Who will save animals?

Animals from a traveling zoo have been living without water, in open iron caves out in the cold. The poor creatures include a polar bear, a lion, a camel, lamas, monkeys, and exotic birds.

The owner left it just like that in the suburbs of Severodonetsk in Luhansk oblast about a month ago. Why? One of the versions put forward by the local animal protectors is the financial hardships of the owner. Today there are only two guards who are watching the animals. There is no any other staff. The local people, students, and volunteers of ecological organizations bring some food so that animals won’t starve to death. They started to raise the alarm and asked the mass media for help, because the animals can simply die if nothing is done now.

“We sent an address to the National Ecological Center so that they could help sort out the situation. We asked the local people to sign the petition but they refused because of fear,” said Serhii Kulpinsky, representative of the Severodonetsk-based Civic Animal Protection Association “Pes i Kit.”

“The Severodonetsk traveling zoo, like most zoos of the kind that travel around Ukraine from town to town, was created to gain profit. From what we know it has been in the Luhansk region since summer. However, in the past the situation got complicated, because the owner simply disappeared, and the ­ani­mals have to face all the difficulties on their own. Today they are in a sad situation: the lion cannot rise to its feet, its tail and nose are frostbitten, and the camel’s hoofs are bleeding, because the animals have been out in the frost for so long now.”

It is hard to grasp how one could leave animals out in the street in the middle of winter, in severe frosts. Fortunately, there are people who are not indifferent to animals’ lives. The local volunteers have addressed national zoos and government bodies in order to save the poor animals. The first one to respond was the Yalta Zoo. Its ma­na­gers sent food for the animals and even agreed to take them to their zoo. But in order to do this, they have to receive the owner’s approval. However, nobody knows where he can be found. Does he know that the traveling zoos in Ukraine are forbidden, according to the law “On the Protection of Animals against Cruel Treatment”? Judging by the present situation, only animal protectors know about this law.

“Most of the traveling zoos were created in the early 1990s before the law on animal protection was passed in 2007,” added Kulpinsky. “Nobody follows the legal regulations. We sent a request to law enforcement bo­dies to open a criminal case based on the fact of the cruel treatment of animals. Until now there has been no reaction. The saddest thing in this situation is that even if they find the owner of the zoo, the greatest punishment for him is a fine. But it will never compensate for the harm done to the animals.”