Sign our petition! for a municipal mass neutering programme for the street cats in Varna!

OUR VISION

Our vision is a Varna where all cats are born and raised in safe and loving homes and without any cats suffering on the streets. The way we achieve this is through mass neutering. Why is this the best (and the only) way? Because the street cat population in Varna is absolutely enormous, and this means that every single day, there are thousands of cats and kittens suffering from viruses, poisoning, and traffic accidents on the streets of Varna. This is not acceptable. Cats are NOT wild animals - they have been domesticated by humans over thousands of years, and all the cats we currently see on the street evolved over this period of time into a new species called Felis catus, which is biologically different from the wild cat (Felis silvestris). Felis catus is only present where humans are present, and it is up to us whether they suffer or thrive.

In recent years, the street cat crisis in Varna has gotten worse because an increased number of people in Bulgaria want pets, but those same people do not take the time to educate themselves on what it means to be a responsible pet owner. As a result, many people let their cats walk around on the streets unneutered, and there are still many cases of people abandoning their pets. This results in uncontrolled breeding.

This situation is so meaningless. In so many European cities there are no domesticated animals suffering on the streets. And within Bulgaria, several cities have taken measures: Sofia, Plovdiv, and Burgas all have some form of mass neutering programmes for street cats. Varna Municipality has allowed the situation and the suffering to get out of control, even though it is legally their responsibility to take action based on the following articles in the Animal Protection Law of 2008:

  • Article 56, paragraph (1) states that in cases of "increased population of stray cats, articles 40-47, 51, 52 and 54 apply".
  • Article 40a, paragraph (1), point 2. states that: "The national program for controlling the population of stray dogs on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria" is based on the principle of "managing and reducing the population of stray dogs in an effective way through mass castration."
  • Article 40, paragraph (3) states that: "Municipal Councils introduce a Programme" which fulfils the principles of humane population control through mass neutering. Programmes introduced by the local Councils have to be executed by the executive branch of the local government - the mayor and municipal staff.
  • The recent official count of street cats in Varna has made clear that there is indeed an "increased population of stray cats", increasing more than 10-fold from 2008 in 2016 to 23,053 in 2024. Varna Municipality itself estimates that the street cat population has been rising by about 85% every two years. It is thus clear that article 56 of the Animal Protection Law applies, meaning that Varna Municipality is legally obliged to launch a mass neutering programme of street cats within its territory.

A recent Municipal Free Neutering campaign which neutered more than 1000 stray cats in early 2026 in an amazing first step for the stray cats of Varna. However, based on our calculations, even a 1000 neutering procedures annually would not be enough for the stray cat population to stop growing. Therefore this is NOT a MASS neutering programme, and the Municipality has to do more to meet its legal obligation.

We demand that Varna Municipality fulfils its obligations according to the law in regards to this issue.

photo by Kamen Minkov

OUR WORK SO FAR

We were officially registered as a foundation for public benefit in Bulgaria in June 2024, and since then we have achieved the following:

OUR NEXT STEPS

We are currently working on a detailed proposal for a municipal mass neutering programme for stray cats that is sufficiently detailed and adequate in scope to ensure the stray cat population in Varna stops growing in 10 years. (Just stops growing, not that there won't be any stray cats in Varna in 10 years.) Once we have prepared this proposal, we will start meeting with each of the 51 municipal councillors of Varna to present the proposal to them and to use our own data, the municipality's data, the results from our vet questionnaire, and all the signatures gathered in our petition to convince them to urgently introduce a municipal mass neutering programme for street cats in Varna. You can receive the most up-to-date information about our work via our Facebook and Instagram pages.