Former president proposes an ecological tribunal

We happened to learn that Leonid Kravchuk was planning to visit the pound at Pyrohovo. He visited the editorial office to share information which, in his words, had kept him awake for two nights. Every year 100,000 animals are killed by students at laboratories; some dogs and cats are used eight times as teaching aids on operating tables. The former president believes that Ukraine needs what he calls an ecological tribunal, an all-seeing eye watching for acts of cruelty against animals and then showing the faces of the perpetrators for all Ukraine to see.

The seven-year-old owner of three parakeets and two cats had been sleeping fitfully of late. Every night he had heard a dog yelp and howl in the apartment across the landing, inhabited by what was currently referred to as a problem social element. Every night the boy had asked his father to take the dog away from that awful man and bring it home. He was sure the dog was being tortured. Finally, a deal was made. The man was willing to part with the dog for three bottles of vodka and fifty hryvnias. Now the boy and his parents lived with three parakeets, two cats, and a little dog.

This happened quite recently and what makes this story special is that it has a happy ending. The pound at Pyrohovo remembers days when dozens of cats and dogs were brought in by owners who no longer had any use for them. At best. At worst, it was a pure-bred Great Dane and mongrels found by pound workers out in the street, with broken limbs, and emaciated by a weak of starving and experimenting done by cruel humans. Tamara Tarnavska-Nahailo, President of the international organization Animal SOS Protection Society and a Radio Liberty journalist, recalls that she conceived her pound idea after witnessing an ugly scene in Kyiv.

Two teenagers were meticulously trying to gouge out a kitten’s eyes and when she walked over and asked why, the boys’ father materialized from behind a corner and warned her to leave his kids alone, for else she would be extremely sorry. And it was then and there that a hair-raising story about what the previous Pyrohovo institution was actually up to, having massacred 1.5 million animals since its inception. Aided by international organizations, candid cameras were used to make a documentary on how Kyiv authorities handled the situation with homeless pets. It was played by almost all leading European channels. When it was shown in Ukraine they had to call for an ambulance. Ukrainian embassies received over 2.5 million letters. In the end the Pyrohovo slaughterhouse was shut down and replaced by a pound.

Leonid Kravchuk’s visit there evoked memories. “My Caesar felt very poor after the inoculation; he kept whimpering and even howling. I wanted to help and the best idea seemed to spend the night with him on the ground floor. I sat on the couch and he put his head on my shoulder. We stayed that way until morning.”

Mr. Kravchuk’s philosophy comes down to the assumption that a civilized society cannot live by uncivilized laws. Can one call Ukrainian laws civilized if they allow slaughtering so many animals, even if for research purposes?

The number of animals in all European countries is kept under control with the aid of sterilization. In addition, every country must have an animal protection law. In some countries people found to have treated their pets with cruelty are punished not with fines but with terms in prison (2-7 years in Poland, for example). Biology students have long used computer programs and dummies in lieu of lab animals. Ms. Tarnavska- Nahailo says the situation with animal treatment in Ukraine is more or less normal only at the institutions of higher learning. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in London helped the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv obtain modern biology study technologies. Other higher schools also often request study materials. The rest has remained unchanged for many years. The bill on the prevention of cruelty to animals has been shelved in Verkhovna Rada for almost a year; mass sterilization of animals that has helped solve the problem of stray cats and dogs all over the world remains on paper in Ukraine. Instead, the number of animals slaughtered remains the standard efficiency ratio with the capital’s community facilities, says Tamara Tarnavska-Nahailo, adding, “My question is, Why the number of homeless cats and dogs keeps increasing every year, according to official statistics, as well as the number of animals caught.”

According to the Kyiv Veterinary Department, there are some 200,000 stray cats and dogs. The latter regularly bite about 4,000 people every year and the rabid rate has increased 4.5 times compared to 2003. The department understands that massacring these animals will not solve the problem. It requires a complex approach. A number of efforts are being made to this end. For example, a revised version of the Kyiv city program was adopted at the end of last year, aimed at solving the problem of keeping domesticated and other animals. Among the guidelines is studying the rules and regulations governing urban man-animal coexistence, city-wide anti-epidemic measures, working out and implementing new humane euthanasia methods, exchanging experience with other countries, and propagating humane treatment of animals.

Interestingly, sociologists insist that the problem of cruel treatment of animals should not exist in Ukraine. In fact, 45% of the respondents say they sympathize with them (courtesy of the National Academy’s Institute of Sociology) and have an even greater affinity only for homeless children, solitary disabled persons, and the aged. Tamara Tarnavska- Nahailo, however, relies on her personal experiences, saying that it is no use expecting Ukrainians to aid the pound which is not financed by the municipal budget. When the housing under construction for the cats burned down, only an old disabled woman on pension in a small town in Switzerland responded to their appeal for help. On New Year Eve, the pound received two 12 kg parcels with her hand-woven blankets for the animals. When the Kyivans learned that the Americans had taken 45 inmates from the pound to give food, shelter, and love, 62 animals were brought the very next day by owners who said they could no longer keep for some or other reasons.

Of course, it would be erroneous to say that our people constantly disown their pets. Pets are adopted and live quite well ever after. At the same time, people often come and ask for a dog, so the man living next door would have cause for envy. Mrs. Tarnavska-Nahailo believes that “the problem with Ukrainians is their unwillingness to change anything, as well as not knowing how to go about changing anything.” She says changing this situation for the better does not require heavy investing; 37 hryvnias supplied by the city budget for catching and putting to sleep a single animal would be enough to spay two animals. Besides, no one teaches humane treatment of animals in Ukraine. “My son studied in Norway; their children are constantly surrounded by cats and dogs (after being vaccinated, of course), at the daycare centers and schools. In my son’s class the teacher constantly told them animals are their neighbors on the planet, so they must be treated with affection.”

While in Ukraine, former US Ambassador Carlos Pascual took a dog from the Pyrohovo pound. Charlie at first felt ill at ease at the diplomat’s residence, missing the pound people and his fellow inmates. Shortly afterward, however, the well-fed and groomed hirsute adoptee had nothing about him even remotely resembling the sorry homeless creature he had been. Returning home with Charlie, Mr. Pascual wrote a letter to the SOS president, saying he was leaving with the best of memories and the dedication with which the pound staff were doing their jobs made him see the world in a different light.