Brussels 11.05.2026 Looking back at my unfortunate, and costly failed dog adoption experience in Bulgaria, I am able of pointing to a major deficiency: the archaic, and nonchalant database, or companion animal registry.
The absence of coordination between the centralized national register for microchipped dogs managed by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) – which is essential for identifying registered pets, – local vet clinics, and Municipalities. It looks like all three entities are existing in parallel universes. (Image below: a chained dog in Knyazhevo, Bulgaria).

Subsequently your rights of a foreign dog owner are not protected at all, actually you are vulnerable, and dependent on subjective circumstances, and good will, or ill will of people dealing with the matter.

In may case it was a ill will to delete my name from the dog owners data base upon false pretenses of Mme.Colova (Цолова) who didn’t pay one single vet bill, who didn’t bring Arik to a vet check or rabies vaccination even once in decade, who kept the dog of her late aunt in squalid conditions, in a rotten crate on dirty rugs (See image below). She was attributed an ownership upon her request, without any proof of fulfillment of the owner’s duties of yearly rabies vaccination. No traces of payment of tax in Municipality.

In place of fining Mme.Colova for the systemic failure to vaccinate the animal (€500 fine in the capital Sofia), the vet of the clinic ФИЗИО decided to attribute her the ownership, in spite of the fact that I was the only person in the Universe who ever opened a purse to pay for the treatment of the poor sick animal, the the bills for the vaccination, and the other costs for general improvement of the sanitary conditions of Arik.
My compassion, and generosity was compensated by stripping me of the ownership, my name was erased, and there was no trace of it in the data base. My three paid bills with my name on them as an OWNER were the only trace.

This unfortunate incident raises a number of questions to the Bulgarian veterinary authorities database:

– Why there is an option to delete an ownership data if it is once registered?
– Why there is no date of the registration of inscription? The latter opens an opportunity for backdating which is prohibited in Bulgaria, and the overwhelming majority of countries in the world.
– Why there is a possibility of backdating* if in general it is illegal ?

*Backdating or antedating is the act of putting an earlier date on a document than the actual date it was written or signed—is generally prohibited or considered fraudulent in most jurisdictions worldwide when done with intent to deceive, gain an unfair advantage, or defraud a third party.

Hence the Bulgarian dog (pet/companion animal) registry is plagued by the serious flawed, which makes it not only unreliable source of information, but also a potential risk for forgery by dishonest claimants, failing their legal dog ownership duties. The programming excluding an option of deleting inscription, and backdating them would significantly improve the situation of the canine population, and upgrade the responsibility of the owners.

The is the also a obvious need to align the vet records with the Municipality database to coordinate. In case of Mme Colova (Цолова) family no one bothered to pay taxes for nine years for a dog which was not sterilized. On January 31, 2025 the mother of Mme Colova (Цолова) has surrenders Arik as a stray to a shelter for free of charge sterilization program. He was released 11 days later. It was the only genuine record in his resume.

Concluding the mentioned above, at present the database of companion animals in Bulgaria is unreliable source of information. The inscription can be easily deleted, manipulated, backdated or even worse – forged like in the case of Mme Colova with her false pretences of ownhership.

INFO on BACKDATING: Backdating/antedating is the act of introducing an earlier date on a document or contract than the actual date it was signed or executed. While sometimes used for legitimate administrative convenience or to make agreements retroactive (e.g., pay increases), it is mostly illegal—constituting fraud or forgery—if done to deceive, manipulate tax obligations, or gain unfair financial advantage.

Backdating documents in Bulgaria to falsely represent a past date is illegal and considered fraud, though retroactive documentation of actual past events is allowed. In the past Mme Colova (Цолова) has 10 years of failed rabies vaccination, and anti-sanitary conditions of poor Arik. And even no one single visit to a vet. If following the law, she should pay the fine of €5000.00 (five thousand euro) for chronically disrespecting the law.

Examples of Backdating: Contracts/Documents: signing a document with dates matching the narrative of the beneficiary. Often with a purpose of a material gain. (See Mme Colova (Цолова) false pretenses of ownership article on this site).

Synonyms: The practice is also called ante-dating /Risks: It can be classified as forgery or “uttering a false document”.

Image below: Arik’s rotten crate, and dirty rugs. These have been his conditions  lsince 2021, or maybe even earlier.