350BGN were raised for the Bogrov dogs at the US embassy in Sofia. It was a lovely day and great to see so many of the young volunteers from the Anglo-American school!  We brought 4 sweet puppies with us to represent the shelter and they were great!

Our thanks to Mrs Cathy Siegel and Raya Georgieva for this wonderful opportunity. To our new friends – it was great meeting you, hope to see you soon!

READ THE FULL LETTER HERE

Source: Vier Pfoten – Bulgaria

As you know Animal Rescue Sofia has been working hard for years to create strong ties with the conscientious organizations working with stray animals in the country. The creating of an association uniting these organizations as a whole is an idea we have been developing since the summer of 2011. After a few meetings and discussions with colleagues we postponed the idea for 2012, but now it is obvious that the creating of such an Association is an emergency.

On the 11.05.2012 representatives of Animal Rescue Sofia, Vier Photen –Bulgaria and the German Spay/Neuter Centre joint forces and decided to establish the C.C. Association (the name will remain secret for now) – an organization to represent our common position before the authorities, media and public.

Without any underestimation to the hard works our colleagues in the country do – we decided it was best to start from Sofia. The reasons are strictly practical: we know each other well, we have worked together many times and we have proven we are people who can cooperate in a reasonable, well-organized way despite any personal differences. Last, but not least – the registration is easier when all the founding members are in one place.

Our goal is to unite the people who share the same principles and concepts:  adequate, sensible and most of all – professional. We hope that in time the Association will grow larger and include many organizations from all over the country – people whose work and experience we know and value, people whom we have great respect for. We believe that such an Association can become a really powerful instrument of influence in the hard times we are all facing as animal friends in Bulgaria.

We want to cordially thank the people who know our work, who trust us and count on us. It is your high opinion of us that gives us the strength and courage to fight despite the many difficulties. Our kindest regards to the colleagues who have worked and continue to work strenuously, adequately and in a civilized manner toward reaching our common goal!

We are posting this news somewhat in advance, because a message has reached us, published on Facebook by the “Grija i podslon za vseki” society from Ruse: that a national animal welfare NGO union should be created urgently.

We are flattered by the suggestion that representatives of Animal Rescue Sofia and Vier Pfoten – Bulgaria take part in the foundation of such a union. We greatly appreciate such a good evaluation of our efforts so far.

Nevertheless – even by simply reading the comments under this proposal we know very well that we don’t belong there.
This will not come as a surprise to the people who are involved in the animal welfare NGO’s intrigues, but for the ones who don’t, we need to say a few words:

There have been continuous and ongoing efforts to ruin our image – people who claim to be animal welfare activists spend their time insinuating about us – horrible lies that would have made us very rich if we had the time to take them to court. It is such a shame and waste of time – we have to defend ourselves against such “colleagues” who make more problems than any dog-hating government administration. We continue to be shocked by the ugly slander and outrageous insults we see about ourselves.

Sadly – we know too well: we are not at all welcome in this “group”. But fortunately we have made and keep up strong contacts with reputable organizations, we do have colleagues to go forward with.

The new Sofia program

After more than a years’ delay Sofia Municipal Council finally voted the new Program to control the stray dog population. As the program before it, this one is based on the Spay/Neuter&Return method. You can see the prematurely published text in Bulgarian HERE.

The program begins with an analysis on the current situation and alludes the problem to the lack of control over owned dogs, low registration numbers, dumping of animals and their pups and so on. It is quite funny that the analysis also says that NGO’s are to blame, because they are obstructing the work of the Municipal company Ecobalance.  Also, the analysis states the Ecobalance employees lack in numbers and expertise; there is no national dog registry; too few shelters; lack of coordination between the parties involved and so on. It even points out that a National Strategy is necessary to really address the problem.

The program states it aims at lowering the stray dogs number by -95% by the end of 2016. Sofia Municipality plans to achieve this by:

•           Working with private clinics for Spay/Neuter;
•           Providing Spay/Neuter materials to NGO Spay/Neuter centers;
•           Rising the numbers of dog-catching teams at Ecobalance;
•           Neutering owned animals along with the homeless;
•           Creating a local database for the dogs microchipped;
•           Euthanizing aggressive dogs and so on.

All those measures make a lot of sense, but can raise a lot of questions conserving the non-transparent work and lack of access for public control/

There is a point in the program itself that states Sofia Municipality will be suggesting changes in the Laws and legislation concerning the matter.

