Ukraine

 News Archive: Spring 2004

Despite the unfavourable political situation in the Ukraine, SPA-SOS actively continues to campaign within Parliament, the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet of Ministers for the adoption of the Ukraine’s ground-breaking first Animal Protection Bill.

With the political situation the way it is in the Ukraine, the proposed Animal Protection Bill has become somewhat overlooked within the precincts of the Ukrainian Parliament while MPs fight to gain parliamentary seats in order to exert their influence in politics and the economy of the country. To ensure this issue remains in the public eye, SPA-SOS President Tamara Tarnawska organises regular television and radio interviews, and hosts press conferences with the participation of supportive MPs. Tamara also continues to lobby MPs to increase parliamentary support for the Bill by regularly inviting them to visit the SOS shelter in order to help them understand the problems associated with caring for Kyiv’s stray animals.

Unfortunately, because the question of Ukraine entering the EU is not yet on the agenda and is not planned for consideration before 2010, this cannot be used as leverage to apply pressure on the MPs. This means that Tamara and her colleagues are totally reliant on their promises to consider and adopt the Bill as soon as possible, which in turn makes continuous lobbying even more important in order to increase their support.

A VIP visitor

In January, the ex-President of the Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, visited the shelter, together with journalists from one of the country’s leading newspapers. Mr Kravchuk spent quite a long time at the shelter, meeting all the animals in their care and speaking with shelter employees. He also showed great interest in the activities of the city-run ‘Animals in the City’ organisation and promised to become involved with ensuring that the organisation’s reforms are completed as soon as possible.

During his visit to the shelter, Mr Kravchuk suggested that it would be a good idea to wait and see what progress is made with the Animal Protection Bill during the next couple of months and then, if nothing significant has happened, to organise a demonstration outside the Verkhovna Rada (parliament buildings) to remind the MPs of their promises. Tamara has agreed that this would be a sensible way forward.
 

In February the SOS office and shelter were also visited by representatives of several cities in the Ukraine to discuss the work of the society and the necessary procedures for registering an animal protection society. The city official from Zhytomyr invited SOS President Tamara to visit their city in April and to speak on the local television.

New homes and a new cattery

Tamara is delighted to confirm that the SOS shelter in Pyrohove has already commenced preparations to transport a further 56 dogs to Germany for rehoming in April. The first shipment last year, organised in conjunction with the German animal welfare group ETN, was so successful that we expect this arrangement to be ongoing and take place about three times each year.

There has been good news for the SOS cats as well, following the fire at the cattery last September. Finally, the construction of the new cattery at the SOS shelter has begun, thanks to the funds raised by Naturewatch Foundation as a result of its online celebrity memorabilia auction to celebrate World Animal Day last October.

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