AN incinerator in Plovdiv became the last stop for 47,725 stray dogs in the past two weeks.
This emerged from a report by Nikola Popov, CEO of the parastatal company ZooMilosurdie (ZooMercy), presented to Parliament’s ecology committee.
The report covers the period January 1999 to June 30, 2002.
According to the report the company captured 51, 899 stray dogs. Of these 47, 725 dogs were destroyed in a two-week period in the company’s isolator in Lozenets and the remains taken to the incinerator in Plovdiv. The isolator has 44 indoor cages and 10 outdoor ones. Destroyed dogs were taken annually to Plovdiv at a cost of 360 leva, paid off in monthly amounts.
Popov reported some 4,174 strays were castrated during the period covered by the report.
But, said Maria Harbova, municipal adviser and chairperson of the ecological committee of the Sofia Municipality: “The data released by Popov has no connection to the actual situation and seems quite unreal”.
According to her the annual capacity of the isolator is 2,500 dogs. She said that if Popov’s data was accurate, the law was violated. “It is extremely difficult to get access to the company’s premises to inspect the conditions in which dogs are kept, to reclaim a dog erroneously captured, or to adopt a dog,” she said. She added that the data could not be checked precisely.
Popov said that ecological organisations and animal welfare NGOs were adopting 10 to 15 dogs and letting them walk around town. “The only care they take of them is to feed them,” Popov said.
Deputy Mayor Boris Spirov urged that stray dogs not be treated as sacred cows.
Harbova said ZooMercy should be closed down, because it was not doing its job properly. But the council voted half for, and half against, the move, creating a stalemate.
The financial report of ZooMercy showed that since 1999, a total of 1,551, 894 leva has been spent on stray dogs. The municipality spent 112, 320 leva in 2001 to reduce the number of street-dogs. But there were still 25,000 homeless dogs in the city.
Reportedly, an average five people a week bitten by stray dogs are immunised at the anti-hydrophobia ward of the First City Hospital.
This emerged from a report by Nikola Popov, CEO of the parastatal company ZooMilosurdie (ZooMercy), presented to Parliament’s ecology committee.
The report covers the period January 1999 to June 30, 2002.
According to the report the company captured 51, 899 stray dogs. Of these 47, 725 dogs were destroyed in a two-week period in the company’s isolator in Lozenets and the remains taken to the incinerator in Plovdiv. The isolator has 44 indoor cages and 10 outdoor ones. Destroyed dogs were taken annually to Plovdiv at a cost of 360 leva, paid off in monthly amounts.
Popov reported some 4,174 strays were castrated during the period covered by the report.
But, said Maria Harbova, municipal adviser and chairperson of the ecological committee of the Sofia Municipality: “The data released by Popov has no connection to the actual situation and seems quite unreal”.
According to her the annual capacity of the isolator is 2,500 dogs. She said that if Popov’s data was accurate, the law was violated. “It is extremely difficult to get access to the company’s premises to inspect the conditions in which dogs are kept, to reclaim a dog erroneously captured, or to adopt a dog,” she said. She added that the data could not be checked precisely.
Popov said that ecological organisations and animal welfare NGOs were adopting 10 to 15 dogs and letting them walk around town. “The only care they take of them is to feed them,” Popov said.
Deputy Mayor Boris Spirov urged that stray dogs not be treated as sacred cows.
Harbova said ZooMercy should be closed down, because it was not doing its job properly. But the council voted half for, and half against, the move, creating a stalemate.
The financial report of ZooMercy showed that since 1999, a total of 1,551, 894 leva has been spent on stray dogs. The municipality spent 112, 320 leva in 2001 to reduce the number of street-dogs. But there were still 25,000 homeless dogs in the city.
Reportedly, an average five people a week bitten by stray dogs are immunised at the anti-hydrophobia ward of the First City Hospital.