There is also a very disputable paragraph on the fact that a person or a company will not be allowed to adopt more than 2 animals.

Leaving aside the paragraphs specially included isolating the public sector – the program makes much sense. We are very glad that it finally includes spay/neuter of owned dogs. There are even some words suggesting that there will be educational and informational campaigns in schools and the media. The plan is to neuter dogs neighborhood by neighborhood, not like it is at the moment.

The only question is – after all said and done – do the civil servants have a will to solve the problem and most of all – do they understand the principles of the Spay/Neuter&Return method, suggested by the World Health Organization.

The absurdities continue

Meanwhile the parliamentary Committee  for Regional Self-Governance has accepted the absurd proposals for the change of the Animal Protection Act made by far-right nationalist party “Ataka” (in Bulgarian – HERE).  Their decision was based on a standpoint filed in by the Ministry of Agriculture and Foods. Unfortunately the Committee agreed on the following totally inadequate resolution:

•           Allowing people to destroy dogs in self-defense (?)
•           Dropping of the Spay/Neuter&Return method by deleting the text “and return” from the Animal Protection Act and collecting of all the animals in non-existent shelters (???)

This is extremely alarming, but fortunately the leading Committee is the Agricultural one. It lies ahead to see what the Authorities are planning (if at all) for yet another time.

See the statement by the Ministry of agriculture HERE (Bulgarian only).

Being stunned, it is still fair to say that the document was signed by a deputy-minister and bears the date of 19.04 – one day before the NGO’s protest and the meeting with the Prime Minister. Hopefully this is yet another insane inadvertence, because otherwise we will have to believe that we have been purposely being lied to for a whole month by authorities. All this is still to be cleared out. We will keep you informed.

In an interview for Presa daily the Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Naydenov states that he will take the legislative initiative to increase the tax or enforce obligatory Spay/Neuter for owned dogs.

Although this is put into practice in the entire civilized world it is a very unpopular measure here in Bulgaria as people consider castration to be a bad thing and do not know the benefits of it. Still, the suggested sanctions and control are an inseparable part solving the stray dog problem in Bulgaria.

Even the fact that finally we are talking about the true reason for having stray dogs is a small miracle. Up till now the stray dogs were considered to come from outer space, no connection was made between the dumping of dogs and the stray population.  The time has finally come to take new measures and stop the constant influx of unwanted dogs and puppies from people’s yards.

At the moment the Bogrov shelter where we operate is working mainly with dumped puppies. What we are worried about with things being put this way by the Minister is that the sanctions target pet owners mainly whilst the problem is most of all with dogs from suburban areas, gypsy neighborhoods, construction sites, factories and etc. around the city. We will try to make sure the authorities will focus on these groups (not only in Sofia – the problem is similar in the whole of Bulgaria).

Following are some of the things Minister Naydenov said for Presa (with reductions), most of them were discussed by the representatives of the Animal Wellfare NGO’s at the meeting with Prime minister Boyko Borisov in the presence of Minister Naydenov, the Mayor of Sofia Fandakova and her deputy Boyajiiska:

The idea is to have obligatory castrations for female dogs kept as pets. Only if it is of a value to it’s breed, of course.  We need to change the status quo which is: stray dogs don’t fall from the sky, they come from the total lack of control in the reproduction of pet and yard dogs.

The best would be to drastically increase the tax for un-spayed dogs, dogs which are not being bred from for cynological purposes.

It is ridiculous – no one knows how many dogs there are, because there is no statistic. And there is no statistic because the people who own dogs do not declare them in the municipality, nor pay their fees, no matter that they are obliged by law.

The control must be in the hands of the Municipalities, but they can’t go around people’s homes. They can check people in parks and fine them heavily – 500BGN (equivalent of 250E, the minimum wage in the country, trnsl), but we will catch only very few in this way. It is either a large tax or a large fine. They are basically the same measure anyway. Maybe we should encourage people to neuter their dogs by raising the tax for an unsprayed dog to 1000BGN (500E) instead of the 24BGN (12E) we have now.

And the neutered animals will be free of charge. This is one way we could motivate people. And if you have 1000BGN as a tax for an unsprayed dog – it will be a whole other story. We could go to that – not to have Spay/Neuter obligatory, but to enforce huge taxes for unsprayed dogs. Something like a “breeding tax”.

