The princess and her four-legged long-tailed furry friends
<i>The Day</i>’s reporter joined volunteers who assisted foreign veterinarians at a capital’s clinic
It is a remarkable event for all Ukrainian animal welfare advocates, as Bulgarian veterinarians have been sterilizing Kyiv’s stray dogs and cats free of charge, seven days a week, using the latest technology, from January 30, and will continue their work, as well as share their experiences with local colleagues, until February 19. These medical professionals have arrived here with the help of Princess Maja von Hohenzollern, whose family had ruled Germany in 1871-1918 (as well as some other realms through history), and director of the European Animal and Nature Welfare Association (ETN) Dieter Ernst. The princess has also personally visited animal shelters and veterinary clinics of Kyiv.
To see how the sterilization campaign is going, The Day’s reporter joined the volunteers from Kyiv who assisted foreign doctors at the clinic in Elektrotekhnichna St.
Animals began arriving in the morning. People brought there mostly cats, but there were several dogs, too. However, the more experienced volunteers told us this was not a typical day, as it is mostly stray dogs that are brought to the clinic usually. The Bulgarians have all the procedures done quick and practised to automaticity: they sedate the animal, put it on the operating table, then make a small incision, remove the reproductive glands, abort fetuses, if necessary, and sew up the wound. The stitches dissolve after a few days. Antibiotics and other necessary medications are administered on the spot. The “K” letter, the special sterilization mark, is tattooed inside the ear. They operate on two animals at a time. One of the doctors explained to me the small incision enabled them to have all the procedures done solely by means of surgical instruments, without touching the wound with one’s fingers, as it had to be done with the old operating methods.
Our volunteer work is auxiliary only: we communicate with the animals’ guardians, call the next patient, carry big animals from the cars they come in and back to the cars, help to hold a cat or a dog while an injection is given, interpret from and into English. Up to 30 animals undergo the surgery in most productive days. Unfortunately, there are 20,000 to 30,000 stray dogs alone in Kyiv, so the sterilization campaign is just a drop in the sea! In this case, however, anything is better than nothing at all, as the government is utterly unable to solve the problem; the most that officials can do is to pretend they are solving it by poisoning several hundred animals in the city center, killing domestic dogs as well and justifying their actions by the need to prepare the city for Euro-2012.
It is a hard, demanding work, physically as well as morally, but I feel elated after a few hours’ work, for I was involved in a good common cause, even if just for a short time. We become responsible for those we have tamed, even if we have discarded them as some garbage and forgotten them later. These four-legged long-tailed furry friends are completely dependent on us, and if we are hardly able to express our kindness through some real actions, and even less able to do it professionally, let foreign visitors teach us. We may still learn from them, who knows?
