The campaign is a part of a large effort to popularize responcible dog ownership and is a joint effort by the Sofia municipality and Animal Rescue Sofia.

It comes along with the free spay/neuter for both homeless and pet animals at municipal and private Spay/Neuter centres. There is also a free microchip program for pets to encourage the spay/neuter of pets.

Animal Rescue Sofia has distributed thousands of educative brochures on responcible dog ownership and is looking for a sponsor for another print:

Spay/Neuter leaflet

Adopt a dog leaflet

Animal Rescue Sofia leaflet

Be a responcible owner leaflet
All stray animal problems come from humans who know little or nothing about responcible dog ownership.
Educating the public is the most important work to be done here in Bulgaria.
Contact us if you would like to help us print and distribute our brochures.
Thanks and regards to everyone involved in education in the animal welfare field!

5. So and So

The story is such – a carton box and two puppies inside appear. We explain to the people that there is no way to accept them, there is no space… The people leave and the carton box with puppies is thrown on the road in front of the shelter, from the car in motion… While wondering what to do with them, two of the guys that work at the shelter as caregivers, look in the box and… distinguished their future new best-friends! The 2 puppies spent all in all 10 minutes in the shelter, and after that they went to wonderful homes, to owners who, we are sure, would take care of them!

4. Zhivka/Meggie

Zhivka was a thrown away bolognese, who Peter brought to us to be neutered. At that time, the shelter was very full and we could not accept new dogs (it actually is like that always but…). Zhivka has to be returned to the street in a couple of days buuut…. It did not happen. Because during her short stay with us, her person appeared. Instead of going back to the street, she went home with Ekaterina. They could’ve passed each other, it was a matter of hours…

3. Focker

Svetlio was going to work. On the Hemus Highway he saw a dog hit by a car, lying on the ground. The cars were speeding around it, it was a matter of seconds for someone to finish it. They would have, but they didn’t. Svetlio picked it up and (guess whether there was space at the shelter at that time?) Vesy Kosturska tooked it in foster care. Nowadays, Focker is a happy Austrian, and perhaps has no idea that his life was hanging off within an inch of his life…

2. Tihomir

Ok, I admit that we just recently told you about him, but what is the probability this to happen in exactly that order? His owners waited for him to deteriorate to such a bad condition, so he would not be able to survive even a week, when they throw him away. They got rid of him in the middle of nowhere. Nadya and Svetlio happen to pass by exactly this day (they don’t do it often, its out of their route) and on top of that, Nadya, who generally is a distracted person, notices the dog in the distance? Well, tell me, isn’t that an unbelievable luck?

1.  Kosta

 
Yep. Now here we can say that this young pup was born with a silver spoon in the mouth. Born and abandoned in a school yard. Up to here – bad. Some mean children beat him. Becomes even worse. Could’ve been the worst but… good starts. Someone notices him (let’s say this happens often). This someone cares (this however is rare). This someone knows Dr. Stankova and calls her. We accept him, amputate his hanging on a bone paw, and it goes to foster home.  He becomes stronger, gets used to people, and at the end, the tale ends in Germany, where Kosta becomes a loved pet.

Well, aren’t these doggies lucky?

ALSO SEE last years’ most unlucky dogs here, hopefully you’ll bring them luck:

Students from the nearby school look at the dumped bodies as they pass by

The mutulated bodies of a small-sized young adult dog and a large  young adult cat were found dumped in Studentski Grad near a garbage bin today. The bodies were left for everyone to see – just threwn on the pavement.

The animals were skinned completely, without a single piece of skin left, much in the manner of rabbit skinning. They were dumped by a garbage bin in Sofia most likely between 3 and 6 days ago, since their little bodies are frozen into the snow. The disturbing images can be seen HERE.

The policemen from Sofia Police district Nr7 say “there is nothing they can do”. We have also alarmed the National Food Agency (in charge of domestic animals as well) and the Sofia Municipality. That said, we doubt anything will ever be done on this case.

We strongly urge anyone that may have information on this case to get in contact with us by e-mail. This is a crime – we should not let monsters walk free amongst us.

NOVA TV aired a story about a dovoted Bogrov volunteer – Raia!

BNT 1 aired a story about neutering and microchipping at the shelter

A happy day for animal friends in Romania – the Constitutional Court has ruled that the new law, passed by the Parliament in the end of 2011 is against the Constitution of the country! The law, voted by 168 romanian members of parliament allowed municipalities a choice wether they will be using euthanasia or Spay-Neuter-Return as a method of decreasing stray dog overpopulation. This is a major win for dog-lovers both in Romania and abroad, bringing a clear conclusion to a strong debate among romanians.

Since the end of the communist regime of Ceausescu EU member state Romania developed a serious stray dog problem. For decades authorities failed to intervene properly. Dogs were inhumanely caught and killed randomly.