The other thing we are considering is that we need an Animal Police. A special municipal police unit where the officers will have the authority to enter the homes of people, check for animals and etc. We can’t expect the municipalities to start going round door-to-door, no municipality in Bulgaria has that sort of resources. And you know how people will react – they will be very mad about having their rights of privacy violated. So we should think abut these two opportunities: a large fine or a large tax.

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 full list of sponsors for 2012

See sponsors in 2011, See sponsors in 2010

BECOME A SPONSOR OF ANIMAL RESCUE SOFIA

We want to specially thank everybody who has donated through our collection boxes! Everyone who’s bought our T-SHIRTS and other stuff – 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. Bless you for supporting our doggies (and kitties)!

April 2012 donors:

♥

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

Thank you for your trust and persistence!

Experts from the ministry of agriculture and animal welfare organizations have finished working on the changes to the new Regulation 41 by order of prime-minister Boyko Borisov. The regulation which is crucial to the way the Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return works is meant to make work easier to the smaller municipalities, by allowing them to build less-costly dog shelters.

The dogs will be placed into small outside enclosures with dog-houses to keep them from the environment. The so-called “concentration camps” – large fenced areas where all the animals will be gathered before being placed in shelters will not be built. The so-changed Regulation 41 is a compromise to us as animal welfare workers, but we do understand the need for a less-expensive in smaller municipalities and don’t want to compromise their work by setting the standard too high.

The re-writing of the recently passed new Regulation 41 was pressed through after last week 91 animal welfare organizations from all of the country sent their representatives to protest in front of the Council of Ministers. 3 representatives were received by the Prime Minister and at the meeting (where the Minister of Agriculture, The Mayor and deputy mayor of Sofia were present) he ordered that our experts be heard and taken into consideration when changing the animal-related legislation.

The working groups were formed on April 24 and 25. The following parties took part in the process:

•           Ministry of Angriculture and Foods
•           Bulgarian Agency for Food Safety
•           Vier Pfoten Bulgaria
•           Animal Rescue Sofia
•           Committee For The Rescue of Stray Animals
•           Citizen Control and Animal Protection
•           For the Rights of Animals Foundation
•           AFA-Bulgaria Foundation

The edited text of the regulation has been passed on to the minister along with a letter where animal welfare groups insist that no changes be made to the current Animal Protection Act as this version of Regulation 41 is fully in compliance with it.

We remain in waiting – will the corrected text of the regulation be passed on; will the Minister of Agriculture fulfill the Prime Minister’s order to support CNVR on a national level; will the Ministry continue to work with Animal welfare groups.

Meanwhile in Sofia the Municipal Council has yet again not voted for the acceptance of the new Program for control of stray dog overpopulation. The new Program has been ready for nearly a year, but is not being voted through. Meanwhile C ouncil representatives from the Health and Order committees continue to insist that the matter be “given to them for a quick solution” despite all laws and legislations.

We remind you that the current president of Romania – Mr.Basesku was elected after slaughtering all the dogs of Bucuresti as mayor of the Romanian capital. Needless to say there are even more free roaming dogs in the city today.  We must do our best not to allow cheap populism to ruin the progress already made to solving the stray dog problem in Bulgaria.

Photos by Manya Andreeva

This is what happened:

The protest began with a small march that was made to look like a funeral. It arrived at the Council of Ministers and after a little while a large group of people formed – everyone was signing the declaration and three representatives were appointed to represent us in a meeting with the Prime Minister Borisov who agreed to see us and receive the declaration.

What the representatives didn’t expect was that the Prime Minister had called up the Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Naydenov, the Mayor of Sofia Fandakova and the deputy-mayor Boyajiiska. In such a session our colleagues handed in the Declaration and stated our demands once again:

-          Not to allow changes to the Animal Protection Act;

-          To have the dogs neutered, not euthanized;

-          To drop the illegal texts in the new Regulation 41;

-          To make a National Strategy for dealing with the stray dog problem;

-          To have Minister Naydenov resign.

After a long discussion in the Prime Minister’s office he made the following commitments:

-          To create an Animal Police for control of violence and abandoning of animals;

-          To make the dog registry database as soon as possible;

-          To postpone changes to the Animal Protection Act, and make sure when they are made they are not prepared in secret, but discussed in public;

-          To continue to support CNVR in Bulgaria.

After the representatives told everyone outside what they have achieved the protest settled down and was over. Then there was a meeting with Minister Naydenov himself. There was some confusion and only representatives of Animal Rescue Sofia, Vier Pfoten Bulgaria and The German Spay/Neuter Centre were present. The Minister was open to a dialogue and we more or less confirmed the arrangements made with the Prime Minister.

