June 25, 2010 -- In its online petition asking Bulgarian Government to shut down Plovdiv municipal dog pound to investigate involved personnel, Plovdiv Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) listed a dozen of Animal Protection Act's provisions that were constantly broken by the shelter authorities.

Recently, Municipality accepted a policy to thwart the public’s ability to adopt impounded animals; shelter management routinely reported practically all incoming dogs as euthanized with no mandatory signature and consent of a NGO representativе, PAWS pointed out.

According to the Animal Protection Act, the mayors shall provide an open access to the municipal dog pound, as well as to guarantee adequate public control over the facility. Instead, Plovdiv Mayor Slavcho Atanasov passed a decree according to which no NGO members or members of the press shall ever again be routinely allowed to enter the facility, to question the staff members, to photograph animals, to revise relevant documents and observe the daily running of the same, PAWS announced.