Under the Animal Protection Act, which went into force on January 31 2008, there should be no stray dogs left by 2011. Any municipality that still has stray dogs after 2011 would risk a fine under the Animal Protection Act.

On April 24, the Sofia municipality adopted a programme which aims to eliminate stray dogs by 2011, Zagrada.bg reported.

According to Miroslav Naidenov of Ekoravnovesie, the goal of eliminating all stray dogs by 2011 was possible with the new municipal programme.

The current system of castration had halved the population of stray dogs from an estimated 20 000 in 2005 to less than 10 000 currently.

Sociological research showed that while in 2005 the problem of stray dogs ranked second for citizens of Bulgaria's capital, it had now moved to ninth place after waste-collection, infrastructure, traffic jams, public transport and other problems.

The new programme includes additional measures besides castration. Until 2011, each year at least one asylum would be opened. Currently Sofia has only one dog pound, with a capacity of 250 dogs.

Another measure was the introduction of a registration system for domestic dogs. One proposal was to introduce financial incentives for vets to report pets they had examined by sharing part of the taxes collected for domestic dogs with the vets.

A third measure was the introduction of registration chips for pets, which would make identification of animals easier.

The registration system would make it harder for pet-owners to leave animals in the street, something which currently happens frequently despite the possible fine of 150 to 300 leva, Zagrada.bg said. Collected taxes for pets would be used to fund the programme to eliminate stray dogs.

The programme was accepted by the municipal council by 42 votes, with only six votes opposed.