Bulgarian Dog Shelters

How I Became Involved

I have always been interested in animal welfare and rescuing animals and in my time have given homes to various dogs, cats, guinea-pigs and rabbits and even had my own small flock of sheep when I lived on a farm (all runts that I bottle fed and kept alive) so it went without saying that when I moved to Bulgaria I would end up giving a home to various waifs and strays. When I purchased one of my first properties here I found out on a visit after the sale that the former owners had left their dog when they moved to Sofia. So I bought food for the builders to feed her daily and she became a fixture on the site. When I arrived permanently in the autumn of 2006 to the villa I also had 2 young cats living at the place. A couple of months later when I was staying at a friend's house near Varna, we found a starving puppy in the next door plot. We took her inside and fed her and they took her to the vets and were going to keep her. However, she did not get on with their cat and so I agreed to take her. Then in January 2007 a dog living at the site where my new house was being built gave birth to 4 puppies. After one became very ill from eating something toxic on the site, I took them all back to the villa where I was living, which was slightly manic with 2 cats and now 7 dogs. In summer 2007 I moved into my new house with all the dogs and cats but was finding it difficult to cope with all the dogs as one of the pups was forever escaping and another was aggressive around other dogs, whenever I fed them. I decided to try and re-home these two and a Bulgarian friend suggested a dog shelter she had heard of in Burgas. So I organised to take the two pups to them. The place was basic but you could tell the volunteers cared and did what they could on limited funds. I was told a few months later the two dogs had been re-homed together. I decided to try and raise awareness and much needed donations for this shelter. I visited the shelter again a year or so later with a friend and a Bulgarian based English journalist to see how we could help (see subsequent article here). At the time the shelter was possibly moving to a new location as the municipality wanted the land back (see below for full details of the history). Through a few donations and selling a few items and private for sale listings on my website I raised around 500 levs for the shelter. Now that I spend a fair amount of time at the coast I contacted the lady who ran the office for the shelter in June 2011 and we met to discuss how I could help and what was needed and she took me to see a newly modernised shelter for Nessebar municipality, which she now managed. She explained she was no longer involved with the Burgas Municipality shelter, but worked for Animal-SOS, a non-profit organisation set up by a Bulgarian developer to originally fund and then run the Nessebar shelter and also set up a privately owned sanctuary near Burgas. 

In the summer of 2011 I learned of the shelter in Kazanlak and so as this is also close to one of my homes in Bulgaria, and a good friend volunteers with the shelter I am also involved with raising funds for them.

There are a number of expat run rescue centres and charities that are well supported by the other expats and have only a few dogs in relation to the municipality run places and while I applaud what these people are trying to do, and every little helps with the awful stray dog sitaution here in Bulgaria, there are other charities and organisations in Bulgaria, run by Bulgarians who are trying to help the already over-run and struggling Bulgarian shelters. A number of these expat rescue places are now facing trouble and possible closure from local mayors and villagers, who do not want a dog shelter in the middle of their village (and are probably just trying to make life as difficult as possible for these people who have decided to try and rescue Bulgarian strays). Under Bulgarian law any animal shelter should be outside the village or town boundaries. Each municipality in Bulgaria is meant to have somewhere for stray dogs and a state funded neutering program, however most of these state run places are little more than death camps for the dogs and the money given to the shelters for neutering programs is siphoned away somewhere else. These municipality shelters are usually off the beaten track and most people do not even know they exist, let alone that they have hundreds of dogs needing new homes and veterinary care and feeding. These shelters desperately need help with re-homing and donations for veterinary care, food, dog bowls, blankets etc. I am trying to raise awareness and funds for two of these municipality shelters, as well as the privately oned and run Animal SOS shelter and if I can, find new homes for some of the hundreds of dogs housed in these two places. 

I am in the process of setting up a UK small charity and website, specifically for raising some funds for these shelters. 

Animal-SOS - Nessebar Municipality Dog Shelter

Without being taken to this place, you would never know it even existed, which is probably why for years it operated as a death camp for dogs rounded up from the streets around Nessebar and Sunny Beach. The few basic buildings were set up by Nessebar muncipality around 4 or 5 years ago as the shelter for stray dogs in the area as under Bulgarian law each municipality must have somewhere to house stray dogs and must carry out a program of castration. The management of these shelters is given out to tender and the Nessebar place was run for three years by "ETTI-99" who took 7,800 levs a month from the municiplaity but performed no castrations, nor did they re-home any dogs. The dogs taken there simply disappeared or were left to starve in pens. 

BEFORE:

In 2009 a local developer and builder, Alexander Stefanov, became aware of the shelter and started to sponsor the dogs, providing food and funds for medical treatment and equipment. In 2010 Nessebar municipality announced that the tender for the shelter was coming up for bids and Alexander set up the non-profit organization "Animal-SOS" and won a one year management contract for the shelter. The shelter received around 47,000 Euros from the municipality. He immediately modenised all the facilities so that now the once bare, wire cages are warm, insulated rooms with new PVC windows and doors, new tiling and large outdoor pen areas. There is also an operating room and clinic as well as recovery pens with central heating for dogs having undergone operations. The place is small and 12km from Nessebar, along a rough dirt track, way into the fields, but is now transformed into a comfortable and clean place for the dogs. A 4x4 vehicle was also bought and equipped for picking up dogs from the street and ensuring access to the shelter in the worst weather conditions. There is one permanent member of staff and a number of volunteers as well as a veterinary team that come from Nessebar. 

