The pretty city where people are being paid to adopt stray dogs
Some of the estimated 4,000 stray dogs roaming the streets of this city have been spotted snarling at and chasing people.
A city mayor has attracted international attention after offering to pay locals a monthly fee to take in stray dogs.
Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, is plagued by a huge number of stray dogs, with an estimated 4,000 roaming its streets.
To bring down this massive figure and give a home to these animals, Pristina mayor Perparim Rama pledged to pay residents £42 (€50) a month for every stray dog they take in.
This amounts to about a third of the minimum wage in the country - and is five times higher than the monthly state support provided to families for each child.
Speaking about his proposal called "Home for every dog", Mr Rama told AFP: "Keeping a dog is costly and not everyone has the money. That is why we are helping families that adopt strays."
Prior to being given up for adoption, the strays will be rounded up and sent to large shelters for vaccination and sterilisation.
The mayor expects the allocation of £1.69million (€2m) per year to this scheme will solve the dangerous issue.
While some of these strays are tagged and appear placid, others have been reported to snarl at or chase down people in the streets.
Last summer, a two-year-old child was bitten on the face by a stray dog in the central Mother Teresa Square.
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Among the first people to embrace the scheme was 52-year-old Sami Haxhaj, who adopted 10 strays and built a row of kennels for them at his home.
Mr Rama's project, however, hasn't been welcomed by everybody. Many residents in Pristina live in apartments where large dogs can't be housed, and some lamented the disparity between the monthly allowance for dogs and children.
Moreover, animal rights campaigners warned that dogs rounded up in shelters before adoption may become aggressive towards each other over food and get diseases.
Elza Ramadani, the head of the local organisation Animal Rights Foundation said officials should tackle the roots of the problem, which she identified as "uncontrolled breeding and the abandoning of dogs by a large number of people".
