Irina Ouzunova has been involved in animal welfare, specifically in the area of Sofia’s notorious street dog problem, for the best part of the past decade. Her small flat has provided shelter for the many dogs that she has taken in from the streets, inoculated and found homes for abroad.

The problem of Bulgaria’s large street dog population is a long-standing one that has spawned many plans and promises from politicians, but to which, as yet, no solution has been found.

So, why does Bulgaria have so many street dogs? Irina looks at the problem in a historical context. “Under Ottoman rule” she says, “cats were favoured over dogs as the Koran states that the dog is a dirty animal.”

“Before the changes,” she recalls, “everyone had cats as pets, not dogs.”

“But after the changes everyone wanted dogs and imported them into Bulgaria. They wouldn’t take them from the street; they wanted to have pedigree dogs.”

However, in the winter of 1990, when “we queued for bread and milk during the economic crisis”, dogs were thrown out onto the streets. Even those that were not abandoned often bred with street dogs and the puppies were left homeless, adding to the escalating number of dogs on the roadways.

So, the economic factor worked in tandem with the notion of wanting a pet as a status symbol and a negative attitude toward animals that didn’t match up to standards. Irina believes this attitude has endured and says that “the attitude of Bulgarians to dogs has to change”.

The first step to decreasing the population of street dogs she says is “the Western European solution – to neuter them and put them back on the streets”. However, neutering and vaccination are expensive and the current practice in Sofia is for dog collectors, who she says are paid three to four leva a dog, to take dogs to shelters where unclaimed animals are exterminated.

Accusations of corruption and malpractice have often been levelled at attempts to deal with Sofia’s street dog problem. Shelters have been accused of beating animals to death to cut costs on paying for lethal injections, of engaging in the illegal trade of dog pelts, and of supplying the incinerated animals to feed farm animals. So, individuals like Irina, and independent organisations, have tried to come up with their own solutions. These often involve sending dogs abroad to shelters in Austria, Switzerland or Germany from where the animals can go to a family home. This process is usually time consuming and costly. She recounts the stories of Ray and Johnny.

She found Ray, a blind dog, abandoned on the streets and took him in. Without enough space to give him long-term care in her own flat, she found a deserted municipality house where she made him a kennel. Every day for 20 months, she visited him, fed him and walked him.

Meanwhile, Johnny was brought to her by a neighbour who found him after he had been hit by a speeding Mercedes on Tsarigradsko Shosse, Sofia’s main road to the airport. He was in very bad shape, with broken legs. Irina took him to the vet, who asked for 220 leva to perform an operation. Unable and unwilling to pay so much, she took him to a doctor at a hospital in Sofia. The doctor said that the operation was not necessary, made a customised splint for the dog, and charged her five leva. Irina constructed a special bed for the Johnny on her floor and cared for the animal during his recovery. A year later he had only a slight limp.

At the beginning of this year, she found permanent homes for the Ray and Johnny – in France. Transport was a problem. No one was willing to accompany the animals by plane. By April, 5000 leva and a five-and-a-half hour coach journey later, Irina had delivered the animals to their new homes, having accompanied them on the long journey from Sofia to Paris.

These are just two of the many animals that she has helped on their journeys from the streets of Sofia to loving homes. Many more have found homes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. However, some have not been so lucky.

Ralph, Marta and Elsa are all currently living in a kennel for which Irina pays five leva a day, but conditions are terrible, she says, with 15 dogs crowded into the kennel, which in fact is just a woman’s flat. If a home is not found for them soon, Irina says they will be thrown out onto the streets again.

All the animals are neutered and house-trained. Irina says she is extremely concerned about their welfare and desperately wants to get them out of the kennel. She is looking for homes for the dogs to go to either on a temporary basis while homes are being found for them abroad, or on a permanent basis. “We desperately need your help,” she says.

For further information, please contact Irina on 872 48 95 or 08781/46612. E-mail: inaouzunova@hotmail.com.