Bulgaria: Plovdiv's Pet Overopulation Problem Not Found by the Authority
Emil D. Kuzmanov | 13.11.2009 15:05 | Animal Liberation | World
Four Paws, recently legal municipal partner for animal control, performed a census of animals currently roaming the city, News.dir.bg announced on October 27, 2009. 7623 stray cats were counted in mid-October; and 686 stray dogs only. "Those numbers are not grounds to consider an overpopulation problem", foundation marketing manager Yavor Gechev told News.dir.bg.
Plovdiv is the second most populous city of Bulgaria with nearly 350000 inhabitants. For the last two decades, legal pet population management remain totally neglected across the country. Since 2008, situation in Bulgaria began extremely complicated - euthanizing unwanted dogs and cats was banned by the law. It was suggested by both Four Paws Bulgaria and Intimate With Nature Society (*).
"Plovdiv Municipality needs about 1.5M leva for building a modern animal shelter", deputy mayor Aleksander Konstantinov told Dariknews.bg on October 27, 2009.
Four Paws plans CNR/TNR intervention by using mobile clinics, News.dir.bg announced the same day. Two one-month campaigns will be conducted in spring and autumn 2010, with capacity of 20-25 animals per day.
In fact, Plovdiv authorities cannot influence the pet population dynamics by providing holding facilities only. Municipality did not establish low-cost neutering scheme to deal with pet over reproduction. Besides, local owned pet population size stayed unknown.
Obviously, Four Paws did not suggest real solutions to decrease animal birth rate. Furthermore, their overpopulation assessment did not take into account a very specific circumstance - the practice of illegal stray animal collection. So, population's productivity cannot be measured by the number of roaming animals available while a lot of strays disappear. On the contrary, census data show high disappearing rate and horrific animal welfare problems.
* Four Paws Bulgaria is a branch of Austria-based foundation Four Paws International (Vier Pfoten International). Both Four Paws International and Intimate With Nature Society (IWNS) are member organizations of World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).
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"Plovdiv Municipality needs about 1.5M leva for building a modern animal shelter", deputy mayor Aleksander Konstantinov told Dariknews.bg on October 27, 2009.
Four Paws plans CNR/TNR intervention by using mobile clinics, News.dir.bg announced the same day. Two one-month campaigns will be conducted in spring and autumn 2010, with capacity of 20-25 animals per day.
In fact, Plovdiv authorities cannot influence the pet population dynamics by providing holding facilities only. Municipality did not establish low-cost neutering scheme to deal with pet over reproduction. Besides, local owned pet population size stayed unknown.
Obviously, Four Paws did not suggest real solutions to decrease animal birth rate. Furthermore, their overpopulation assessment did not take into account a very specific circumstance - the practice of illegal stray animal collection. So, population's productivity cannot be measured by the number of roaming animals available while a lot of strays disappear. On the contrary, census data show high disappearing rate and horrific animal welfare problems.
* Four Paws Bulgaria is a branch of Austria-based foundation Four Paws International (Vier Pfoten International). Both Four Paws International and Intimate With Nature Society (IWNS) are member organizations of World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).
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Emil D. Kuzmanov
e-mail:
animalprograms@abv.bg