Maybe it’s not the land of beggars but it is the land of cruelty…the likes of which is typically only seen in countries such as China, Korea and Japan. Romanian’s continue to show themselves as a vile culture who lack compassion, empathy and humanity. As just one example: a horrendous massacre at a public shelter for stray dogs in Botosani occurred where over 200 dogs were hacked to death in under two hours, leaving staff to hastily — and incompletely — hose down the shelter’s bloodied walls before throwing the bodies of dead dogs into trash bags. Simply stated, Romania is not a safe place for stray dogs. The local government has welcomed new legislation that allows unadopted strays to be killed after 14 days, and purports to have already — and illegally — acted in this way before. It has also contracted with a company to capture and remove strays to a facility in Constanta that is reputed to kill strays with impunity, and Botosani’s own shelter has previously been the scene of a horrifying stray dog massacre. Not, perhaps, a city that any dog lover would want to visit, cultural centre or not.