Former film star rushes to the rescue of city's stray dogs

All dogs go to heaven, the saying goes, but if the mayor of Bucharest got his way, the 300,000 stray dogs that roam his city's streets would be going to heaven a little sooner than expected.

Under the benches at bus shelters, on the steps of the parliament building and in the metro, Bucharest is overrun with dogs. And these are not the Lassie, life-saving variety, these dogs are hungry, jumpy and snap happy.

Last year over 20,000 city dwellers received medical treatment for stray dog bites, leading Bucharest's populist mayor, Traian Basescu, to announce March 1st as D-day for dogs. On that day all strays in the city would be rounded up and put down, he announced.

The Romanians pride themselves on being a nation of dog lovers and hundreds took to the streets holding banners such as "If you kill a friend, who's next?" But with the city's strays biting up to 50 people a day, the overall mood of the two million citizens was more resignation than outrage.

The outrage was supplied by former film star turned animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot.

She helped put an end to a similar plan two years ago, and last week Ms Bardot flew into Bucharest ahead of the cull to talk to the mayor.

If Brigitte Bardot wants to save the dogs, I would be more than happy to get a few trucks and ship the dogs to her in France, snapped Mr Basescu.

Bucharest's stray dog epidemic is a lasting legacy of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He tore down a huge section of the city centre in the 1980s to construct a Stalinist palace and apartment blocks.

Homeowners were relocated to tiny high-rise apartments in the suburbs and had no choice but to leave their dogs behind to roam the streets.

"The dogs are fellow victims of communism," one man told a newspaper last week.

With D-Day looming, Brigitte Bardot secured a last-minute deal with the mayor to save 100,000 of the dogs from being put down.

Now only dangerous, old and terminally ill dogs will be destroyed.

Ms Bardot is to donate more than $140,000 over two years for a mass sterilisation and adoption programme for those that remain.

"We have to convince the people of Bucharest, who are dog lovers, to treat dogs like they treat their children and not just let them roam the streets," Ms Bardot said.

Considering 20,000 orphaned children do just that in Bucharest, it was not the smartest thing the former bikini queen ever said.

However, before she left, Ms Bardot left a $3,000 donation for an underfunded orphanage in the city. Perhaps if the mayor threatens to start killing the orphans she will dig a little deeper.