Dear friends,
thank you for being with us at the Council of Ministers today! It was great to see so many dogs adopted from Animal Rescue Sofia, so many real animal lovers gather together and in a working day! There were about 300 people at the protest, representatives of animal welfare NGO’s from all over the country.
It was a long and complicated day, but – we did it. The unprecedented union of all animal welfare groups proved to be fruitful. We sincerely salute all our colleagues for standing up shoulder to shoulder despite our many quarrels in the past and protecting our common cause.

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”.

Dear friends,
as you know we are witnesing an unprecedented anti-dog campaign led by authorities and media that has led to the approval of a mideval changes in Regulation 41 (the one for shelters) today.

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.

Animal Rescue Sofia thanks the generous people who make our work possible.

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!

The weeks before Ester were full of trouble for us as an Animal Wellfare NGO. After the horrid incident in Malinova Dolina, the friends of animals we witnessed a huge anti-dog campaign, unprecedented in all the 22 years of democracy since Bulgaria seazed to be a socialist country.

For that reason we were unable to share with you a fantastic event that took place in Bogrov a couple of weeks ago – the 13 contestants in the MISS BULGARIA 2012 show came to the shelter for a day of hard work alongside with the keepers.

Svetlio’s kind smile as he leads the contestants through the hard work of the shelter

Our kind regards to Denny Stoyanova and the wonderful team of “The way to the crown” who made this possible. Enjoy an hour in Bogrov and see for yourself how 13 fragile ladies felt in the harsh reality of a shelter for 500 dogs:

We asked for Minister NAydenov’s resignation and the reply is not late:
“Nadia Stancheva (ARSofia CEO) falcefully adopted and returned to the street 250 aggresive dogs from the Seslavci shelter”

Conratulations to Telegraph newspaper for the money they made with this falce story:
“Minister Naydenov brought out horrible swindles by NGO’s”

The Ministry of Agriculture and the “Telegraph” newspaper state that our Chairlady Nadia is running a business with stray dogs. They also claim that the dogs we’ve rehomed in Holland from Seslavci in 2008-2009 (the years before we began working in Bogrov) were released back to the street.

NOW THE TRUTH:
When Nadia began working to rehome dogs from Seslavci in Holland Naydenov himself was director of Ecobalance and Seslavci. It was with his permission and assistance that the dogs were taken from Seslavci. And as proof we will point out the fact that the first dogs we brought to Holland were brought thereon our expence, and transported with a vehicle of Ecobalance itself!

So how is it that suddenly Mr.Naydenov knows not that the dogs were rehomed in Holland??? How is it that suddenly Nadia is making money on dogs???

What a lie! Are there any lawyers among our friends? We would so much enjoy sueing both this newspaper and the Minister for calumny.

Meanwhile last night Animal Rescue Sofia, Vier Pfoten Bulgaria and City forPeople representatives took part in a TV show on national television called “Referendum“. The discussion evolved arround the possibility of euthanasia and the necessary measures that need to be taken to reall tackle the problem finally.

Watch the VIDEO HERE.

Stella Raycheva (ARS), Mila Bobadova (C4P), Yavor Gechev (VP)