Romania’s president has urged the government to pass emergency legislation that would allow thousands of stray dogs to be euthanised in Bucharest, citing the case of a child who was fatally mauled by one.

On Monday, September 2nd a tragic accident occurred with dramatic and long term implications for Romanian stray dogs.

A little child of 4 years old was left unsupervised by his grandma for 45 minutes during their stroll in a park in Bucharest. Many things could have gone bad for a 4 year old baby left unsupervised for as long as 45 minutes. He could have been targetted by a paedophile; he could have fallen into an open sewer; he could have walked into traffic; he could have been kidnapped for the black market, for adoptions, child sex trade or for organs. Unfortunately, the little child wandered off with his 6-year old brother outside the park, into an abandoned courtyard guarded by homeless dogs acting as guard dogs of the premises.

“Humans are above dogs,” President Traian Basescu said in a speech at his palace that was televised live on Tuesday.

As a citizen and former mayor of Bucharest, he said he understands the problems that thousands of stray dogs are causing there.

He mentioned the case of the 4-year-old boy who died after being bitten by a dog in the capital on Monday. Authorities say about 1,100 people were bitten by stray dogs in Bucharest in the first four months of 2013.

Currently, the law only allows the killing of stray dogs that are sick.

Basescu said he has adopted three stray dogs and that animal lovers should do the same, but that those strays that aren’t helped this way should be euthanised.

All of a sudden, because of a few seriously aggressive dogs that should by no means have been in the streets, 3 million homeless dogs are about to lose their lives; of which the vast majority are harmless and would not pose a threat to people and children. But during these times of mass hysteria, there is no place left for reasoning.

During these terrible times, no one asked the most intelligent question: why do stray dogs exist in first place? - they exist because people abandoned them as pups or as pregnant adults in the streets. By all means, a human created problem for which the victims (the dogs) are being held accountable today. It's never the human to blame ...