02/23/15 A Letter to the President of Republic of Croatia
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF CROATIA
Attn: Mrs. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the president
Pantovcak 241
10 000 Zagreb
Zagreb, February 23, 2015
Dear Mrs. President Kitarovic,
Kindly allow me to express happiness for meeting you personally on Ban Jelacic Square during your socialization with citizens last Saturday and congratulate you once more on behalf of our organization on becoming the president of the Republic of Croatia, as well as thank you for your attention to and support for our campaign against killing the animals for their fur.
On several occassions, you have underlined your bond with the Nature that you refer to as your 'resting-place' and we were also impressed by your commitment to the most vulnerable social groups. We believe that you have particularly pronounced sensitivity for the protection of yet another highly vulnerable group – animals, and for promoting the sustainable development of the Republic of Croatia. Therefore, kindly allow us to expose only some of the most pressing problems we face in our work, as we do strongly believe you could assist us significantly, thanks to your strong ethical world views and your advocacy for all vulnerable groups.
Although the legal provisions that protect animals to a certain level do exist in Croatia, the biggest problem we face in practice is the absence of the implementaton of the Animal Protection Act and the by-law acts as well as the lack of sanctioning the torture and killing of animals with prison sentences, as required by the Criminal Act.
We would also like to highlight the problems such as: the failure of local self-government to build the shelters for abandoned animals, which is in violation with the Animal Protection Act, and for which they are not being questionned by anyone; absence of inspectorate for animal protection, i.e. of the police for animals that would effectively enforce the Law and punish abandonment, neglect and torture of animals; allowing the systematic killing of animals in shelters after 60 days, which encourages the shelters managed by profit companies to mercilessly spend taxpayers' money, disregard animal welfare and shallowly implement the laws or violate them.
Further important problems are permanent keeping of dogs on leash and allowing the performances of circuses that are keeping domestic animals. In addition to all the above, it would be of great importance if you would, as a president of the Republic of Croatia, stand up against the arbitrariness of the hunters and for the proper protection of wildlife and their habitats, developing ecotourism and also not forgetting about the animals who suffer thier whole lives in the zoological gardens.
In addition, we consider it equally important that you utilize your activities to positively influence the implementation of education on animal rights and sustainable way of eating and living in primary and secondary schools.
The politicians abroad, where there are parties for animal rights, offer in their program the constructive opinions about protection and animal rights and sustainable diet. The burning issues of global warming, consumption of natural resources, environmental pollution and world hunger are directly linked to the meat industry and the food habits of Croatian citizens, where every other dies from the effects of heart and blood vessels disease. We do believe you are also already aware of these problems, and that you will demonstrate your environmental and ethical awareness regarding the protection of animals and the sustainability of Croatia.
Thanks to the 13 years of our organization's work, citiyens are increasingly supporting initiaives of organizations and politicians who are not inert towards violence against animals and who are caring for their rights. Therefore, we are looking forward to your opportunity to stand up for the improvement of animal welfare, legislation reformation regarding the protection and animal rights and for promoting the healthy balanced vegan diet, in order to improve the health of citizens and protect our environment.
We would like to use this opportunity to arrange a meeting with you, where we could converse more about our cooperation directed towards the protection of animals in Croatia and the development of sustainable living. We are looking forward to meeting you and we strongly believe that we have the ideas for collaboration that you might like. We are aware of your limited time, and are therefore enclosing with this letter the famous and award-winning documentary 'Earthlings', which briefly depicts the situation of our animals today.
With gratitude and kind regards,
Luka Oman
The president of the organization
![President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic [ 225.15 Kb ]](/data/image_3_9387.jpg "President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic [ 225.15 Kb ]")
![President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic [ 106.89 Kb ]](/data/image_3_9388.jpg "President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic [ 106.89 Kb ]")