Cherno More Dog Sanctuary

Animal SOS have also set up a privately run sanctuary for stray and homeless dogs in Bulgaria. It is situated in the village of Cherno More, close to Burgas. It is 90% complete, with new dog houses and runs. This will be more than just a rescue centre, it will be a haven and sanctuary for some of Bulgaria's abused, starving and homeless dogs.

As well as providing a shelter for stray dogs, municipal neutering programs must be carried out. Animal-SOS take dogs from the street and castrates them and gives them rabies injections, returning healthy dogs to where they were found where as any puppies or animals that are unable to return to the street are kept at the shelter while new homes are found for them. Through May 2010 to May 2011 Animal-SOS castrated and returned 80 dogs to the street, a further 240 remained in the shelter an 91 were adopted. The foundation also carries out education programs. Unfortunately in general it is very difficult to re-home former street dogs in Bulgaria. Non-pedigree dogs and old or sick dogs are not looked upon as worthy pets in Bulgaria and so adoption of dogs from such shelters is based around finding the dogs homes abroad or with expats.

Margarita acts as Shelter Manager for this as well as the Burgas Municipality shelter. She devotes her life to doing what she can for the dogs in these two places.

CONTACT DETAILS

Burgas, 8000
Lazur bl, 102, Floor 2

Margarita Peeva - +359 878 101688 (speaks Bulgarian & German)
Alexander Stefanov - +359 878 779932 (speaks Bulgarian & some English)

http://www.animal-sos.eu -> Details of dogs for rehoming and more information.

Facebook Page

Kazanlak Shelter

Kazalak shelter is municipality owned and run, although has some wonderful volunteers. It is on the outskirts of the town, on the road out to Shipka. There are no full time staff but the dogs have a large area to run around in and some shelter, although more is needed. 

For more information - visit the facebook page

Tierschutz Mission - Burgas Municipality

The Tierschutz Mission is a munipality dog shelter on the outskirts of Burgas. It houses over 300 dogs and is in desperate need of help to re-home the dogs. 

Directions: It is just off the main dual carriage way from Burgas toward Chernomorets & Sozopol, down a dirt track, almost opposite the first Lukoil station. You need to turn right after the petrol station and then go back over the dual carriage way, rejoin the main road and then a few yards down on the right, there is a pull in and a track leading off to the right. The shelter is just up here, around 100m. There is now a new sign on the edge of the road. 

HISTORY

Up until around 2005 the centre was little more than a place to house unwanted street dogs before they were gassed and the conditions were appalling. It was a municipality run operation. This all changed when a German Journalist, called Christa Schechtl saw the plight of street dogs in Bulgaria and visited the shelter. She was already heavily involved in animal rescue, having more or less single handedly set up a dog rescue centre in Moldovo after finding a dog that had been skinned alive, when visiting the country on an investigation into an unrelated story. She has since helped set up and continued to fund rescue centres in Turkey and Odessa.  

Christa made it her mission to not only raise funds to enable the dogs to have much needed medical care and pay for food, blankets etc but she made it her aim to build a much better sanctuary for the dogs. She set up and funded an office in Central Burgas to deal with the administration and found a dedicated, animal lover in Margarita, a Bulgarian lady who runs the office. She held a press conference in Burgas with Bulgarian journalists and the vice Mayor and faced much hostility and aggressive questioning about why she wanted to help these dogs and the money involved. Then she involved the EU Commissioner, the President of the German Animal Rescue Society and many others. Christa then purchased 10,000sqm of land close to Chernomorets, between Burgas and Sozopool, with the dream of building a large new rescue centre here, complete with medical facilities and also housing cats as well as dogs. She involved the local Mayor and school children to let them know of her future plans and received support from these areas. A pro-animal welfare German architect offered his help to design the project and all seemed to be progressing. But then the money ran out. Christa had used all her own private money to fund the centre in Moldovo and the other rescue centres in Turkey and Odessa and open the office in Burgas and keep the current centre going. She had campaigned tirelessly in Germany to get help and donations but building such a large, new dog rescue would take many thousands. 

Christa organised and paid for 30 dogs to be taken back to Germany and re-homed there in a trip taking 3 full days of driving and an awful lot of money. In September 2008 she flew two more dogs back to Germany. She has published 3 magazines (in German only) available at http://www.der-schrei.de.

When I visited the centre in 2008 the only outside funding came from Germany and donation's made to Christa. There had been no help from any organisations or companies. All money has come from Germany and people's kind donations made to Christa for the sanctuary. When Margarita has gone to the public to ask for money and help she has been turned away. She once visited the London Pub in Burgas with photos of a dog desperately in need of an operation and in a very poorly state and received not a single lev from any of the Expats in there.

I recently met with Margarita (July 2011) and she informed me that unfortuantely Christa did not have as much to do with the shelter anymore but that the Burgas municipality were no longer trying to move the dog rescue. Margarita herself if now managing and running Animal SOS and the two shelters at Nessebar an Cherno More and is not involved with the Burgas shelter any more. There are currently over 300 dogs in the Burgas shelter, and funds for veterinary treatment, food and toys are desperately needed. As well as volunteers to help walk and socialise the dogs and most importantly, new homes are needed for the dogs.