The municipal veterinary clinic in Vrabnitsa, Sofia (Bulgaria) is a government-funded veterinary establishment supposed to help homeless animals by providing neutering and necessary treatments to dogs in need and then returning them to the location they were captured in.

The reality, however, is very different.

The “clinic” is a place where animals suffer in unspeakable conditions (sometimes for months) and die in squalor without any semblance or pretense of help.

Their basic physiological and psychological needs - need for safety, sanitary conditions, shelter and appropriate bedding, appropriate places for toileting, movement and physical exercise, treatment and medical care, proper nutrition - are neglected to a shocking extent!

The clinic fails to meet basic requirements for a medical establishment, lacks basic equipment and is severely understaffed.

The hygienic conditions are simply appalling. Dogs lie in their own fecals, urine, sometimes blood. The sanitary conditions would be appalling for any institution, but are particularly shocking for a medical establishment.

The animals - even those who just underwent surgery - are kept in small, cold, wet and dirty cages or enclosures (often in outdoor cages, even in weather conditions), without heating or controlled temperature, even in severe winter conditions, no care or supervision. They defecate inside their cages, often inside their empty water and food bowls.

Low quality kibble is distributed with no attention to whether any given animal is even able to reach it or consume it, leaving aside any consideration for their nutritional needs.

Sick animals are left without any supervision on weekends, nights and, a lot of the time, during weekdays, as the clinic is severely understaffed.

The establishment lacks basic diagnostic tools (such as an x-ray for example), which leads to undiagnosed and untreated dogs suffering in cages without any hope of treatment.

The establishment collects and keeps not only dogs in need of medical attention, but also dogs reported by citizens as “aggressive”. Such reports, not verified at any stage and more often than not simply false, lead to dogs staying in the “clinic” for months, in extreme cases years.

A number of dogs, supposedly staying at the clinic, are missing from the premises and the staff cannot account for what happened with these dogs or provide any kind of documentation.

It is shocking that this establishment has functioned in this manner for years, inside a capital city of EU member - Bulgaria, and continues to do so, in violation of any standards and legal regulations!