In the 90′s The World Health Organization proved scientifically that killing dogs has no effect on the root cause of the problem. The W.H.O. stated spay/neuter is the only effective way to reduce the number of free roaming dogs besides informing the citizens about responsible dog ownership. Stray dogs are not the problem itself; it’s the irresponsible dog owners who continuously deliver new fertile dogs in combination with corruptive authorities which sabotage spay/neuter projects to make money.

Besides the fact spay/neuter is the only effective way to deal with a surplus of dogs, it is humane and much cheaper than the endless catching and killing of free roaming dogs.

In Romania stray dogs are seldom euthanized humanely. Dogs are being caught violently and beaten to death with baseball bats, shot, poisoned or starved to death.

The last decade Romania has spent 40 million Euros on tax payer’s money on the stray dog problem, but due to corruption the money ended up in private pockets. The stray dog problem turned into a very profitable business for many politicians and their relatives.

2012 is here and the time has come to make our calculations for the passed year. Time to see who was the richest, the funniest, the most succesfull, the best dressed… Here in the shelter it is a bit difficult as the only ones dressed are humans, and – let’s be frank – most of us look rather… shaggy. We don’t maintain popularity-sheets for our inhabitants either, so there is no way to nominate the most popular or famous dog. So, with our tipical serenity (bordering with “stupid is that stupid does”), we’ve decided to nominate and award the JINX OF 2011.

Nota Bene! Everything written below is absolutely true. Nothing was made-up or exadurated.

We think this JINX AWARD will be so successfull that it will become a tradition. Misfortunate dogs from all over the globe will be crouding at the gates of the Bogrov shelter with a slogan: “jinxes of the world, unite!”

So, without further ado, we present you the nominees, and of course the proud winner of JINX 2011:

Asha

5. Number five goes to Asha. After a year at the shelter without a single interest from anyone Asha was finaly asked for – in Holland. Two weeks after we had arranged that she will travel, a day before the transport Asha’s roommates somehow figured that she would be leaving and nearly bit her ear off. Instead of Amsterdam, Asha had to go to the clinic where she endured a looong treatment. Asha is placed only at №5, because after all – she did go to Holland. But she will always have a floppy ear to remind her of these times.

Rocco

4. At number four we have our wonderful Rocco. Rocco’s code name is TwoVisitations. Did you guess why? Have you ever wandered why we ensist that the adoptive families come 3 times? Well, it is simple. We do it so the people who come asking for Rocco can back down juuust before our relief sigh. They come, they like him, they pass the interview, they come a second time, we arrange a day for his adoption… and they never show up. This has happened too many times! So, in 2012 we will begin Rocco’s adoption procedure with a small vodoo good-luck ritual that is called “You shall not fear thy third visitation!”.

3. A step ahead of Rocco comes Emil. Emil, who doesn’t even have a photo, but sure has plenty of bad luck. He came to us for the first time after being ran over by a jeep. We took him in for treatment, took care of him in the clinic until he recovered and then took him back to the place where he used to live, near a petrol station. A few days later we had to take him back, as Emil had his heart set on taking revenge on every single jeep in the Universe. We managed to take him back just before he was killed by a raging jeep-owner. Later, oh! joy!, Emil was rehomed. A month later – he was back again forced by strange circuimstances and homeless yet a third time…

Chopper

2. Our vice-champion is Chopper. His horrible luck showed up very early – for some unknown reason Stella published him as a girl and he was hung there for a whole year with the name of Pippi. Happily, the people who were interested in him didn’t mind his sudden sex change and took him to Holland. Oh, how good, you would think, but think again. Chopper’s bad luck came abroad with him and now he is coming home to Bulgaria. It turned out he needed a joint surgery that costs billions in the land of tulips, so he will have to return to the shelter for a short, but non the less very hard tour in local vet clinics…

Harry
1. The absolute champion and unchallenged winner, gold medalist and proud bearer of the 2011 JUNX title is by all means (ta-daaaaaa) Harry! Not once, not twice, not three, or four, not even five, but six, SIX times Harry got the green light to be rehomed abroad in Belgium (1), Holland(2), Holland(3), Austria(4), Belgium(5), Belgium(6). SIX TIMES he was refused in the last moment.
The first organization that didn’t take their dose of Harry asked casually if he was OK with cats. We tested – he was not – good bye first chance.
With the second it was even worse – he brought bad luck not only to himself, but to 19 more dogs, the whole trip was cancelled.
The fourth time we literally had to take him off the leaving bus! Literally! He was loaded and ready, all of us sighing with relief and discussing cheerfuly his past unsuccessful trips when the phone rang… and Harry went back to his cage gaining only a bath from the whole experience. And let’s face it, he didn’t even enjoy it.
And finally a trip to that same organization who hadn’t included Harry’s name in the list, but sent us a message, just as the bus was crossing Hungary “You did put Harry on the bus, didn’t you?”. No. We didn’t. WE DIDN’T!!!

