Living Garbage

Private Memo

September 2006

Some of the dogs trapped in plastic trash bags were still alive and struggling to breathe. The situation in Serbia is repugnant and totally unacceptable. Government officials are criminal in their total disregard for the welfare of companion and farmed animals.

Sadly, petitions and letter writing campaigns to government officials seldom work to evoke change. You may grab their attention if there are at least 50,000 letters or e-mails received and the electronic mail jams e-mail systems as was the case with the Olympic Boycott campaign or protest translates to lost revenue.

Of course to obtain a semblance of success in any campaign, you must have advocates on the ground who are willing to accept advice and constructive criticism.

If plausible strategies, tactics and advice are ignored by anyone, anywhere, because of ignorance, arrogance or stubborness, then you have yet another desperate cry for help at a later date.

Last spring, my attorney and I had a cordial meeting with the Serbian Ambassador, Mr. Ivan Vujacic here in New York at the Serbia/Montenegro Mission to the UN. (I also had an interesting telephone discussion with a Serbian official in Belgrade last year).

These representatives of the Serbian state were intelligent, diplomatic, gracious; all the while shoveling horse manure without soiling their hands or shoes.

As we sat in luxurious comfort at the Serbian Mission to the United Nations on Fifth Avenue, the Serbian Ambassador to the United States stated to my attorney and I quite bluntly: "do you really expect the government to care about animals when we do not have incubators for premature babies and have troubled health care"? And this is our world in the 21st century? And why don't they have incubators for premature babies? And why do they maintain embassy's and missions in multi million dollar properties? And why is a brutal war that ended eleven years ago their ever ready excuse for everything wrong in this paradigm of cruelty?

Remember, you are dealing with
a country replete with a history
of treacherous war crimes and
rampant corruption. Serbia is
desperately seeking admission
to the European Union.

If you wish to protest, alert and
barrage the EU member states
with letters and e-mails and urge
them to take action.

We all keep hearing desperate pleas from activists on the

ground in Serbia:

"What can we do,
please help us"!

If any tactic might have consequences, it would perhaps be a major protest campaign to world leaders and the European Union as this government wishes it's divisive country to become a member of the European Union.

Many Serbs regard EU membership as a right rather than a privilege that entails obligations and do not understand that there are very few EU citizens who want them.

However, in the long run, once Turkey has started negotiating entry, EU leaders will see the point of taking in Serbia and it's troubled neighbors providing they meet the "Copenhagen" criteria, especially those on democracy and human rights.

"On 9 November 2005, the European Commission issued the document Proposal Decision of the European Partnership with Serbia-Montenegro and the Annual Report on SCG progress."

So if you want action and attention; construct a well designed and powerful protest campaign complete with visual aids, becasue some politicians need all the help they can get; and direct this campaign to members of the European Parliament and the world press; TV and print.