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Ukraine
News of the Animal Protection Bill, drafted by Kyiv SPA-SOS
View the text of the bill here.
The Bill has been signed into law!
[6 April 2006] - We are delighted to announce that years of hard work have finally paid off for Ukraine’s animals. President Yushchenko finally signed the Bill on the 14th March 2006 after having returned it with amendments for parliamentary consideration on two occasions. Although the Bill has been substantially watered down, at least Ukraine does now have legislation in place to protect animals – an historical achievement and one for which Naturewatch Foundation can take a large amount of credit. The next stage will be looking at the equally important issue of enforcement of the Bill.
The Bill has passed!
[2 December 2005] - The Animal Welfare Bill has now been fully passed. 249 MPs in the Rada voted Yes while the remainder abstained. One of the issues which prevented the Bill being passed before was an annual fee for pet ownership - this has now been removed.
This is the first animal welafre law ever to be put on the statute books in Ukraine. The draft was created in 2000 by Naturewatch and RSPCA with input from WSPA.
Naturewatch's director, John Ruane, said "This is a fantastic acheivement for Tamara! As always, the task ahead will be actual enforcement of the law - Tamara is looking at this situation."
Great News - Or is it?
[23 November 2005] - On Thursday 8th September the Draft Animal Protection Bill passed its second and final hearing. This was great news as it’s been a long hard haul for the Kyiv Society for the Protection of Animals "SOS" who had been fighting for this since January 2000 (nearly 6 years). However, this happened on the same day that President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved his cabinet, so we were concerned about whether the Bill would suffer in the aftermath of that.
Disappointingly, President Yushchenko has vetoed the Bill and sent it back to the Rada (Ukraine Parliament) on the grounds that it is flawed. Apparently there were several disputed clauses: for instance, civic organisations opposed the proposed limit of 3 mature animals in an apartment.
Second time lucky? We’ll keep you posted.
Update Feb 2005: The Bill is currently in the committee stage and a date is awaited for the second reading. We will provide updates as soon as there is more concrete progress.
Animal Protection Bill passes first reading - September 2004
On 21st September, Ukraine's first Animal Protection Bill, finally passed its first hearing with 242 MPs (300 present) voting in favour. It was drafted by Kyiv SPA-SOS who are sponsored by Naturewatch Foundation. There is no doubt that progress in improving life for Ukraine’s animals has been very slow and a long, hard, uphill battle. You only have to look at Ukraine’s reputation on human rights to see why. Invariably, for every three steps forward two steps backward have soon followed. So when a milestone is finally reached it’s really an achievement worthy of celebration... Working towards the adoption of a long overdue Animal Protection Bill to protect Ukraine’s animals has been top of the SPA-SOS agenda for several years. A Draft Bill was prepared and submitted to MPs and then filed in Parliament where it received positive feedback from the legal committee. |
 Ukrainians of all ages joined in the demonstrations outside the Parliament building in June 2004, demanding the adoption of an Animal Protection Bill.
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However, progress has been very slow due to the unstable political situation in Ukraine. Throughout this time SOS has worked tirelessly organising press conferences, conducting interviews for TV and radio, and even arranged a demonstration outside Parliament when a petition was handed over urging for the Draft Bill to be passed without further delay.
At the end of September 2004, Ukraine's first Animal Protection Bill, drafted by Kyiv SPA-SOS, finally passed its first hearing with 242 MPs voting in favour (58 abstained and none opposed it). Naturewatch Foundation employed a specialist lawyer to amend the Bill to include protection of birds in time for its second reading. Unfortunately, due to the Presidential election fiasco at the end of 2004, there will undoubtedly be a delay before the second reading takes place.
When the law is finally passed it will be an historic achievement not only for animal welfare in Ukraine but also for Kyiv SPA-SOS and its president Tamara Tarnawska who has been lobbying the Ukrainian parliament for the past four years in order to achieve this wonderful goal for the animals. At this point, after cracking open a bottle or two of Ukrainian champagne, the equally important implementation process can begin.