So, congratulations to the winners! Dear Harry, please don’t be too proud and let someone else win next year.You don’t need an award if you have a home, right?

We are a non-profit organization and our budget is based entirely on the ammount of trust and support we get from the public.

 We wouldn’t be able to help the suffering animals if it wasn’t for your donations. It is through your generocity that lives are saved on a daily basis. You are our dogs’ and cats’ guardian angels.

SEE LIST OF SPONSORS FOR 2011

SEE SPONSORS FOR 2010

BECOME A SPONSOR OF ANIMAL RESCUE SOFIA

We want to specially thank everybody who has donated through our collection boxes at the ARS-SHOPS! Everyone who’s bought our T-SHIRTS, Calendars and other stuff – THANX – we really appreciate it! Everyone who’se brought food and goods to the shelter – THANK you for always being there for the dogs!
Please, have in mind that we have no way of keeping a record of your names, so if you have donated through this campaign you will not be able to find your name on the above list. A huge THANK YOU for supporting our doggies (and kitties)!

December 2011 donors:

♥

Our special regards to the people who support us every month!

Thank you for your trust and persistence!

The beautiful cards are sold with an envelope and cost 1 BGN each. All income from the cards goes to the dogs of Bogrov.

You can purchase our cards ONLINE at ZooZona.net and shop.ZooMania.org

In Sofia you can find it at the following locations:

VIRTU

113, Goce Delchev blvd, MAP

Everyone who makes a donation for ARS at Virtu gets a 10% discount in the store

* * *

ZOOZONA PET SHOP

Geo Milev, 29 Lidice str, MAP

Zoozona also donates 5% of every on-line order at their online store.

* * *

EUCANUBA PET SHOP

67 Simeonovsko Shose blvd, MAP

Animal Rescue Sofia adoptive families get a 10% discount on all dog-stuff!

* * *

ZOOLAND REDUTA PET SHOP

Reduta, 2-4 Bratovan str, MAP

* * *

ZOOLAND STRELBISHTE PET SHOP

Strelbishte, 26 Mayor Parvan Toshev str, MAP

It is with DEEP GRATITUDE that we say THANK YOU to Dogs Trust and Kamor Foundation for sponsoring our clinic with most necessary medical equipment.

The new equipment will let us provide a much better medical care to the dogs and cats of Animal Rescue Sofia, making medical help faster, cheaper and much more accurate. Words are not enough to express our appretiation for this generous gift, it will be deeply cherished and extremely overused!

With Dogs Trust‘s and Kamor Foundation‘s generous donation we managed to purchase:

• a biochemistry machine;
• a blood screening machine;
• stethoscopes;
• 4 Spay/Neuter surgery sets + some smaller surgery instruments;
• an othoscope;
• a microscope;
• an infusion pump;
• an electroknife;
• a laboratory centrifuge;
• a second surgery table!

We were able to buy so many new items for our equipment thanks to the work of our own Svetoslav Petrov who got the help of importers and prodicers of medical equipment. The following companies were touched by our work and decided to help the Kamor Foundation and Dogs Trust donation provide the maximum benefit for our animals:

BIOMED medical equipment gave us generous discounts on the machinary and microscope. Not only that, but they also donated 500 reagents for the machine.

Mr.Ivan Terziev of BITA-2 for this second surgery table he made for us without proffit.

ALFAVET gave us a discount on the surgery sets.

KENTAMED – a local manufacturer of medical equipment gave us a great discount on the electroknife.

The wonderful new equipment we have purchased will make the shelter health care much better and allow us to react to illness much faster.

Dogs Trust and Kamor Auto have fulfilled a dream of ours. It will not only dramatically improve the quality and speed of health care at our clinic, but also help us save money on medical bills wich we have had to pay to outside clinics due to lack of equipment. This is a day to celbrate!

A warm welcome to our new volunteers coodinator – Viki Mincheva!

Those of you who have come to Bogrov or to our events already know Viki for the ever energetic, smiling, lively person she is. She has been coming to the shelter absolutely regularly for a year now and has been doing some miracle work together with her wonderful sister Alex and hardworking friends.

We thought Viki had two sisters – Alex and Zori. Well, she does in her heart

Viki will be answering the “volunteers” e-mail for us and organizing the walking, coordination and volunteer events at the shelter. She has also taken on the hard task of making adds for the shelter dogs at the website – something you probably know has been totaly neglected by us and really needs a caring hand. Hopefuly in a couple of weeks we will have many more dogs visible online.

Viki has taken over Martin Miliev’s work, who unfortunately no longer has the time to help out at the shelter. Good job, Martin for this year of hard work.

Thank you Viki for always being so open, caring and hard-working! Thanks for always being there for the dogs!