Thanks to many reports we received in these days, we are aware disturbing videos and images showing scenes of violence against animals are circulating on internet. The suspect, a Bulgarian woman, was arrested on charges of money laundering, criminal conspiracy, and cruelty towards animals.
What the girl is accused of is unbelievable. You can watch scenes of animals tortured and killed, mutilated and abused for hours, subjected to unimaginable pain for profit. It is thought that it’a about fetishistic practice known as “crush fetish,” where individuals derive sexual pleasure from witnessing the crushing of living beings. These acts were filmed and distributed on a fee on platforms like Telegram.
In one instance, the perpetrators, woman with another guy, rented a space in Sofia, where they filmed themselves committing these acts. The footage reveals them forcing animals into distressing positions, including tying cats to leashes and running them over with vehicles.
The explicit nature of these viral animal cruelty videos has caused immense indignation among animal welfare communities and the general public. For this reason in Bulgaria there are protests since the last Friday in every city and, perhaps there will be many more.
OIPA in the face of this horror could not remain silent. Yesterday we sent the Bulgarian Minister of Justice Mr. Georgi Georgiev a letter calling for greater protections for animals and increased penalties for those guilty of mistreatment. Below, the text of our email.
Dear Minister of Justice of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Georgiev
Milan, 20th March 2025,
Minister of Justice of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Georgiev,
We would like to express our concern about the case involving Gabriela Sashova e Krasimir Georgiev (Габриела Сашова и Красимир Георгиев). We are aware Mrs. Sashova was arrested on charges of money laundering, criminal conspiracy, and cruelty towards animals. It is claimed that this couple tortured innocent victims for years and recorded the scenes to then sell them on the internet.
Our Organization, active internationally with longstanding experience in the field, wants to highlight how cruelty towards animals is indicative of social danger. For this reason, many countries have intervened on a legal level, by introducing new crimes against animals or by increasing sentences.
As Bulgarian citizens have communicated to our Organization there is the need for Bulgaria to support this fight to legally defend animals in response to increasing cultural awareness for this issue.
Finally, we would like to remind you that Bulgaria subscribed to the European Convention for pets’ rights therefore showing interest in animals’ wellbeing.
We look forward to seeing a fast legal response in terms of punishment and prevention.
We offer our support for any additional activities and initiatives your country will undertake.
Best regards.
