On December 3 of 2009 Tbilisi Municipality has announced two tenders for regulation of the problems connected with homeless animals. Tender requirements were published on the web-site of Tbilisi Municipality. The first tender is “On State Purchase of the Service Connected with Humane Capture and Isolation and Veterinary Supervision of Homeless Animals (dogs, cats) in Tbilisi”. The deadline for submission of bids was December 23 of 2009. According to verbal information there were no bids presented by anybody. GSPSA has not yet obtained any official information, but according to all the available sources, there were no veterinary clinics who expressed their wish for participation in the tender. GSPSA has refrained itself from the participation in the tender due to the absence of legislative basis and currently existing situation, which does not meet their requirements. One thing is quite clear: 2.5 year long program of Ltd “Debut” for extermination of animals has come to end. Now none of the company dares to repeat this cruelty. The Mayor’s office itself has underlined the need for “humane” actions and this is the proof that the situation has changed for better. GSPSA hopes and is sure that beginning from 2010 there shall not be even one precedent of cruel treatment of animals from the Mayor’s office as well as from the contractor-company.

There is another tender announced by the Mayor’s office on the same date – December 3 of 2009: “Tender on the State Purchase of Construction Works for the Shelter of Homeless Animals in Tbilisi”. The deadline for bids was December 23 of 2009. GSPSA has no information about the participant companies as well as the winner of the tender. It is a pity that the Municipality has not carried out consultations with non-governmental organizations concerning the shelter and its future Regulations. Despite this announcement of tender itself is to be considered a step forward, which we hope shall contribute to setting up of temporary shelter for homeless animals and provide them with the necessary veterinary service. It is also very important to work out relevant Regulations for the municipal shelter in order to avoid turning it into a place for assassination of animals. GSPSA hopes that the city municipality services and non-governmental organizations engaged in animal protection shall cooperate on the issues of animal population management and form human attitude towards animals as well as resolve many important problems. Such good intentions of mutual cooperation were once more stressed out on December 25 of 2009 at the Conference held by GSPSA.

Voluntarily created by GSPSA member Irakli Geleishvili