Stray Dogs in Sofia

Man, as the weather keeps getting colder in Sofia, the city’s numerous stray dogs are getting hungrier and more vicious by the day. As I was walking across the tiny park in front of Kristal, which is dead-smack downtown Sofia, couple of dogs came up charging and started barking as if I was ready-to-go dinner. I thought, that’s it, you are headed for the hospital… but they kept distance. One ancient woman came and started yelling at the dogs to back off so I am not sure whether she was the owner or not. Eventually, I ran towards one of the mutts (I could not tell their breed) and they took off running. I am still in one piece, but it was a close call. Sofia’s stray dogs are becoming a real problem. Couple of times I was running in South Park and was chased by a pack of pissed-off dogs that kept distance but nevertheless harassed me for a while. Haven’t been bitten so far, but its probably a matter of time.

On top of the huge number of mutts roaming the streets, many dog owners unleash their pets (including pit bulls and big shepherd dogs) and when they come charging at people the owners just keep repeating “he is a good dog, won’t attack you” or the like. Yeah, I wanna see an old woman trying to hold back some of the monsters I have seen around here. Owners like these should be hit with a fat fine.

It’s not like the government doesn't do anything about it. The local Parliament has recently passed a law to limit stray dogs and cats and has increased the fines, but like everything else, implementation is non-existent, never mind that people have been even killed. So Bulgarian.