Where do we stand?

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As one of the very first organizations to start rehoming stray animals abroad, we at Animal Rescue Sofia cannot stand aside silently in the light of the recent events. Illegal transports of animals, cramped cages, dogs with fake passports and vaccinations, adopters that fornicate with the animals… And now this – Ares the dog, who was euthanized by his Dutch adopters a few hours after his arrival…

It is sad when things like this happen. It is even sadder when we throw ourselves at each other post-factum, full of accusations and pointed fingers, instead of helping each other and learning from each other’s mistakes. Are we so mistrustful and bitter, despite our common cause? Are we so sure that we, Bulgarians, are the incompetent morons and the Western geniuses are so far ahead of us?

Hundreds of comments were published on account of Ares’ case, even more accusations were fired into the open. The hardest of them has to be the letter by Ares’ adopter that is circulating Facebook these days, about how weak and badly cared for the puppy was, because of the incompetent monster doctors that cared for him here. Yes, it is the hardest, because it is a letter by people who took a decision to euthanize Ares based on an evaluation of an airline doctor, who issued Ares’ death warrant at his arrival, and executed it a couple of hours later with the help of a vet that was summoned to perform.

We met Ares at the Central Veterinary Clinic – he was there at the same time as Hammer and Mook, and just like him – he was a puppy with its legs cut off. We want to put a stress on the fact that the same clinic they are accusing now – is the one that saved the lives of our dogs at the same time. Mook is now flying around like a butterfly and Hammer may look like the walking dead, but is already using his stroller and trying to move about on his own account.

We are sorry to see that so many people react by throwing accusations at the doctors. The truth is none of us – the people who deal in Animal Wellfare locally – would ever give an animal with, let’s say, Distemper, Parvovirosis or Heartworm to a clinic in Western Europe. We would trust our own vets, because in Holland – they do not know much about these diseases. The truth is, and we claim this as people who have been and seen quite a lot, that there are good doctors and bad doctors everywhere. You do not become a good vet by your residence address, but by the will you put into your work, your attitude to your patients.

We too have worked with other clinics before the CVC, because we thought it was too expensive. Later we proved ourselves wrong – as we say here in Bulgaria – cheap is expensive, a successful surgery and the right diagnosis are always the better choice ahead of a few cheap unsuccessful operations and a late diagnosis.

Dear colleagues, with the tempo that these horrible incidents with Bulgarian dogs continue to happen, we can expect that this “system” will crash with a mighty blow: dogs are being sent as some sort of packaged product; sent to unfamiliar people whose principles of work are not synchronized with the people who are sending them; travelling illegally, with fake documents and unlicensed transports… Just like Belgium only needed a couple of days to impose a ban on importing foreign dogs to the shelters, we can only expect a next incident that will close the doors to our poor, suffering animals in Austria, Germany, Holland… Is this what we want to achieve? Are so focused on a particular animal that we do not see the harm we are doing to all the animals?

Let us not underestimate the seriousness and the huge amount of work that is put into every happy ending. Yes, there are wonderful adopters and medical geniuses. But there are others too. And the choice whom we bind our dogs’ destiny with – should not be accidental and casual.

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