Comment by Emilia Milcheva:
"The puma" in the Shumen Plateau turned out to be as elusive as Pepi the Euro. The appearance of the wild cat blocked access to the nature park, and social networks exploded with memes, collages and statuses of the predator, for which it is not even determined which subfamily it belongs to. It could be a jaguar, it could be a leopard, and if someone had met it, they would have known immediately - because they roar, unlike the puma.
Of course, no one has brought down the wild animal with a plane. Although planes in Bulgaria can land undisturbed - as happened in 2022. with a small two-seater aircraft, violated the airspace of at least 7 countries and landed at the abandoned Buhovtsi airport near Targovishte. He did not swim across the Danube or the Black Sea. He crossed the borders - like that unfortunate crocodile, bred in a plastic pool near a panel house in the capital's Botunec district. He entered secretly - like "brother Galev" (Angel Hristov-Gele) in 2023, who died in his home in the Dupnitsa village of Resilovo. None of these cases reached the bottom - because the "bottom" of the institutions allowed them and it covered them up.
This story is far from the usual summer news of the "Glarus stole a holidaymaker's doner" type. In this Bulgarian plot, the puma, which appears to be a leopard, is the victim - and will eventually be killed, and the real culprits will be freed from responsibility.
Whose predator is it?
The most important question is who is the owner of the animal - the person who arranged, paid for and illegally brought the predator into Bulgaria. "We are actively continuing to build the profile of the possible owner of the animal, at the moment there is no data that can be reported", said Georgi Gendov, the director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Shumen, at a press conference. The police chief was awarded in July last year. by the Minister of Internal Affairs Kalin Stoyanov with a First Degree Honorary Badge - "for high professional results, initiative and professionalism".
In addition to the results of the police chief, now is the time to prove the meaning of the existence of the "Crimes against the Environment and Wildlife" sector, created two years ago in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Who can afford to import such a rare specimen, a predator at that, to look after and feed it, since leopards need 2 to 5 kg of meat per day? In the Shumen region, the people who can afford it are counted on the fingers. The "profile" should include businessmen with incomes of millions of leva per year and with private estates. If the animal was kept in a cage next to a house, it would have become known by now. The animal must have been examined by a veterinarian. So if the police in Shumen cannot identify the owner of the predator and are still making a "profile" (!), then most likely the owner is from the category of untouchables in Bulgaria.
Are they silent, they are silent
On the topic of the wild animal released into the wild, the leader of the DPS-New Beginning, Delyan Peevski, usually hyperactive on various "people" issues, is silent. And his party is the first force in the Shumen region after the elections in October 2024.
Ravnis also blames the prosecutor's office for its silence, instead of taking action itself. It could do so under the Biological Diversity Act - for illegal import of protected and exotic animals, or under the Criminal Code - for trading in specimens of a protected species or for their illegal keeping. And according to Art. 21 of the Animal Protection Act prohibits "importing, acquiring, selling, owning and breeding specimens of primates and wild cats, with the exception of zoos and rescue centers". The Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water - Shumen has not registered any animals of the "Wild Cats" order, they announced. In fact, there is no way to do it, since, as is evident from the law, it is prohibited.
Hunters and employees of the nature park continue to search for the predator, but there are no results - no fresh tracks were found that night. But, according to the director of the "Central Balkan" national park; Georgi Krastev, this does not mean that the animal is not in the area. The park's territory extends to nearly 40,000 acres, and the wild cat is cautious, hunts at night and, as it turned out, has been at large for at least two months.
Jokes about a black puma have flooded social networks - from artificial intelligence-generated images of the animal saying "Tu-tu!" (by analogy with Boykoboris's story about God and the Resurrection), to its appearance next to Peevski (in the spirit of the traditional photos announcing another mayor joining the “New Beginning"). But the puma cannot be bribed or threatened with blackmail. Unlike Pepi the Euro - the merchant of justice who escapes Bulgarian justice, the rare predator will be caught. And will be eliminated. Without even being questioned.