Seeing your new cub dying of parvo is heartbreaking. It´s even bigger problem in cat rescue and unfortunately kitten mortality due to parvo is nightmare of everyone because of how common and drastic it is, how easy it spreads, how expesive the treatment is, how severe damage many animals get even if they survive. And when the whole shelter is closed due to parvo quarantine and you have to turn away people who want to place somwhere ill kittens they just found and you can´t help them...
The article doesn´t mention the name of the rescue organisation or original shelter in Romania, I can´t comment on it. Just few rumblings in general.
It´s hard to tell exact age of dogs or cats who get rescued from the street. Due to malnutrition, illnesses and harsh environment, even teeth don´t offer guidance in many cases. I would expect vet to estimate cub/kitten age with some accurance, but...
The question of vets should be also taken into account. All industries have its black sheep, zoos, rescue organizations, veterinary care. We now have a case here in Czechia of a rural vet clinic that is ran by a person who uses the title veterinary doctor in front of customers, he does surgeries in person etc. But after a series of complains about bad care and botched surgeries, after years he is in industry, it turns out he did study cynology and has few semesters of human medicine, but never studied at veterinary university/school. I expect the vet care, standards and number of depps gets progresively worse the more east you go in Europe. Animal rescue costs money which is very tight in the East and vet expenses make the biggest part (far bigger than food), no wonder people often use the cheapest vet around.
Ownership of street animals differs by country and its laws. An example - in Czechia, all found domestic animals must be safequarded for 4 months by municipality so that real owner has time to reclaim the animal. After 4 months, the animal becomes ownership of the municipality who can decide what to do with it (sell, donate etc). That is the national law. In reality, municipalities foten don´t have money and interest to care about found animals. Some have their dog shelters, some will place dogs in private shelters and pay some money for their care. Cats interest nobody usually. However, shelters dont have money (and heart) to keep animals 4 months in. So in reality, all shelters start adoptions just after quarantine time is over (10-14 days for dogs, 3 weeks for cats). But they sign a contract with the adopter that animal is only in temporary care and within 4 months, if original owner shows up, they must return the animal. It happens extremely rare, everybody treats it just like a formality, to obey the law.
A recent fad in private shelters and rescues in Czechia is to put a clausule in an adoption contract stating the animal must be castrated in adulthood and it can´t be sold or donated to third person, it must be returned to the shelter. But such contract is actually not valid in front of the court, after 4 months the adopter is a valid owner and can do with its animal what it wants. if there would be lawsuit, shelter would lose it. But again, most people who adopt animals are solid and heed such contract.
All these sentences were not written to exonerate the rescue group in case they really did wrong with uterior motives. It should just bring some nuances into the case. And we should not forget the new owners themselves. Most people who adopt strays are good people, but also balck sheep exist among them. Sometimes they are cheap and don´t want to invest into their animal, will adopt from a group based solely on who requests the lowest adoption fee to get their puppy or preffered race, they don´t inform themselves with who they deal with, don´t refuse even if there are clear hints it´s not a honest rescue but just a puppy mill masquaraded as a rescue. And when such puppy gets ill, they will cry murder even if they are just victims of their own greed.
At the end of the day, the east and south of Europe has a surplus of unwanted street dogs while center/west/north has a great demand for pets. It is natural that it results in a flow of animals. The question is how to manage it a better way for both the animals, people and animal health safety. In the US, transport of shelter dogs from southern states to the affluent north equals around 500.000 dogs and cats a year and it doesn´t produce such issues, I do ask what they do better than us in Europe.
(Disclaimer: I am not impartial. I am involved in stray cat rescue, helping a rural shelter with ads and adoptions locally - we don´t adopt abroad.)
And the German politicians don't want to annoy the many naive, yet emotionally easily agitated, animal "lovers" among their voters. The veterinary community currently suggests stricter controls.