Watch our documentary! about the street cat crisis in Varna!

 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. Decide which councillors you'd like to contact and copy their email addresses:

  • Open our list of Varna councillors.
  • (Optional) Click on the name of any councillor you are interested in contacting to read more about them.
  • Copy the email address of each councillor you want to contact and follow the next step to send an email. We recommend sending 1 email per councillor rather than a group email - it's more polite, and you will be able to keep track of replies more easily.

varnacouncil.bg is the source of information on Varna Councillors.

2. 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.

3. OR you can use the following template for your email:

Dear [NAME OF COUNCILLOR]

Varna Municipality is not doing enough to control the population of street cats, and as you are one of my political representatives, I am contacting you to urge you to support a budget for a MASS neutering programme for street cats.

There are more than 23 000 street cats in Varna, and this number will continue rising exponentially without serious political intervention. This year, the municipality neutered 1090 street cats. This is a good start, but it is nowhere near enough to stop the population from growing any further. According to LeoLife Bulgaria, the municipality must neuter a minimum of 2500 street cats per. This will enable the population to stop increasing after 10 years of work.

As the street cat population is still growing, a municipal mass neutering programme is required by Bulgarian law. According to article 56 and article 40a paragraph (1) of the Animal Protection Act, the municipality must “manage and reduce” the population of street cats through “mass neutering”. This is not happening, and I sincerely hope that you will help approve a budget to make it happen at least next year.

To have a city that is overflowing with sick and dead cats is not in the interest of either locals or tourists, and it is really time for Varna Municipality to meet its legal obligations and do something substantial about it.

Kind regards,
[YOUR NAME]