Creating zoo police – first step for solving stray dogs’ issue
Bulgaria will now have a zoo police that will control the implementation of the Animal Welfare Act. That was one of the results of the recent meeting of Minister of Agriculture and Food Dr. Miroslav Naydenov with PM Boyko Borissov and representatives of animal welfare organizations. Minister Naydenov is convinced in the positive role of the zoo police model that has proven its effectiveness in many countries. He hopes that it will soon lead to results in this country too.
According to Yavor Gechev from the Four Paws international animal welfare organization this country “definitely needs zoo police”.
“This will not only be a department that will investigate crimes against animals. Above all it will protect the society from the activities of dishonest citizens, who threaten the security of all people by violating animals. It is not normal in the 21st century someone to spread poison in the streets of the capital city of Sofia, trying to solve the issue with stray animals in his or her neighborhood. Not only pets can get hurt this way, but also children, hobos or any kind of passers-by. This will be exactly one of the functions of the zoo police, while on the other hand it will monitor the correct breeding of pets. Now the whole country understands that not the animals themselves are the guilty ones for the stray animal issue, but those people, who abandon them.”
The current control on pets in Bulgaria is carried out by the employees of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency /BFSA/ and municipal inspectorates. However, practically those do not have enough power to trace the abandonment of unregistered dogs that grounds the stray animal issue. That is why a separate module will be created at the e-register of animals, maintained by BFSA, where municipalities will be able to enter data on dogs. Thus a more effective monitoring on the registration, tax and fee payment, ownership and health status of dogs will be achieved. Amendments in the Animal Welfare Act are envisaged and those will provide stricter penalties for abandonment of dogs. Thus for instance the surcharge for such an action will become EUR 500 or more, while now it is EUR 50, the minister underlined. There will be fewer requirements for the open-type shelters, where dogs are accommodated in separate huts, instead of indoor premises. According to Minister Naydenov the stray dog issue turns from ecological into a problem of healthcare. Data of the agricultural ministry shows that Bulgaria is ranked first in the number of diseases, caused by Echinococcosis, haemorrhagic fever and other zoonotic infections. That is why the measures provided will enter into force as soon as possible.
“After all we do rely that this department will start to work soon and will be effective. We hope that cases of abandonment and violence will be reduced in this manner. In all other countries there are departments of this kind that are successful in their work and violence against animals is something unthinkable there. In such cases the doers are always punished. NGOs play the role of zoo police in better-developed states. This will be difficult to be applied in Bulgaria, since these organizations don’t have the resource and power to function this way and they shouldn’t do it either. That is why it would be best if this zoo police is a department at the interior ministry, where a regular police officer should be included, having the authority to stop a person in the street and check his or her papers. When it is necessary, such an officer should be able to enter your house and check the conditions, under which you breed your pet. This will really ease the situation in Bulgaria, regarding stray animals and animal atrocity. Unfortunately both things are quite tightly related. On one hand there are huge amounts of stray animals and on the other there are too many cases of atrocity. Let’s hope that the new department will start to work and a zoo police will be created within a year in this country.”
Text: bnr.bg
Photo: bnr.bg