The start of 2018 was tough as new rules came in with regard to transport of dogs out of Bulgaria to new homes. In their wisdom the Bulgarian Food Agency decided to change the regulations so dogs could only get TRACES certificates for transport if the dog had come from a legal shelter, had been there for 30 days and had all the paperwork (passport etc) issued by the shelter. This put massive restrictions on legally transporting rescue dogs out of the country. And meant we had to carefully re-assess how we were going to run the charity from here on out.
We spent much of winter 2018 trying to negotiate with the municipality of Samokov for a neutering program and to push them to get a shelter up and running, but after various meetings and promises, this went no-where. We decided to concentrate the majority of our work in the Maglizh region.
We had already decided we wished to concentrate on neutering and working with local villagers more on welfare issues, rather than constantly taking in dogs for re-homing. The last of the puppies we took in over the winter were re-homed as well the couple of other dogs we had found in a bad way and we started to search for a property that would be suitable for a neutering clinic. We toyed with the idea of trying to find a premises that could be set up as a shelter, but the rules and regulations you have to abide by to have a legally registered shelter are very onerous and ultimately we felt, having our own shelter was not the way forward.
In early summer we found a house in our municipality town that we felt would be ideal for a clinic. We approached the mayor and chief architect to discuss our plans and both were supportive and there did not seem to be any possible planning issues. We put in an offer and it was accepted and in August we completed on the purchase. Then started the long haul of getting paperwork and plans done. By December we had finally got the architect plans done and these were taken to BABh (Food Agency) in Stara Zagora for approval. There was just one small change that was needed and so it was back to the architect and municipality.
In the meantime we cleared the plot (or rather Pete did) and got builders in to quote for main jobs. New windows were ordered and new cement floors were poured and new wiring put in. We also carried on neutering local dogs where we could, including Bertie and Scraps who ended up staying with us and being adopted by us. Unfortunately October saw us lose Molly, one of our first rescues, who was born to a street dog I rescued back in 2006.
We also started visiting the Stara Zagora municipality shelter to walk and socialise the dogs there and ended up taking a few dogs out of there who were in a terrible state. These have all gone to new homes (foster and permanent) in Bulgaria. We are still trying to negotiate better conditions for the dogs in the shelter.
If you would like to donate to the renovations on the new neutering clinic please visit the JustGiving page. There is still a massive amount of work to be done and all equipment to buy. Thank you to all our donators for their continued support.