12 Reasons to Sign It

Be a voice for thousands of dogs abused by the company of one of the richest men in the World

The steel producer from the Romania town, of Galati, is one of the largest, multi-billion companies in Europe, owned by Lakshmi Mittal, a British-Indian citizen. Shortly after being publicly exposed for the mass slaughter of hundreds of dogs, the company’s management contacted ROLDA for help. After months of intense negotiations, the company finally accepted the humane method that we proposed and they promised to build a modern shelter with a veterinary clinic, fully equipped.

After rushing to finish 8 paddocks, the work stopped. We were told that the project is postponed because of the economic crisis. When the strays’ number grew exponentially because the city, close to the steel plant, is full of dogs that constantly reproduce – the company built 2 more paddocks.

It passed another 7 years until the shelter was connected to water and electricity. This happened only after we contacted the company headquarters from London and described the conditions in which our team works. Probably the Romanian management wasn’t happy that we contacted the headquarters. Therefore, the collaboration deteriorated even worse.

“There were many times when I simply wanted to quit, but I never choose the easiest way: I knew that once they stop working with ROLDA, they will start killing animals again. And with the Romanian law that condemns the strays to death, the situation looks even worse” said Dana, Founder of ROLDA.

A few years ago, the management decided to apply sanctions to any employee will give food to the strays roaming on the steel plant platform. End of 2014, new negotiations started with the steel plant management. They are estimated to have around 3000 dogs within their premises. ROLDA succeeded to reduce the strays’ number by 70%.

Negotiations were tense. The Mittal company didn’t give many options. ROLDA’s goal always was a safe future for the dogs from our shelter and for the dogs still present in the steel plant garden. Negotiations lasted from spring to midsummer. In the new contract, the steel company is obliged to complete the investments listed in the annex of the contract in 5 years.

Investments included: repairs of the paddocks, completing the veterinary clinic, etc all required by the law, and all of these promises were made back in 2007 and postponed ever since. ROLDA explained to them many times the importance of clean kennels. We also tried to lobby for running spaces for the dogs’ exercises, but steel management refused.

ROLDA agreed to have the budget reduced by 20% and this money to be used for investments listed in the annex of the contract. Basically, ROLDA contributed to these investments, letting Mittal’s company handle the money in the most efficient way. And they did: In February 2016, they canceled the contract, and stopped the investments but never returned the money they took from us.

This is not “business”. This could be called “robbery” but maybe this is a tough word to use. A CEO from Mittal’s company has over one million EUR salary and bonuses sometimes are higher than the salary itself. Lakshmi Mittal is one of the richest men on Earth. They simply can’t take the dogs’ money!

photo: ROLDA team member with a dog #mittaldogs

With a contract canceled, investments stopped, sewage machine canceled the shelter has no future.
We believed in this project and made the entire World aware of it. We invited TVs to promote it, and we encouraged private animal lovers to donate for shelter improvements, including building a natural wind barrier and building running spaces for dog exercises, which were major reasons for worry for visitors from past years. Lack of running spaces created unfairly a bad image for ROLDA.

To improve the shelter, we had to reunite effort with other animal lovers from around the World, to buy new land, reconstruct the road, and move the fencing. We were not alone in this because we had international support but we couldn’t rely on the steel plant support as they never really cared about the dogs’ wellbeing.

ROLDA feels betrayed by a partner who proved to be immoral, indifferent, ignorant, and arrogant. A few weeks before the contract ended, we were threatened and blackmailed by one of Mittal’s company Romanian managers. We addressed the headquarters with our concerns regarding this behavior and provided them the proof. To our surprise, the headquarters decided to protect the manager.

We had no other options left: we addressed to Court and presently have 2 trials against the steel company. Hiring a lawyer, and paying the Court taxes were additional costs for us. The trials will probably end in 2 years and we don’t know if we can resist that long.

Click here to see our petition on Care2.com

We created a petition politely addressing Lakshmi Mittal, the owner of the steel plant. As soon as the petition became viral, they blocked our server. Mittal people refuse to hear about these incidents, about the abuses that his company does, and about our worries for these dogs. Let’s not allow this to happen!

Send Your Letter to Mittal Today!

1. Click here to download a sample letter (Word file)
2. You can add your own thoughts. Please be polite and short.
3. Save the letter on your computer
4. Print the letter
5. Sign it
6 Mail it to: ArcelorMittal, Att: Lakshmi Mittal, 7th Floor, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6DA, England or
ArcelorMittal, Att: Lakshmi Mittal, 24-26, Boulevard d’Avranches, L-1160 Luxembourg

Your voice matters!

The shelter deteriorates. The sewage machine was canceled by the steel plant – they didn’t care that dogs and humans are exposed to serious health infection risks if residual waters are not collected on time and efficiently. The solution found means extra money from a budget we don’t have. There is no money for repairs and the authorities will suspend our authorization soon. The projects were obviously postponed. And our dreams are slowly dying… and that’s worst than “an impossible dream”.