Lithuania 

LiSPA Annual Review October 2008

To mark World Animal Day each year, LiSPA releases its Annual Review of activities. Some organisations publish their annual reviews soon after December 31st, others at the end of fiscal or academic years, but here at LiSPA we see World Animal Day as the end of one year’s accomplishments. This is when we acknowledge and commend those that made positive achievements in animal welfare, and announce new action plans to put in place for the coming year. We certainly use World Animal Day's increased media focus to point out specific areas that need more attention in curbing animal cruelties. (Image above: owl rehabilitated and then released by LiSPA.)

Thanks to Naturewatch Foundation supporters, we see LiSPA’s ‘birthday’ as 04 October. With Naturewatch Foundation funding and permission of the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy, we opened LiSPA’s Central Office seven years ago on this date with a great deal of fanfare. The date was known as Compassion Day and even the President of Lithuania’s German Shepherd puppy participated at the grand opening. We all have very fond memories of this ‘birthday’. That was seven years ago - we felt growing pains then and we still feel them today due to the fact that we still have so much to do to in improving the quality of life for animals.

Over the past year, Naturewatch Foundation and LiSPA provided direct rescue and veterinary care to over 900 individual wild animals. Until now there was no other organisation that was able to provide wildlife rescue and rehabilitation services in Lithuania. LiSPA is pleased that the Ministry has now decided to take on this important role and fully finance this service, allowing us more time to deal with other issues. With the ever increasing number of injured animals requiring attention, our small premises could no longer cope.

We certainly enjoyed rescuing and rehabilitating the orphaned, injured, sick, lost, or otherwise ill-fated wild animals, in turn educating the general public in this regard. We’ve transplanted feathers from museum specimens to live birds so that they can take to the skies sooner, we’ve transported a lost pelican to Greece so that he can be free with his own kind instead of being displayed in a zoo (image right), successfully released orphaned deer into the wild (image below), rescued beavers trapped in sewers, swans frozen to ice-covered lakes (image above) and over-wintered storks that for various reasons couldn’t endure the autumn migration to Africa.

In respect to other types of animals, we now have dog and cat shelters in every major city, our National Zoo is continuously improving conditions for its animals, the State Veterinary Service Animal Welfare Inspectors safeguard livestock and farmed animals and LiSPA is a member of the Laboratory Animal Use and Ethics Committee.

Although it may sound as if all types of animals in Lithuania have their guardians and all is good, it is not.

Hunters continue to trespass on private property to pursue their ‘sport’; animals are exploited on television game shows and adverts; live transport, although much improved isn’t fully resolved as sometimes lorries leave Lithuania without documented and approved route plans; forest timber is being harvested during Spring, the peak reproductive period for nesting birds and other wildlife and; travelling circuses also bring their share of problems. Not forgetting newlyweds who enjoy releasing white pigeons during their wedding ceremony, releasing the wrong kind (fancy ones, not homers) which find themselves lost and without food or shelter - the list goes on .....

There is good news as well. New local specialised animal protection groups are beginning to sprout up throughout Lithuania. We now have a horse protection society which brings attention to these working animals. Another group recently received local government approval to successfully introduce a trap-neuter-release programme for cats. This project is currently being monitored and hopefully will become a humane solution for Lithuania’s homeless urban cats. A new website provides information and photos of homeless pets from various animal shelters throughout the country, and animal rights activists are also seen more frequently on our streets. LiSPA has, and will continue to provide assistance to all new groups as their intentions are very commendable and sincere. We have every ambition to maintain good relations with them.

This past year, our LiSPA staff of four have written many articles and provided interviews to various journals, TV, radio, print media. We have responded to countless local and national issues, lobbied local and national MEP officials. One of our Board Members, Henrikas Vaitekunas (pictured left) is a famous Lithuanian TV presenter hosting shows such as ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?” and regularly brings light to animal welfare issues. He is currently making a political debut and is running for an MP seat this October. We certainly wish him the very best and are keeping our fingers crossed that LiSPA will soon have a dignified voice in national politics.

We are also very pleased to announce that a new two-year Animal Caretaker educational programme has been approved by our Ministry of Education. This is open to high school graduates wishing to begin a career dealing with animals ‘hands on’. Once they receive their diploma, they can work in animal shelters, zoos, veterinary practices, pet shops, humane societies, etc. We welcome the decision of the Ministry to acknowledge that such a qualification is necessary, addressing animals and their welfare needs.

On World Animal Day, events took place throughout the country. Every animal shelter hosted an open day; the State Food and Veterinary Service announced the recipients of their St Francis medal; stalls were set up in shopping malls inviting the public to support animal protection organisations; a livestock show was held to exhibit rare Lithuanian breeds and the National Zoo held festivities.

LiSPA announced its primary activity for the upcoming year – a review of all municipal animal care and control ordinances with the intention of consolidating them on a national level. This is due to virtually every municipality in the country having different ordinances making compliance prove difficult. For example: some municipal ordinances require that sheltered strays (dogs/cats) must be held for as little as 3 days, others require 3 weeks. Also a mandatory dog registration programme is being drafted to coincide with mandatory rabies vaccination.

This action plan will not defray us from other efforts including humane education and legislation, nor will it influence our attention away from livestock, poultry, farmed fish, captive exotics, circuses, laboratory animals and wildlife.

We sincerely appreciate the assistance that we have received from Naturewatch Foundation and its supporters, and we will continue our efforts in improving welfare standards for all animals in Lithuania.

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