‘Prisoners killed each other’s kittens. So now they’re forbidden inside’: Vladimir Karamazov’s best photograph

What happened

According to The Guardian’s linked report, ‘Prisoners killed each other’s kittens. So now they’re forbidden inside’: Vladimir Karamazov’s best photograph, ‘The men in this jail in Bulgaria used to adopt these stray kittens. But pets can be a problem. They get killed as punishment or for revenge’ Belene prison, in northern Bulgaria on the border with Romania, is the most heavily guarded facility of its type in my country. It is on an island, so escape is near impossible, and has the largest number of people serving life sentences for murder in any Bulgarian prison. This image describes a sad, terrible story. There are a lot of stray cats on the island, as well as pigeons and mosquitoes. The prisoners used to adopt stray kittens and keep them as pets. When I started my project, For the Grace of God, at the prison, many prisoners had pet cats. But in a prison, this can become a problem – prisoners kill each other’s pets as punishment or for revenge. So now it’s forbidden. It’s even the same with flowers – some think of the flowers as friends,

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Culture coverage for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked report is dated 2026-08-05T13:21:51+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: ‘Prisoners killed each other’s kittens. So now they’re forbidden inside’: Vladimir Karamazov’s best photograph via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.