Bulgarian PM Personally Tackles Stray Dogs Problem

Bulgarian Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, says that the plan to catch and euthanize stray dogs has failed. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, is dealing in person with the stray dog issue in Bulgaria and new measures will be implemented as early as Monday.

The information was reported Friday by Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov. Speaking in an interview for the largest private TV channel bTV, Naydenov informed that a meeting had been held Thursday with Borisov, the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, and the Chair of the Parliamentary Group of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, Krasimir Velchev, which had concluded with the agreement to allow all municipalities in Bulgaria to build the so-called depots as temporary shelters for stray dogs.

According to the Minister, the decision to change the normative acts and ordinances had already been made and the construction of the depots can start next week.

Naydenov stated that plans from several years back to catch and euthanize stray dogs have failed. He pointed out that about 5 000 such dogs are neutered each year, but the number of homeless animals is still going up.

Animal rights NGOs already voiced alarm and protested the latest measure saying the depots will become just places to inhumanly massacre dogs.

The Minister says he is certain the new measures will trigger mass protests of these NGOs, but the cabinet is ready to take the burden and the responsibility.

At the end of March, 88-year-old economy Professor Boteo Tachkov was brutally attacked and almost killed by an pack of stray dogs in Sofia's Malinova Dolina district. The accident triggered public outrage, as the city has been struggling to cope with its increasing stray dog population for years now.

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