The Pazardjik zoo has been ordered temporarily shut by the Bulgarian Environment Ministry, until it receives proper accreditation, Dnevnik daily reported on October 9 2009. The animals will be shipped to the zoo in Stara Zagora.

The zoo is no longer allowed to admit visitors until its accreditation documents are approved by the ministry, contingent on the facility proving that it complies with the hygiene standards  and that the animals are being offered proper veterinary treatment, which was not the case.

The ministry has given the Pazardjik zoo six months to submit the appropriate application form in order to receive its license back, otherwise the facility is facing the grim prospect of having to close permanently.

On September 4, another zoo in Bulgaria, in Haskovo, was in the spotlight for a similar reason, when the Haskovo regional veterinary inspectorate and the Chetiri Lapi (Four Paws) Foundation collaborated in the confiscation and relocation of a Bulgarian brown bear from the zoo. The animal was later shipped to the zoo in Pavlikeni.

The drastic and unprecedented measure was deemed imperative after the bear's living conditions were branded "abysmal".

"We've been monitoring the condition of the bear since the beginning of the year. He was in a terrible state, his health was very poor," said Dimitar Ivanov, director of the Dancing Bears Park in Belitsa.

Haskovo zoo is notorious and made headlines in April 2009, when animal activists discovered the carcasses of more than 40 stray dogs in the zoo's waste containers. Eventually it transpired that the dogs were culled by the zoo's director, Dr Staikov. Meanwhile, Four Paws insist that they discovered yet another "slaughter house" in June 2009, where dogs were being butchered before visitors