GALATZI, BUCOV, CAMPINA, : ARAD--The dog wars in the Romanian countryside differ little from the dog wars in Bucharest. Some cities kill street dogs, some entrepreneurs and administrators seek profit in animal control, and rescuers try to save dogs by housing as many as they can; while sterilization projects struggle to get up to speed.

Individual dogs are often roadkilled or poisoned, but dogs as a species are doing quite well. The "cultural carrying capacity" of the Romanian habitat, i.e. the point at which dogs are seen as a public nuisance, is clearly much lower than the physical carrying capacity dictated by food abundance. Rats, rabbits, and horse droppings are abundant enough that rural Romania also sustains plentiful hawks, eagles, and foxes.

If and when the dog population declines, foxes will invade the cities, much as coyotes are reclaiming habitat from dogs and feral cats in the U.S.--and that will be problematic, since foxes, not dogs, are the chief carriers of rabies and mange in eastern Europe.

Fox rabies can be eradicated, as in western Europe, through the use of oral Vaccine baits. But no one, as yet, has managed to eradicate mange in wildlife. At the ROLDA shelter just outside Galatzi, ANIMAL PEOPLE watched across a panoramic windswept valley as a family-of five foxes rehearsed their attack.

First came a sentinel, probably the father. He crossed a brushy ravine and stood at the far side, signaling his mate, who crept to the near side, then nodded toward her almost-grown cubs. Three came at intervals of about a minute. When the whole family had reached the ravine, they followed it up the hillside. It bent to the right, toward a gypsy camp, where chickens roamed unattended. Beyond the camp stood a cemetery, affording cover after the foxes rushed the flock, seized their dinner, and raced away, while two gypsies with three dogs half-heartedly backtracked them in the wrong direction.

After visiting seven dog holding facilities in Bucharest in May 2004, ANIMAL PEOPLE visited three more in Galatzi, near the mouth of the Danube, close to the Black Sea; one each in Bucov and Campina, at the edge of Transylvania; and two in Arad, the last railway stop before Hungary. The ROLDA shelter, though new and relatively small, housing about 40 dogs when we visited, is already among the best known in Romania due to the prominence of cofounder Dana Costen as a voice for Romanian dogs on the Internet. Fluent in English, Costen has since 2001 provided frequent electronic updates and informal commentary on animal-related news throughout the nation.

In October 2001 California hiker Nancy Janes was upset by the sight of home-less dogs on a trip to Transylvania. Searching "the Worldwide Web for Romanian humane societies, she found Costen and ROLDA, whose name is a fusion of the first names of cofounder Rolando Cepraga and Costen. Nancy and her husband Rory Janes soon became patrons of Costen's ambition to build and operate the best animal shelter in Eastern Europe.

Still only 26, Costen is off to an impressive start, especially considering that she is in law school and Cepraga is a fulltime mechanic. The ROLDA shelter scored 79 on the ANIMAL PEOPLE scale of 100, tied for best in Romania. Subsequent improvements may already have added points.

The ROLDA shelter is not easily reached at present, due to poor roads, but the roads are certain to be improved. Galatzi can only expand to the west and southwest, away from the Danube, the Ukrainian border, and the Black Sea coastal swamps. The newly built shelter, with accommodations for visiting volunteers, is only the most recent addition to the ROLDA program. ROLDA also rescues injured animals and abandoned litters in Galatzi, helps to feed about 375 dogs at the two municipal pounds, and campaigns as much as possible on other animal issues.

Yet ROLDA is mostly just Costen and Cepraga, with help from Nancy and Rory Janes when they visit.

As charismatic and outgoing as she seems to be on the Internet, Costen is in person intensely introverted and suspicious of most other people. She acknowledged to ANIMAL PEOPLE that working with people, including seeking funds, is the part of her work that she finds most stressful.

The original Galatzi pound was i Communist-era budka, or dog-hide tannery, which supported itself by selling dog pelts.
Post-Communism, the dog-skinning business collapsed, but the facility continued to kill dogs until the tenure of the present mayor. It now houses' about 125 dogs in small [ metal cages, with a tendency to overheat.

The cobblestone courtyard and view of the Danube hint that if the dilapidated buildings were demolished, the site could become a scenic outdoor restaurant—but something would have to be done about two wells full of dogs' bones that stand in the middle.

When the original pound over Mowed, Galatzi converted a nearby canine concentration camp housing nearly 300 dogs, with space for hundreds more. It does not have to be as miserable as it is. There is room for outdoor runs, if fences / were put up and exits knocked through the cinder block walls. The buildings have renovation potential. The kennel staff promised that such improvements would soon be made.

Meanwhile, both pounds are guard-ed by police, and only grudgingly opened to visitors. The newer pound prohibits cameras, apparently from fear that the conditions will be documented and shown to the public.

The dogs are fed an uncertain supply of leftover food from a local hospital. Though\ not starved, they fought viciously for kibble brought by ROLDA, purchased with funds donated by DELTA Rescue.

Supplementing the dog's rations may have been a well-intentioned idea gone awry. After ROLDA began feeding the dogs, they received fewer hospital leftovers. Perhaps the hospital simply had fewer patients and therefore bought less food--or perhaps someone decided to let ROLDA take over the whole job of dog-feeding, and is now selling to pig farmers the leftovers formerly given to the dogs.