The Regional Inspectorate of Haskovo and the Chetiri Lapi (Four Paws) Foundation collaborated in the confiscation and relocation of a Bulgarian Brown Bear from the Haskovo zoo to the zoo in Pavlikeni, a Four Paws press release announced on September 4.

The drastic and unprecedented measure was deemed imperative after the bear's living conditions in the Haskovo zoo were considered "abysmal", while the Regional Inspectorate of Environment permanently closed the bear's cage.

"We've been monitoring the condition of the bear since the beginning of the year. He was in a terrible state, his health was very poor," said Dimitar Ivanov, director of the Dancing Bears Park in Belitsa.

"Since then we've been lobbying for his removal and relocation to a better facility. We'd send medication to Vasko (the bear's name) and his condition has improved marginally since," he said in the statement.

Vasko was sedated by his mentor and namesake Vassil Madolev and loaded on top of a specialised Four Paws ambulance, and ferried from Haskovo to the zoo in Pavlikeni. His current quarters are three times larger, and he has access to fresh running water. In Haskovo, the bear lived in a filthy cage of less than 20 sq m, equipped with a pond of squalid water. Other such large mammals including lions are accommodated in even smaller cages in the Haskovo zoo, according to the report.

"I have no idea how a zoo like that can even be permitted to exist. It is filthy, smelly, and people visiting it are actually exposed to health risks, not to mention the suffering of the animals," said Ivanov.

The controversial zoo in Haskovo is linked to other alleged incdents. An older bear died in the zoo at the turn of 2009, with the bear's carcass left to decompose in its cage for more than a week while visitors toured the zoo. The municipality of Haskovo at the time systematically denied that this ever happened in spite of numerous reports.

In April 2009, animal activists discovered the carcasses of more than 40 stray dogs in the zoo's waste containers. Eventually it transpired that the dogs were culled by the zoo's director, Dr Staikov. Meanwhile, Four Paws insist that they discovered yet another "slaughter house" in June 2009, where dogs were being butchered before visitors.

Four Paws in an international organisation with headquarters in Vienna and offices in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.