Help us tell the councillors that we want a 

 MASS NEUTERING PROGRAMME 

 for street cats in Varna. 

We need to apply MANY different kinds of pressure on the municipal councillors to get them to pay attention to the street cat crisis and support a municipal mass neutering programme for street cats in Varna. One very important way is to send them emails to tell them to act! Here is how you do it:

photo by Kamen Minkov

1. Find the names of the councillors from the party you normally vote for:

• Open the "Регистър на групите" page on the Varna Council website
• Open the top file displayed (that should be the most recent version)
• Find the party (or parties) you normally vote for, and decide on one or several councillors to contact

2. Find the email addresses of the councillors you have decided to contact:

• Open the "Общински съветници" page on the Varna Council website
• Click on the profile of the councillors your want to contact, and copy-paste their email addresses

3. Write and send a short email - you can include some of the following points:

The population of street cats in Varna has increased from 2,008 cats in 2016 to 23,053 cats in 2024 according to the municipality’s own census. This is a 10-fold increase in 8 years.

Article 56(1) of the Animals Protection Law states that in cases of “increased population of stray cats, articles 40-47, 51, 52 and 54 apply”. Article 40a(1.2) 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.” It is thus clear that article 56 of the Animal Protection Law applies, meaning that Varna Municipality is legally bound to launch a mass castration programme of street cats within its territory.

The vets within Varna Municipality also believe that it is necessary and possible to execute a mass neutering programme for street cats. In March-May 2025, LeoLife Bulgaria carried out a large-scale survey of vets in Varna, and of the 24 vets that accepted the questionnaire, every single one declared that they support a municipal mass neutering campaign for street cats.

We humans have a responsibility for these animals: cats are NOT wild like seagulls, and the only reason for their extremely concentrated presence in the city is human negligence.

Burgas has had a municipal neutering programme for more than 12 years.

Cats breed extremely quickly: calculations made by LeoLife Bulgaria show that a single female cat on the street will have 112 offspring in just the span of 3 years (and this is with only 2 surviving kittens per litter). This extremely rapid breeding leads to an exponential growth in cats on the street.