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A dog named Raya was sold to new owners in Norway in September, but officials did not register her because she had traveled on a false Bulgarian passport, leaving her facing euthanasia.
Jean Claude Van Damme. Image: Twitter / @ JCVD
SOFIA, Bulgaria – Action film star Jean-Claude Van Damme has come to the rescue of a three-month-old Chihuahua, saving her from euthanasia on Monday after a legal fight between Norway and Bulgaria.
The dog named Raya was sold to new owners in Norway in September, but officials did not register her because she had traveled on a false Bulgarian passport.
Norway tried to repatriate the animal, but Bulgaria refused to accept it due to European Union regulations on the transport of live animals, which left the dog in danger of euthanasia, until the Belgian film legend became involved.
Van Damme launched an emotional campaign on social media, posting selfies of him hugging his Chihuahua, ultimately persuading the Bulgarian Food Safety Authority to accept the dog.
“I beg, on my birthday, the Food Safety Authority change their decision,” Van Damme wrote over the weekend, launching a petition to save the dog.
“They were wrong, the people who didn’t play the part well … But they can’t kill that Chihuahua.”
Please sign this @Change request and help me save a puppy https://t.co/yTxPuXzk3X
– Jean-Claude Van Damme (@JCVD) October 17, 2020
The food safety authority says Raya will undergo medical checks when she returns to Bulgaria and will be put up for adoption.
Yavor Gechev of the animal rights organization Four Paws told AFP on Monday that Bulgaria should be congratulated for showing flexibility, but called for stricter control over illegal breeders and traffickers.
“Exporting pets from East to West and North Europe is a lucrative business,” he said.
The dog’s fake passport meant she would have been left on October 20 under Norwegian law, Gechev said.
Raya’s misadventures resemble the story of the cow Penka, who also faced a death sentence after wandering along Bulgaria’s border with Serbia in May 2018.
Penka was saved thanks to an international campaign in his defense along with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.
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