Under the motto “This is not love, it’s business, citizens pay, municipality enjoys,” the Animal Rights Foundation organized a protest today demanding better treatment of stray dogs by the Municipality of Prishtina, as reported by ​KosovaPress.

The protest march started from Skënderbeu square and ended at the old Municipal building, where protesters also placed banners with messages such as, "Dogs are life, not a problem," "Justice for dogs," "Stop cruelty," "Enough fooling us," and "Nora, you have legal responsibility for the welfare of the dogs."

The Foundation’s director, Elza Ramadani, emphasized that the purpose of the protest is to demand accountability from institutions for the management of public funds and the treatment of stray dogs.

Ramadani criticized the Municipality of Prishtina for lack of transparency and excluding citizens from decision-making processes:

"We are here today to demand accountability. We are here because public money is not a game, and stray dogs are not numbers—they are beings that need care and protection. We all agree that stray dogs should not remain on the streets, because besides the risk to citizens, the dogs themselves are victims of abuse and neglect. But to reach a real solution, well-thought-out, sustainable measures that address the root of the problem are needed, not just the consequences. The Municipality of Prishtina is acting unilaterally, sheltering dogs outside legal standards, without transparency and without citizen involvement. This is not a solution; it deepens the problem. The Municipality deals with symptoms, not the source of the problem," Ramadani stressed.

She also presented several demands to the responsible authorities.

"We will not remain silent in the face of mismanagement and law violations. We demand massive sterilization/castration to significantly reduce the number of street dogs, awareness and support for families who keep dogs so they are not abandoned and are sterilized, awareness among citizens to reduce fear and involve them in solving the problem, shelters that respect the law and animal welfare, data-based policies—not improvisations, the involvement of citizens and civil society in every decision that affects the unprotected animals of the city and Kosovo," she added.

It is recalled that since the end of 2023, the Municipality of Prishtina has been allocating fifty euros per month to citizens who adopt stray dogs.

Citizens can adopt up to five stray dogs. Fines for citizens who mistreat adopted dogs range from one thousand to three thousand euros. So far, the Municipality of Prishtina has allocated millions of euros for the adoption of stray dogs.