Illegal collection and traffic of cats and dogs in Bulgaria

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Cc (English):

Mr. Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Mr. Jose' Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission

Mr. Bernard Piotr Wojciechowski, MEP

Dr. Caroline Lucas, MEP

Mr. David Hammerstein Mintz, MEP

Mr. Robert Evans, MEP

Animal People News

Animals Voice

Eurogroup for Animal Welfare

Friends of Animals

Humane Society International

IFAW, International Headquarters

In Defence of Animals

OIPA International

PETA Europe

SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness/SHARK

WSPA, International Headquarters







Emil Kuzmanov

18 Yanko Sofiiski Voivoda str.

1164 Sofia, Bulgaria

e-mail: pet@animalprograms.org

animalprograms@abv.bg

+359 (0)2 8655623



To:

Mr. Boris Veltchev

Supreme Prosecutor of the Republic of Bulgaria





Subject: Illegal collection and traffic of cats and dogs in Bulgaria





Dear Supreme Prosecutor,

Concerning my letter, sent to you on 18 July 2006, and a letter from the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s office, addressed to me, I find it necessary to emphasize with this letter, the circumstances connected with the responsibilities of the competent officials for the illegal control over the populations of cats and dogs.

In violation of the old Veterinary Act (from 1999) and the new Veterinary Act (from 2005), the officials from the National Veterinary–Medical Service heave taken no effective measures for education of the owners, also effective control over owners, breeders and dealers of such animals. As a result of this lack of preventive activities, the pet lovers and whole the society remained ignorant and deluded, the widespread amateur breeding in Sofia remained unrestricted, and the market of these animals remained uncontrolled. The count of the bred animals constantly exceeds the capability of finding reliable/permanent owners. And thus the amount of the unwanted healthy animals is constantly recovered.

Here I point out a second case, connected with the control of the movement of the unwanted, stolen and illegally caught animals including stray cats. In Sofia there is no real legal control – most of the left and lost animals, including cats and pure bred dogs do not go to the Municipality shelter. Despite of that, some form of collection and reduction, already exists - these animals do not stay in the streets for a long time, there is no concentration of different generations in the streets and yards, the old, sick, starving and dead animals are rare in recent years. So the obvious conclusion is that the missing legal control is replaced by unofficial, criminal activities, leading to the real reduction of the growing populations by collection and traffic of huge amount of animals. These activities obviously have wide institutional and political protection. The officials from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Finance, competent in the fight against the organized crime and money laundering, are tolerant to the illegal collection and traffic of great number of healthy animals.

Taking in to account the previously presented information, I insist for starting of investigation of the participation of officials, politicians and enterpreneurs in this scheme since 1999.





Sofia, August 11 2006



Yours sincerely,

Emil Kuzmanov





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