The association http://www.RespekTiere.at (from Austria) had a mission in Bulgaria.
The goal was the castration of strays that live in Bulgaria, as well as in other Eastern countries, under catastrophic conditions.
Thomas Putzgruber, the club’s chairman, tells us a story.

“Today we would like to tell you a small but representative story of the normal madness in the Balkan country!
We had found a puppy somewhere in Breznik; the poor one ran alone and apparently disoriented through the streets, unnoticed by the people around.
Too often, such a scene is repeated, the sight is too commonplace, so that no one would only pay attention to such a fate. The puppy could not be caught easily, no, it showed life spirits, and only by a trick finally managed to hold the puppy and bring it into the transport box in the car.

As we started to leave, a man, wrapped in filthy clothes and supported by crutches, came toward us; He indicated that he also had dogs in the garden, which we should also take with him. So we followed him; We saw a house ruin, a concrete concrete building and decaying wood, badly damaged by the elements, and a littered garden strewn with garbage. In one corner of the evil chaos, old bread was laid, infested with mold – apparently the dining place for the dogs. They probably never had anything else.

In the middle of the Inferno – a white puppy in the most terrible condition! His body a skeleton, every single bone was distinguished by the taut, parchmental skin. His steely blue eyes seemed to ask for help, but his gestures did not want to reveal any weakness. What a stubborn courage the little guy possessed! Snarling, gritting his teeth, he scurried away for the moment, pursued by me through a dark corridor covered with broken glass and plastic garbage behind the house;

Attention was required, the sweetness was obviously sick, yet he growled from the bottom of his throat – you should never be bitten in action, in this case, especially not! Rabies is still a topic in Bulgaria, other diseases anyway.
But in the end we were able to hold him by the back of his neck; the puppy now used the last strength, wanted to free himself necessarily; why? we wondered, why did not he just give himself up – it could not be any worse for him anyway, no matter what or where.

Perhaps he just wanted his peace, dying in the hope of letting his soul glide over the bridge somewhere; …

Now the son of the man had come; a boy 10, 12 years old, in the morning away from school, with a cigarette in his hand. He noticed dry, a second puppy would be in the garden, we should also look for that.
But what we found before was a dead pup lying in the grass; disposed of like rubbish, left lying exactly where he had done his last breaths. Ignorance, no one cried for him. A fate among hundreds of thousands …

Then we discovered the wanted; he, too, tried to hide in panic-stricken eyes, to dig into the grass, to disappear behind the bushes, to become invisible in the garbage. However, when he found himself discovered, he also showed his bare teeth, brave as a proud warrior, despite the bottomless inferiority no sign of abandonment. Once more the poor man escaped, but now he was stuck in the proverbial clamp – a rusted iron plate restricted his escape route and therefore he had to approach us directly. For this, however, he already lacked the strength. As thin as his sibling, with a severely injured forepaw;

Had we not been there by chance, the three would have died as they had lived; Left completely alone, the mother probably killed, left behind in a world she does not love. Her life would be extinguished like the snow on the southern slopes at the beginning of spring. Nobody would have noticed their fate, too often the same tragedy happens every day.

It is up to us what we learn from such stories; but it is certain that only castration projects prevent such animal suffering. Only castrations can change the course of events, perhaps eventually overcome the misery.

Dealing with stray animals is a shame of humanity, perhaps the greatest of all.

Let us all help to make up for at least a fraction of what we have done to them!
In this sense: please do not buy dogs from the breeder, at least as long as not, as such tragedies almost directly on our doorstep play. Every adopted dog is a rescued life, every one bred takes his place away from one who would need nothing more than a home. Please think about it!

https://mailchi.mp/respektiere/wenn-hundebabys-wie-mll-behandelt-werden?e=50726aa753

(Translation: Venus, with best regards)