Situation summary for 2012:
Unabated pet over-reproduction & trafficking While trends in companion animal management are broadly positive in Europe and North America, Bulgaria is not on track to accept the humane pet population control by addressing the population dynamics. So the excessive pet breeding continues to contribute to many animal welfare, public health and safety, environmental, and fiscal problems. Domestic and neighbourhood cats living in people’s backyards are reproducing unrestrictedly even in urban downtowns. In Sofia's suburban areas, construction sites and business yards, there is a subpopulation of so-called "latch-key dogs" that are constantly giving birth and whose offspring is constantly repopulating the residential areas. The direct consequence of the habitual pet breeding is an ever-changeable overpopulation. Meantime the already grownups are quietly disappearing on a large-scale. The peculiarity of both populations is their striking inconstancy. Their makeup shifts very dynamically and the animal’s average lifespan is relatively low. Most of Bulgarian pet animals are doomed to a short lifespan, suffering and a cruel death wherever that may be in the uninspected laboratories, illegal fur mills or in the growing animal shelter system. General public and true animal welfare community are unaware of the fate of the most roaming pet animals while infamous animal rescues are presenting themselves as "animal advocates". Over the last decade, they are just collecting grown up dogs with promises for their re-homing in Austria, Switzerland, Germany or Netherlands. Some of them are even running municipal animal shelters in Sofia, Kazanlyk, Shumen, Dobrich etc. |