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UkraineNovember 2007 - Breaking News: Mercy Without Borders |
Kyiv pushes forward humane stray animal programme - finally!On 27th November, Interfax Ukraine hosted a press conference on a joint project between Kyiv City State Administration and its animal welfare partners. Deputy Mayor of Kyiv, Irena Kilchytska, announced a £2.3 million budget to fund a four year programme to humanely tackle the city of Kyiv's stray animal population.
This is a culmination of twelve months discussions when Naturewatch UK was invited to become special advisors to Kyiv City. Tamara Tarnawska is the Naturewatch representative in Kyiv and President of the Kyiv Society for the Protection of Animals. For over ten years Tamara has campaigned relentlessly to stop the barbaric cruelty to stray dogs and cats in Kyiv. Mr Olmelchenko was the Mayor of Kyiv throughout this period and he steadfastly refused to address the plight of the tens of thousands of animals who suffered unbelievable cruelty at the hands of the city controlled department of animal collection - despite overwhelming international condemnation from animal welfare societies. Finally in 2006 new elections saw the defeat of Olmelchenko and a new mayor was appointed. Tamara presented a proposal to introduce a humane stray animal solution. We advocated a “neuter and release” programme whereby the animals would be collected and brought to a modern veterinary clinic where they would receive all the required vaccinations, be neutered and released back into the original location after spending ten days at the recovery kennels. In this way the animals would continue to live out their lives as community pets overseen by teams of local volunteers, safe in the knowledge they would not add to the stray population and without fear of cruelty. In early 2007 agreement was reached with City Hall to establish clinics in all the districts of Kyiv with the first clinic opening in October 2007. The city administration requested that we provide specialist western European veterinarians to attend in Kyiv to assist with training the local vets in best practice. Naturewatch funded the visit of the first team of vets who have arrived for two weeks to conduct the initial training programme. The vets arrived from the UK on 24th November and immediately commenced work. In early 2008 a follow-up team will arrive to continue and develop the training programme and the visit will again be funded by Naturewatch.
It was naturally important we only selected a first class and highly experienced team and here you can see some images of the team at work at the first clinic in Kyiv. Dr Annie Cook graduated from the University of Sydney in 2000 and worked in mixed animal practice in Australia before moving to the UK in 2002. She worked in small animal practice in Manchester and London and in 2005 completed a Masters in Wild Animal Health at the Royal Veterinary College. Since 2005 Annie has worked in emergency practice. In November 2007 she joined the Worldwide Veterinary Service as Director of Veterinary Operations where she coordinates the Marchig Trust/WVS Veterinary Support Teams. Dr Celia Cox graduated from the Royal Veterinary College London in 1981. She spent one year doing a large animal internship at Cornell University, USA, followed by 3 years in mixed practice in the UK. Between 1985 and 1988 she studied at Bristol University and received a Certificate in Radiology and a Diploma in Ear, nose and throat surgery. In 1988 Celia established 'ENT Referrals', a referral service devoted to dogs and cats with disorders of the ear, nose and throat. In 1993 she set up 'The Hearing Assessment Clinic' for canine and feline hearing analysis. Dr Dudley Watson graduated from the Royal Veterinary College London in 1978. He worked for five years in mixed practice in the UK and then spent 2 years working in Australia where he lectured at Murdoch University, Perth, in small animal surgery. For the past 21 years he has been the principal of a 4-vet practice in Chelmsford, Essex. A return visit in January 2008 with a further team will continue the training work. This is a tremendous success and we are delighted that, by never giving up on the animals, we can achieve victory and that is our goal: we will always be with the animals and we will fight against cruelty wherever we find it. It is widley recognised that Ukraine is the most difficult country in Europe to work in with respect to animal welfare and it has taken over ten years of hard lobbying and campaigning to achieve a humane solution to deal humanely with the stray animal population in Kyiv. Now, with the introduction of a sensible humane stray control programme, we look forward to a steady reduction of stray animals in the city of Kyiv. During 2008 further clinics will be opened and we will continue to support both training and assistance with aid materials to ensure that all the stray animals will have a chance to live in peace, safe in the knowledge that they are both free from disease and free from cruelty. Tamara has pioneered this new start for the animals and we are sure you will agree that it's a most worthwhile and important new beginning. In due course, we expect other cities in Ukraine to follow the lead of the capital city and adopt the same approach to stray control. We have also been invited to assist in the planning of the new clinics and, in early 2008, we will be flying over experts in kennel and clinic design, and assisting with the procurement of equipment. Pravda News Agency Article dated 27th November HERE (Ukrainian language) Summary of Pravda Aricle
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