IMPLEMENTATION OF DECISION ON KEEPING OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN NOVI SAD

Conditions of keeping domestic animals on the territory of the City of Novi Sad are regulated by the City Ordinance (“City of Novi Sad Official Gazette” No.  60/2010, 12/2011, 17/2011 – corr. 1/2012, 65/2013 - Ordinance 13/2014 and 11/2015), which in its Article 49 Point 6 stipulates prohibition of feeding stray and lost domestic animals on public surfaces, common premises and courtyards of multifamily residential housing.
Responsible City services are filing administrative proceedings against perpetrators solely in cases of severe violation of the Decision, such as disturbance of neighbors and excessive disregard for conditions in common premises and courtyards of multifamily residential housing.
Communal Police patrols have recently intervened on 58 occasions and in several instances found the individuals were feeding stray animals on public surfaces, and the misdemeanors were corrected by issuance of verbal warnings, without imposing any fines. Communal Police responds to all complaints filed by the citizens dissatisfied with the fact that stray animals gather in their courtyards for feeding. Situations such as these are resolved by issuing instructions, as well as verbal warnings. 
City of Novi Sad systemically resolves the issue of stray animals, paying special attention to their humane treatment. Apart from the already existing measures, the City also considers measures for planned and controlled feeding of the animals at designated locations, thereby providing not only the obvious advantages for stray animals, but also enabling supervision of their populations and avoidance of their dispersion throughout the city territory.
City Administration is not blindly conducting harsh policy of penalizing the citizens who feed stray animals, and is fully aware that these acts are humane in their nature. Nevertheless, observance of the City Ordinance and fines are sometimes necessary when acts of an individual infringe rights of the residents. We appeal to those who criticize, inspired by gaining cheap political points and abusing the media to manipulate the public opinion in order to present those who protect the interests of the citizens as usurpers and inhumane enforcers of harsh penal policy. We also appeal to them to propose to the public their own viable solutions to the issue of feeding stray animals, and try to solve it instead of criticizing – to come forward with concrete suggestions, provided they have any at all, since it is a common fact that the situation with unattended animals during the previous city administration had been far worse.

In Novi Sad, July 23rd 2015