The animal welfare organization Four Paws is sterilizing 300 homeless animals for free.

The animal welfare organization "Four Paws" sterilized nearly 300 stray animals over three weeks as part of a charity event. The event took place in the city of Vidin, located in northwestern Bulgaria.

A team of experienced veterinarians sterilizes stray animals captured by volunteers, completely free of charge. The project began in mid-March 2015.

This is the second project carried out by the Four Paws Animal Welfare Organization in the Bulgarian city of Vidin in the past six months. During a two-week program held in November 2014, Four Paws veterinarians neutered, vaccinated, dewormed, and provided veterinary care to 198 dogs and cats living on the city's streets.

"To date, more than 300 cats and dogs have been sterilized, vaccinated, and dewormed in Vidin, representing more than 50% of the city's stray animal population," explains Dr. Margarita Chankova, the team's leader.

"While the results are indeed good, castration must continue because we have a large number of animals coming to us from neighboring towns and villages. We hope the Vidin municipality will take action after identifying the root of the problem—namely, the uncontrolled breeding of animals and their abandonment on the streets."

Four Paws, a Bulgaria-based organization and one of the largest animal protection organizations, decided to intervene after the last stray dog ​​count in Vidin, back in October 2014. It revealed a significant increase in the number of stray dogs – from 296 to 495 over the past five years.

Fortunately, in 2008, the Bulgarian parliament banned the mass extermination of stray animals. Instead of following the recommendations of the World Health Organization and a number of experts, including those from the Four Paws animal protection organization, the decision was made to support mass castration as the only effective way to reduce the number of stray animals. Since then, volunteers from the Four Paws organization have been caring for stray animals and working throughout Bulgaria to improve the situation.

In October 2013, Four Paws also opened a clinic for homeless animals in Sofia, which still neuters and treats nearly 4,000 cats and dogs annually. In some areas, such as Sofia, Plovdiv, and Burgas, local authorities have launched a neutering program for stray animals and introduced penalties for people who abandon their dogs, leading to a significant decline in the number of strays.

Catch-neuter-release is the method used by volunteers at Four Paws. It's the only approach to stray animals that allows for population control. This method is considered the most humane by the World Health Organization. Each captured animal is neutered, vaccinated, treated for parasites, and registered. The surgery is performed at a mobile clinic owned by Four Paws. Treated animals are kept for 24 hours after the surgery at a nearby station to ensure everything went well, and are then released back to their original location. Their condition is monitored, and a final medical examination is mandatory before release.

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