We disagreed when Minister Naydenov stated that the “dog supervisors” be removed from the law. Instead we suggested that a successful model be adopted from Plovdiv municipality where a registry for stray cats and their supervisors has been running for a while.

Having in mind that Regulation 41 is to be worked on again the Minister called NGO’s to send their statements and recommendations in due order  throughout the following week.

At the end of the meeting the minister said that this is the last chance to have the problem solved in a humane and intelligent way because the public discontent with the matter is very high. We know that quite well. It is time to mobilize all resources and strength and work – to prevent the abandonment of animals and stop the propagation of unwanted animals.

During the next few weeks we will know whether the officials are really planning to work on solving the problem – as usual, we remain ready to work.  We are very tired of promises, but this time they come from our Prime Minister – we don’t believe his subordinates will dare neglect his direct order that “all dogs should be neutered, only aggressive dogs should be euthanized”.

We are taking part in a protest organized by a number of Animal Wellfare NGO’s against the methods of work of Minister Naydenov and his clerks.

The protest will take place this Friday – April 20-th and starts at 01 p.m. at the Council of Ministers. If you can – do come – we are the only voice for animals.

The following declaration will be handed to the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov:

Download PDF

To: General Boyko Borisov

Prime Minister of Bulgaria

DECLARATION AGAINST CHANGES IN THE ANIMAL PROTECTION ACT

Dear Prime Minister,

We protest against the behavior of the Minister for Agriculture and Foods Miroslav Naydenov and the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency CEO Yordan Voynov.

We protest against the attempts of the authorities to cover up their long years of doing nothing and violating the Animal Protection Act in regards of reducing the stray dog population.

We do not accept the allegations made that we – the Animal Wellfare Organizations of Bulgaria are to blame for the fact that there are still stray dogs on our streets. We do not accept the allegation that the Animal Protection Act is not working.

We protest against the proposed changes in the law as we are determined that they will only intensify the problem. We believe these changes will lead to:

-ineffective government control and total lack of citizen control;

-covering up of systematic violations of the authorities (both municipalities and government) by replacing the method recommended by the World Health Organization – Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return with a mass withdrawing of the dogs from the streets – a practice we have seen fail for over 10 years already;

- legitimizing cruelty to animals by quick incarcerations of the dogs in so-called “temporary pounds” that are in fact concentration camps for dogs, even worse than the isolators that shamed our country before 2008;

-limiting the rights of Animal Wellfare Organizations by taking away any say by us in regards of the changes in written nomenclature, concerning our work, guaranteed by article 52 of the Animal Protection Act, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights; the European Active Citizenship Charter;

-the propagation of hatred toward Animal Welfare groups and organizations who are in fact of great help in implementing the law locally;

We insist that:

-a National Strategy be quickly made to solve the growing stray dog problem. A strategy that includes Animal Welfare Organizations and is based on a detailed strategy and plan for the country and each Municipality in particular: mass castration and return to the place of dwelling and withdrawing dogs to shelter only after the dumping of animals has been seized;

-a stronger governmental and public control in implementing this strategy;

-stronger measures in carrying out medical prophylactic against parasitosis and zoonosis such as tapeworm and Rabies;

-and severe sanctioning of officials who are not working according the acting Bulgarian legislation.

The current Law gives more than enough mechanisms to reduce the stray dog population in a humane, quick and efficient way and it is only the lack of implementation that is to blame for the poor results. We are convinced that the problem can only be solved if there is a long-term plan, based on expertise and cooperation, one that you have made an example of during Your mandate as Mayor of Sofia.

We count on Your intervention to improve the control and implementation of the Animal Protection Act and also make sure that the officials that are responsible for impeding it’s implementation sustain their political responsibility.

April 20, 2012

The declaration will be signed by all Animal Welfare Groups who have supported the protest. Including Animal Rescue Sofia.

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 full list of sponsors for 2012

See sponsors in 2011, See sponsors in 2010

BECOME A SPONSOR OF ANIMAL RESCUE SOFIA

We want to specially thank everybody who has donated through our collection boxes! Everyone who’s bought our T-SHIRTS and other stuff – 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. Bless you for supporting our doggies (and kitties)!

March 2012 donors:

♥

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

Thank you for your trust and persistence!