Love for our four-footed brethren
The problem of animal protection, both happily owned and feral ones, is urgent. Recently there has been a strike by veterinarian who had been prohibited to use a specific anesthetic, ketamine, during operations. The Day has written about the protests of animal rights organizations, which demand that the Kyiv State Administration properly implement the program of neutering stray animals.
The fate of the private shelter for homeless animals in Pyrohiv hangs in the balance: for several months on end the shelter has been inspected by tax administrators and veterinary services, who are trying to find reasons to close it down. Animal rights advocates believe that the reason for these negative tendencies lies in the inhumanity of Ukrainian society, because we often lack kindness, sympathy and wisdom in our treatment of animals. Can a government in a humane society decide that animals be operated on without anesthetics, because ketamine belongs to the list of psychotropic drugs? Can the ultimate solution for the animal shelter in Pyrohiv be found in putting the animals to sleep?
The data provided by the Horshenin Institute telephone poll (Problems with Stray Animals in Cities) shows that only 30 percent of Ukrainians are ready to adopt a stray. The rest of our fellow citizens are sure they will never do it. Psychologist Olena Lishchynska, Ph.D., researcher at the Institute for Social and Political Psychology, explains this by the immaturity of our society.
“In Europe people tell me that they would rather adopt a street dog, regardless of the breed. It might be a mutt, what matters is its friendliness and emotionality. Our people have too little grounds for self-respect so far, they don’t feel strong and rich enough to share with another. Our fellow citizens usually keep pure-bred, expensive pets; in a word, ‘cool’ ones. Their aim is not to support and help animals. On the contrary, they want to improve their image, establish their status at the cost of pretty pedigree pets.
“We need promotion in order to humanize our treatment of animals. We need opinion leaders and celebrities to start a fashion for adopting homeless animals, like Brigitte Bardot did in France.”
The poll shows that a considerable proportion of respondents (67 percent) believe that feral dogs or cats are a source of danger for city dwellers. Other sociological polls reveal that citizens tend to associate these threats with cases of street dogs attacking people. This may be what puts them off from adopting a stray dog or cat. However, animal protection organizations insist that the number of such incidents has decreased in recent years. Besides, only a quarter of all the complaints have to do with homeless animals, i.e., most of such mishaps are caused by pets.
But are their owners answerable for the damages? No, just like they are not made answerable for throwing their pets into the street. There actually is a law in Ukraine which is supposed to regulate all these issues (“On Protection of Animals against Cruelty”), but it does not provide a single sanction, i.e., in case of violation, the culprit cannot be punished, as the mechanism of punishment is not expounded in the law.
Perhaps if cruel treatment of animals were punishable by law, the situation would be different. The same poll shows that Ukrainians support the idea of making pet owners answerable. Thus, 62 percent of Ukrainians are convinced that a person who throws a pet into the street should be punished with a fine. However, once an animal is in the street, fining the owner will not help it.
The US and many European countries have a time-honored practice of donating to private or state-owned animal shelters. Families go there on weekends and work as volunteers. Meanwhile, in this country, even shelters are scarce and cannot accommodate all the animals.
“In the US, animal shelters are nothing unusual. Most of them are privately run. Animals are kept there before they are adopted by new owners. The situation with state-run shelters is somewhat worse. Plus, the US has its spay/neuter program, which has been in effect for a long time now and works well,” says Olena Makhova, a volunteer at an American animal rights association.
If volunteering at an animal shelter is a norm abroad, in this country only 49 percent of people are prepared to help animal protection organizations, according to the poll. Note that we are not speaking about any concrete measures, but only about a theoretical possibility.
“On the one hand, it is relieving that every third Ukrainian is ready to adopt a homeless animal,” believes Lilia Yemelianenko, a coordinator for the municipal association of mini-shelters “Gnome.” “On the other, for some reason they don’t adopt. It is hard to define the factors which put people off, but the main reason is that many of our fellow citizens are still feeling the crisis. People tend to carefully tailor their budgets, and cannot afford to spend money on street dogs at the moment.
“It seems to me that respondents imply that they are conditionally prepared for adoption — maybe I will some day, but not right now. I run a column in The Day under the heading ‘Take Me Home,’ where I spoke about animals available for adoption. And people do come and get pets through this kind of advertisement. Often, people just call to express support and gratitude, i.e., there is a positive feedback. Our compatriots are ready for sympathy and, on average, they treat animals well. On the other hand, the numbers of animals are huge.
“This problem needs to be solved, and the main accent should be shifted on the spay/neuter program. It must be launched, because it has been promised for a couple of years already, but was never implemented. Meanwhile, the animals neutered by volunteers were later caught by the municipal service.
“A comprehensive program must be launched, which would include sterilization, mini-shelters in each area of the capital, and a powerful propaganda campaign on the state level. At a certain point our volunteers held classes for schoolchildren, where they taught them why we must love animals, what they can feel, how they live, and what is happening to them. Such education is necessary for all, from little kids to adults. We must promote adoption, so that the number of those willing to adopt rises from 30 to 70 percent.”
