Only 2 Dog Catchers Work at Sofia's Stray Dog Company
Environment | April 12, 2012, Thursday // 11:46| views
Socialist municipal councilman, Georgi Kadiev. Photo by BGNES
Only two out the twenty four staff of the municipal company "Ekoravnovesie" (Eco-balance) in charge of controlling stray dogs' population in Bulgaria's capital Sofia are dog catchers, according to municipal councilman Georgi Kadiev.
Kadiev, who is a councilman from the opposition, left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, and unsuccessful mayoral candidate, has published on his Facebook page the structure of the company, from which it emerges that the other 22 are working at their desks as director, deputies, accountant, secretary, PR, human resource head, etc. There is also one veterinarian among them.
Sofia taxpayers pay millions for the control of stray dogs with Ekoravnovesie having nearly the same budget as the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS. The company's official site does not include data on how this money is spent.
The problem with the stray dogs came into the spotlight over the demise of Professor Botio Tachkov, a renowned economist, who died Sunday after being brutally attacked by a large pack of stray dogs in Sofia. The accident triggered public outrage, as the city has been struggling to cope with its increasing stray dog population for years now.
According to Mayor Yordanka Fandakova, the homeless animals are the number one problem of the capital. She, however, refused to resign in the aftermath of the outrage, saying she had never promised to solve the issue immediately, and this was a slow and difficult process.
Fandakova states that her first task had been to stop corruption and draining of funds in Ekoravnovesie. She did, indeed, audit the company and has fired two directors already.
The only promise given so far is to reduce the current estimated stray dog population of 9 000 by 4 600 by 2014. It was made by the Mayor's Deputy, Maria Boydzhiyska, who was the only person to submit a resignation after the tragic incident, but it was not accepted by her boss.
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