PETA, a leading international organisation for animal rights, has sent a letter to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Agriculture Minister Marija Vuckovic, urging Croatia to adopt a ban on keeping dogs on chains.

The Croatian association – Animals’ Friends, proposed the ban on keeping dogs on chains together with the Cakovec asylum and Victory NGO. They received support for their proposal from the PETA organisation, the Croatian organisations said on Wednesday.

They said that in its letter, PETA and its European branches, which includes those in France, Germany, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, have stressed the horrible physical and psychological suffering of dogs kept on chains.

PETA called on Croatian officials to take the necessary steps and support the ban on keeping dogs on chains which is already prohibited in many European countries like Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Malta and in some states in the USA.

The Animals’ Friends association recalled that the suffering of dogs on chains was highlighted in 2020 when volunteers went to help earthquake-struck areas in Sisak-Moslavina County where they came across dogs on chains, abandoned and left to die in the ruins.

PETA German branch head Petya Petrova, who is the coordinator for eastern Europe, underscored that dogs are social animals and that they suffer extremely if they are isolated and if they do not have the necessary interaction with people.