An interview with Marina Surkova, lawyer for animals
The first 13 cities
In October 2018, we started our project training the police across Ukraine about the importance of taking Ukrainian animal welfare seriously and investigating reports of animal cruelty professionally. Until the start of the war in 2022, we trained in 13 cities from Kharkiv in the east, to Chernivtsi and Lutsk in the west. We had also reached animal groups, law students in three universities, and several municipalities. Our last training of this kind took place the week before the war started.
The message of our training programme was that, when animal cases were taken seriously, animals and people were safer.
One of the patrol police officers recently told us about animals in Ukraine, “It is critical to investigate animal cruelty crimes correctly from the outset in order to be able to prevent other crimes.”
We were being heard, and many of the images shown across international media of the war highlighted how police officers across Ukraine understand how animals are an integral part of their communities. One iconic image was of a patrol police officer carrying a child’s bag and the family dog across the recently bombed Irpin bridge, where we trained in 2019.
Continuing our training has been challenging but, because we also worked with Ukrainian lawyers during our time there, some have carried on our mission.
The project continues
Marina Surkova is one such lawyer. We asked her how she continues, despite the constant fear of shelling, loss of electricity, huge levels of stress and, of course, many other commitments of the police.
This is the English translation of our conversation.
Please tell us about your seminars for the police. How difficult is it to conduct such work when the country is at war?
The difficulty is that, firstly, these are online trainings. It is always more difficult than offline, when you can see people’s faces, hold their attention and get feedback. Secondly, the trainings did not include police officers from regions whose territories are partially temporarily occupied, such as Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson regions. Also, during the training, an air alarm may begin, after which we are forced to interrupt the training and go to the shelter, and, most often, to postpone the training to the next day.
How important is it that the police recognise those who commit animal cruelty are also capable of committing other violence in society?
It is very important, because the direct link has been confirmed by numerous studies of psychiatrists and criminologists, both in Ukraine and abroad, in particular, by specialists of the FBI and Scotland Yard. People who abuse animals are statistically more likely to commit sexual abuse and murder. And, more often than not, the methods of murder coincide. Also, violence against an animal in the family can indicate domestic violence. Therefore, it is extremely important to pay attention to cases of cruelty to animals and bring to justice those guilty of it, because impunity will give rise to new violent crimes.
Does this understanding help them take animal cruelty more seriously?
Yes, of course. And this is the main motivation for many. Because not everyone is able to sympathise with animals and understand that they are living beings and feel the same pain and fear as humans.
In your opinion, has the Naturewatch Foundation police training helped? And what more could we do?
Yes, of course. It was useful for the Ukrainian police to hear about the effective experience of their British colleagues in the field of protecting animals from cruelty. Plus, learning the regulations of Ukrainian legislation is also important because changes are made from time to time that not all police officers know and take into account. Learning and sharing experiences are always useful.
If you have any other thoughts that you would like to share, we will be glad to hear them.
I would like to advance the issue of creating the Animal Police (ZooPolice), and if you cooperated with AZOU in this matter and supported our initiative – it would be great!
Watch Marina Surkova’s presentation at our international conference in 2022.
The next steps
Collaboration is critical for the animals, and we will continue to do that. We will continue to provide material to lawyers, police and animal groups. We will listen to what they think is the best way forward. Our meeting on 15th February 2022 was about the ‘ZooPolice’ concept and we had hopes it would begin soon. The war intervened, but we have been helping the animals of Ukraine for 29 years now. Maybe the 30th year will be the one that we see this breakthrough.
We will continue to advance Ukrainian animal welfare.
