Citizens of Romania Follow Bardot's Lead... to an Extreme!

March 7, 2001 Bucharest, Romania

Only a week after international celebrity Brigitte Bardot bargained for the lives of 100,000 Romanian strays, the people of Romania are making good on their end, in surprising ways.

On March 1, 2001, Ms. Bardot succeeded in a last-minute interception of the Bucharest government's plan "round up and exterminate" street dogs in the nation's capital.  She boldly insisted that the Romanian people, dog-lovers at heart, would gladly adopt and care for the animals if they were made available at animal control facilities (read the earlier story March 1).

Her faith has been validated—at least in this one extreme example:

Mariana Ghiorghiu, a Romanian woman, was rather inspired by Ms. Bardot's accomplishment.  She learned from a TV report that thousands of strays had been given a second chance at life, and that it was now largely up to the Romanian public to show their support of Foundation Brigitte Bardot's gutsy proposal.

Ms. Ghiorghiu did her part for the cause; she went to an animal control facility and adopted five dogs, whom she brought home that day.  The problem was that her husband George wasn't exactly as patriotic.

In fact, when he came home and was greeted by the swishing tails, he was incensed, and he gave Mariana the ultimatum, "It's either me or the dogs."

Ms. Mariana Ghiorghiu filed for divorce the next day.

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