An unknown person inflicted gunshot wounds on the back of one of the dogs living around the railway line in Podgorica, while the other dog, with which the wounded female spent time, was probably killed.
This was told to "Vijesti" by Ratka Tanjević, a long-time volunteer at the shelter for abandoned animals in Vreli Ribničke, in the Podgorica settlement of Konik. Tanjević has been working at the shelter for four hours a day for some time, where, as the editorial office was informed, a wounded dog is also temporarily cared for.
The veterinarian's report also states that the female he is caring for was wounded by a firearm, which, after an X-ray, confirms, among other things, the presence of a bullet.
The case was not reported to the police because, as volunteers told the editorial staff, "people don't want to waste hours reporting things that they could use to help the dog."
They added that trust in the system is necessary for filing a report, and that this is not the case now, because nothing has been done or learned "not even about the killing of owner dogs in Berane...", and they also cited the example of multiple poisoning in the Podgorica neighborhood of Tuški put, when seven or eight dogs died on three occasions, after which, they added, the suspect was released...
In recent days, animal protection activists have also been protesting the actions of the Basic State Prosecutor in Rožaje, who, after the police detained suspects for organizing dog fights, decided that there were no elements of a criminal offense.
The ODT explained this by saying that, based on the information collected, police officers determined that in this specific case, the dog owner had not contracted any benefit.
"Based on all the information and information collected, the Basic State Prosecutor's Office has decided that this is a misdemeanor in this case (Article 51, Paragraph 1, Item 8 of the Law on the Protection of Animal Welfare). The key reason that led the prosecutor on duty to declare that this is a misdemeanor, and not a criminal offense of training animals for fighting and organizing animal fights (Article 309a of the Criminal Code of Montenegro), is the fact that for a criminal offense, the existence of 'mercenary' is necessary, that is, the fact that any benefit from dog fighting was agreed upon, while the existence of this basis does not exist for cases of misdemeanors. Since the police officers determined, based on the information collected, that in this specific case, no benefit was agreed upon by the dog owner, the prosecutor on duty declared that this is a misdemeanor under the Law on the Protection of Animal Welfare," the Rožaje Prosecutor's Office announced.
Animal rights activist Nikola Jočić subsequently announced that he would ask the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, the Prosecutorial Council and the Animal Protection Council to state their position on the issue of organizing dog fights in Rožaje. In his response to the media, he also stated that based on the statements of the organizers and abusers, it cannot be determined whether the dog fight was organized for selfish reasons...
Regarding the female railway worker who was wounded by gunfire, Ratka Tanjević told "Vijesti" that she had not been to the location where she usually is, on the railway, for several days:
"She was gone for six or seven days. She liked to roam around with her owner's dog from the neighborhood. When I arrived, she was disfigured, the wound was horrible, I thought it was from an axe. I took her to the vet, they took a scan of her back, repaired the wound. They wondered what the wound was from, and after they took a scan, the scan showed that the dog had been shot at close range with a shotgun... They were also surprised that her lungs weren't punctured, because it was shot at close range. Just imagine the pain and what the dog is going through, what he's been through... She doesn't have a partner, he's probably dead somewhere, because they never separated," she said.
Volunteers suspect that the dogs were shot in the Old Airport neighborhood, because, as they say, the dogs were seen in that part of the city, and they most often went there from the railway.
"Who is walking around the Old Airport with a gun in their hand, where is the law, where are the authorities, where do we live?" Tanjević asked.
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