust their views in respect of animals. On a practical level a government cannot enforce animal welfare laws against numerous offenders particularly when the law is rather poorly written as is the case in Romania and when there seems to be a lack of commitment to it. A lack of commitment to enforce is no surprise as the enforcers as like any other Romanian. They need it seems to be educated too in respect of animal welfare. It seems the animal welfare laws were introduced to help smooth the path to becoming a member of the EEC. In other words political reasons, rather than genuine animal welfare at heart.

In addition, Romania would seem to have a long established hunting tradition. Hunting is poorly controlled despite the laws to protect wild life. People don't just hunt wild life. When there are no wildcats, bears, deer and Lynxs to kill the hunters chase the feral cats and stray dogs and it seems they even do this very near homes and in the towns. It really is bad for wildlife, dogs and feral cats in Romania. Of course it can't go on for ever as mercifully the wild animals worth hunting will become extinct in Romania and there will be no pain anymore.

Romania has a feral dog problem. They seem to think the answer is to shoot them on sight. Great fun. This doesn't work. The same is true for feral cats. The best method is to control the dog population through trap and neuter. Then most importantly tackle the problem at source: the people. All stray cat and dog problems start with irresponsible people. The local authorities of Romania charged with enforcing the law seem to have forgotten that.

Another country lagging behind in terms of animal welfare is Croatia. I have discussed in outline Romanian cat and animal laws and made comments and set out cat animal cruelty laws Romania (as I understand it). Cat Welfare in Romania needs to be cleaned up and reinforced.

Cat Welfare in Romania to Laws and Cats

The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights is hogwash

The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights is hogwash - comment and discuss. I have built a page on this declaration. See it here: The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights.

I am saying that it is too late for a declaration. We need universal laws on animal welfare. There is plenty of good law around for those countries who are sadly lagging behind in embracing the idea of animal rights, which is an essential part of the law of an established country.

If they have the will and commitment (the biggest obstacle) all they have to do is take some good law from a country that is organized such as Sweden (see their animal welfare laws) and adopt and adapt.

Disagree? Too hard? Plain wrong? Tell me plse..........by leaving a comment.

Agouti ticked cat coat

Here is a great close up photograph of an Agouti ticked cat coat on a wildcat, the Jaguarundi.


The "ticked" hairs of a Jaguarundi wildcat. This is a cropped images from a larger version, allowed under the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic creative commons license. Photo by alumroot

If you look at the hair over the eyes (great wildcat wild look eyes) you can see the color at the first half of the hair (from the skin) is black. Then it is yellow and the tip is black again.

The black pigment is eumelanin. The yellow pigment is phaeomelanin. Melanin is a substance often seen in plant and animal life in which it primarily serves as providing pigment. For the technically minded eumelanin and pheomelanin are:

"a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole, dihydroxyindole carboxylic acid, and their reduced forms. Another common form of melanin is pheomelanin, a red-brown polymer of benzothiazine units largely responsible for red hair and freckles" (src: Wikipedia® published under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version - see Wikipedia® licensing below).

The agouti gene controls the way the pigmentation is deposited in the individual hair. Eumelanin is produced in cells called melanocytes. The agouti gene inhibits the production of eumelanin but less so in the case of pheomelanin.

The wild type A (dominant) gene causes the hair to be yellow at the base and black at the tip. This description seems to be partially contradict what we see in the hairs in the photograph where they are black-yellow-black. The basic principle is in place still, however (comments welcome).

The classic agouti ticked cat coat is the Abyssinian cats coat. Tabby cats have ticked hair and a pattern as well; either classic, stripes (mackerel) or spotted. A classic mackerel pattern can be seen on the Toyger cat. See cat coats tabby too if you like. See links to more coat types.

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Wikipedia®
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From Agouti ticked cat coat to Moggie cats