COMING to Bulgaria, one is often warned about the “wild” street dogs and their danger in packs. But compared to humans generally, are the dogs in Bulgaria so different? They’re mostly the victims of the economic crisis of the mid-nineties when people couldn’t afford to feed themselves, much less their dogs. Like teenage boys, if the street dogs hang out in large numbers, bored and horny, they can become aggressive. At times it seems these dogs look up at us as we rush by and think how stupid we all are with our superficial worries, when all that’s really important in life is some good food, a warm place to sleep, no fights with the neighbours and the occasional scratch behind the ear. Though the street dogs of Sofia, and Bulgaria generally, are well off compared to other places in the world (like India, where street dog life expectancy is only three years), the dogs should be better taken care of and found homes off the street, so they won’t be sent to killing stations and destroyed.

Unfortunately, in Bulgaria there are no animal rights laws or animal rescue homes, despite people’s boasting of their love for animals.  There are, however, animal removal laws that sanction the killing of dogs in large numbers, which obviously does not help and only costs the country a lot of money. Animals have such a small lobby here and very few people actively trying to help them. An estimated 30 000-50 000 street dogs live in Sofia alone, half of which were most likely someone’s pet before being abandoned on the streets.

Petra Stellamanns-Bendix, a German expatriate living in Sofia, has teamed up with some local Bulgarian animal lovers and a team in Switzerland to try to fix the problem and end the current method of destroying the animals.  “This is just a drop in the ocean,” she says, “but it’s a humble attempt to save some of the dogs.” She has had first hand experience that has pulled at both her heart and her sense of moral responsibility. She began to feed a female who disappeared after having her first litter of two puppies, only to return later, pregnant again. This time the dog was in a more distressed condition and died during the night trying to give birth to five puppies. Some of her favourite street dogs have disappeared, most likely caught by the dogcatchers and destroyed, and she’s trying to make sure this does not happen.

As it stands now, the politically backed method of dealing with street dogs is a “cleaning phase”, a round up by dogcatchers, though there is an agreement that they will not take sterilized or collared dogs. They randomly take the dogs to killing stations where they are supposed to wait seven days before administering euthanasia, which is dispensed without effective drugs and results in the slow suffocation of these dogs.  Puppies however are destroyed immediately. If a person wants to retrieve their dog from one of these stations, the process is time-consuming, there’s no guarantee your dog hasn’t already been destroyed, and you have to pay 100 leva for your dog.

Petra’s goal, as well as that of Tierhilfe-sud (www.tierhilfe-sueden.de), a German group, is to follow the criteria set forth by World Health Organisation and the World Society for the Protection of Animals. In 1990, after studying different methods of dealing with various street dog populations, this organisation concluded that the only way to reliably and efficiently control the population is through spaying, neutering and vaccination programmes, and not mass killings.  In this way, the animals are taken for one day to a clinic where they are sterilized, tagged, and registered and then released back to their territory so no other dog can fill the space and continue the reproduction cycle.  This programme is incredibly cost-efficient and helps by limiting growth, decreasing hostility in hormone driven males, and maintaining a monitored street dog population. Tierhilfe-Sueden e.V. funds these castrations which are carried out by a vet of the veterinarian department of Sofia University. In addition, in Sofia, Petra works closely with Dr. Georgiev of the Blue Cross Clinic (www.bluecrossbg.com) who offers reduced prices for treating injured street dogs. Convincing the politicians to not only implement this programme and end the killings but also to introduce animal protection laws are the chief obstacles and must be pushed by animal rights groups and individuals who care. As Petra states, “This is actually our main aim, but the most difficult one to achieve.”

Creating an animal rescue centre outside of the city is another project Petra and the other volunteers desperately need funding for. They are currently in the final stages of a land negotiation, a complicated and frustrating process, but they need donations of materials and builders who can help get the centre up and running. The vision is a setting that would have a castration programme, an education centre, a rehabilitation centre to work with children and a waiting area for dogs that have qualified to be sent abroad. 

Because Switzerland has an extensive animal welfare system and there is actually a shortage of cute, family dogs, Petra and the team from www.Tierhilfe-bulgarien.ch arrange for Bulgarian street dogs who meet certain criteria (are between one and two years old, are friendly and playful) and who have been vaccinated (a three -seven month waiting period, depending on age) to be transported to Switzerland and placed in an animal rescue centre until they are adopted. Because these dogs have a waiting period before they can be shipped, Petra is searching for volunteers in Sofia to act as foster parents until the dogs can be packed into a truck (25 at a time) and sent to Switzerland.

Petra emphasises that volunteers providing a temporary home, food, and affection to a dog that is about to start a new life is vital to the success of the programme until the centre is set up, as they “need these places desperately since the dogs could be taken and killed by the dog catcher at any time as long as they continue living on the streets.” As well as sending promising young dogs to Switzerland, Petra and her fellow volunteers are also active in finding new homes for street puppies and helping the older generation of Bulgarians who are unable to care for their dogs. The people she works with “give up their time and money and are so devoted it’s incredible.” It’s definitely a start to a very long process of caring and action in a cause that will have benefits for everyone in the city and will reflect well on Bulgaria’s desire to join the European Union with a humanely controlled dog population. 

Please contact Caitlin Foley at caitlinfoley2k3@yahoo.com if you are interested in helping this programme in any way.