Report			Interview		Newsletter
	THE ANIMAL PROGRAMS FOUNDATION To: THE MEMBERS OF ASSEMBLEIA DA REPUBLICA THE REPRESENTATIVES OF NATIONALRAT THE MEMBERS OF DEUTSCHER BUNDESTAG THE MEMBERS OF FOLKETINGET THE REPRESENTATIVES OF SVERIGES RIKSDAG THE MEMBERS OF EDUSKUNTA THE MEMBERS OF TWEEDE KAMER DER STATEN-GENERAAL THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS Report: THE NEWLY ELECTED BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT PROTECTS THE ONGOING ILLICIT POSSESSION & TRAFFIC OF PET ANIMALS TOO (November/December 2005) During the last 15 years in Sofia City there’s been carefully nourished a peculiar perplexity by a bulk street manifestation of growing-up domesticated dogs, followed by the disappearance of them most. Besides this dynamically fluctuating overpopulation figure there are about 2-3 thousand of so called "neighborhood" dogs let living free in the different communities for better period of time. Quite enough number of the latest are sterilized and they are not the cause for the emergence of the thousands growing-up "newcomers". The city’s dilemma proceeds as a part of uncontrolled acts of possession, breeding and pet-animal commerce nationwide. By noisy street campaigns Municipality and NGOs can only sterilize, collect and exterminate the street’s roaming loose animals but in meanwhile can’t prevent the debut of thousands unwanted ones. The disarrayed streets of Sofia outshine by far the long established and deeply entrenched abuse of the pet animals in Bulgaria. The Veterinary-Medical Care & Supervision Act states that the preventive measures in a likewise case lays upon the Bulgarian Government. The Act obligates The National Veterinary-Medical Supervision Service to duly enforce a register control over the ownership, breeding and pet-animal commerce nationwide. Although long on the books, there is not such as yet practice down on the ground and thus leads to excessive ever-changeable and untraceable populous. In Sofia tens of thousand owned dogs stay unregistered and untagged. For the lack of data about the number and movement of them and to that of their offspring fuels the public’s misconception that owned dogs are not the source of their own overpopulation. The immense delusion that there are enough candidates for the offspring and the great misconception to that giving birth is a healthy act, entices almost every bitch owner to become an unregistered breeder. Precisely this circumstance plays a crucial role for the population increase (approx. by 30% annually). On the unregulated nationwide market are constantly offered and promptly dump for next to nothing or free an enormous number of puppies. So they readily find home and thereafter stay unregistered. Subsequently a big number of their new owners get soon bored with them and in turn start trying to pass them to any and everyone for a secondary adoption. The number of the continuous offered young animals makes grown-ups unattractive for the impulsive candidates. The unregistered secondhand dogs rarely fall in the shelters. There are only few functional dog shelters in Bulgaria with the gross capacity of 20,000 (approx. 2% of total dog population and probably 5-10% of anual population increase) in which mostly enter "street-dogs". The healthy owned dogs are being collected smoothly and unobstructed through ads for secondary adoption or theft and are systematically turn into commodity for the illicit trade. On the other hand here are numerous registered cases in The Sofia City’s dog-shelter, that the animals kept in it are also falling as a live-stock to the illicit traffic.