Our work in Eastern Europe
By educating the next generation of pet carers, we’re ensuring the sustainability of our programme to reduce stray animal populations in Ukraine for the long-term.
As well as rescuing and treating abandoned animals, we need to address the root of the problem through education.
By educating the next generation of pet carers, we’re ensuring the sustainability of our programme to reduce stray animal populations in Ukraine for the long-term.
Along with our representatives in Ukraine, we’ve developed and launched a nationwide education programme that teaches young people to respect animals as sentient beings and care for their pets responsibly.
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Positive feedback
So far, we’ve conducted teacher training seminars and workshops in Kyiv, Lviv, Lutsk, Brody, Melitopol and Mykolaiv. We’ve had great feedback and we’ve seen teachers incorporating our ideas into their curriculums on a permanent basis.
We’ve also developed a set of three children’s textbooks, ‘Companion Animals’, ‘Farm Animals’, and ‘Wild animals’ for the classroom, with colourful illustrations and creative exercises.
“The Teacher Training Pack is exactly what we needed, it’s full of useful material. This is the first time I’ve been supplied with the tools I need to help educate the children as responsible and kind animal owners.”
Primary school teacher, Tetyana Kolyada
Online training
We launched Ukraine’s first online training facility offering advice on how to integrate animal welfare and ethics into lessons at school.
Our online training course was available to anyone working with children and proved very popular with teachers and animal advocates, encouraging younger generations to become responsible pet owners and grow up respecting all living beings and the environment.
Two years of assisting the Kharkiv Municipality
Raising standards in the Kharkiv Municipality
In 2013 we worked with the Kharkiv municipality on many animal welfare subjects including stray dog counting and improving standards at shelters, not just in Kharkiv but around Ukraine.
Our strategy is about responsible pet ownership, managing stray animals through effective spay/neuter work and the continuing education of those involved in shelter management based on best practice globally.
Julia and her staff have now undergone the full training programme and are successfully reducing stray dog numbers in a humane and sustainable manner.
- We conducted stray dog counts to establish the true extent of the number of dogs roaming the streets.
- We carried out inspections at the Kharkiv Municipal Animal Shelter, providing a list of recommendations to raise welfare standards.
- We ran numerous training seminars and practical workshops at the Kharkiv Municipal Animal Shelter, attended not only by Kharkiv staff, but also staff from other Municipalities who were keen to learn. Topics included shelter management, canine behaviour and body language, cleaning and disease control, safe and humane handling, dog catching methodology and the safe and humane use of equipment.
- We published a range of comprehensive training material that covers all elements of stray animal welfare in Russian and distributed them to municipal shelters across Ukraine.
- We arranged for UK vets to attend the shelter veterinary clinic in order to train shelter vets on best practices.
- We conducted multiple programmes to convince the municipality to provide an annual budget towards a subsidised sterilisation programme for pet dogs to prevent unwanted litters of puppies that contribute to the stray dog population.
- We assisted with a Kharkiv public awareness campaign to teach responsible pet ownership, specifically the importance of not allowing pets to roam and breed freely. Newspapers, TV, radio, billboards, light screens and underground advertising were all used. This campaign continues today thanks to additional city funding.
Animal organisations change and adapt policies and we regularly review whether we continue to share the same values. We are currently cooperating with organisations in Kharkiv such as Kharkiv Animal Rescue.
Our work in Lithuania
After fifty years of communist occupation the last Russian soldier finally left Lithuania in 1993. The people tried to help their animals but the Soviet Union withdrew all veterinary supplies, leaving veterinarians with a struggle to help cure even simple ailments.
This was the situation we faced when we first visited Lithuania at the request of the newly re-formed Lithuanian Society for the Protection of animals (LiSPA).
A few months later, we went back with £10,000 worth of veterinary drugs and vital new equipment, plus more than £10,000 worth of drugs and medicines donated by vets from around the UK. A second journey followed, this time overland, to deliver a large animal transportation trailer filled with veterinary medicines and other supplies for the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy. The following year, we sent a third aid consignment by sea.
Training for vets
We organised and sponsored seven veterinary teaching professors from the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy (LVA) to attend a week-long course at Edinburgh University, and we put in place new contracts between Lithuanian professors and their counterparts in the UK. All this led to the sharing of much-needed animal welfare knowledge and techniques.
In 1998, we fought a bureaucratic battle to set up the first animal shelter in Kaunas. In a country where land ownership was unheard of and foreign ownership was illegal, the mechanisms of ensuring security of tenure before building were all new and we found ourselves in uncharted waters.
A year later, as a direct result of our findings, the Lithuanian Government introduced new welfare protection measures for horses. We continued to help LiSPA to restructure and resume its activity and helped with everything from office equipment to training and support.
Step by step
In 2000 we battled with the city council to install a water source at the city’s animal shelter. In 2001 we used World Animal Day to expand public consciousness about animal welfare, sparking a media frenzy while inaugurating LiSPA’s first proper office along with 19 satellite branches.
Lithuania’s First Lady, Alma Adamkiene gave us her support during World Animal Day 2002 and used it as a platform to launch a national education programme for primary school children. At this event, the national government was represented by Dr Kazimieras Lukauskas, Director of the State Food and Veterinary Service and Mr Arunas Kundrotas, the Minister of Environment.
In 2003, we sponsored LiSPA’s new wildlife rehabilitation centre to treat hundreds of animals, including a rare golden eagle, beavers, deer, foxes and a wide variety of birds of prey. With the help of the RSPCA, we also helped LiSPA to produce and publish a humane education book with an initial print run of 20,000 with a copy given to every schoolteacher in Lithuania.
In 2004, the government ratified the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals and The European Zoo Directive was also transposed into Lithuanian law in 2004, forging the way to improve the quality of life for captive exotic animals. Farmers and livestock hauliers in Lithuania must now be licensed, which involves a comprehensive course in animal welfare.
The courses are organised jointly by the Lithuanian Veterinary Continuing Education Centre and LiSPA. Humane education is now part of the curriculum for third-year veterinary students at the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy, and farmers, livestock hauliers, state food and veterinary service animal welfare inspectors, as well as environmental inspectors and others, are learning about the essential good practice codes of animal husbandry and welfare.
In 2005, we gave financial assistance for the Lithuanian Veterinary Academy to open its new library facility allowing students to use up-to-date computer facilities for research and study. We also set up subscriptions to international publications on animal welfare so students and teaching professors can stay up to date with the latest developments.
Between 2007 and 2011, we continued to help LiSPA to further promote animal welfare. We offered advice and guidance to local societies, as well as maintaining a strong relationship with both the Ministry of Environment and the State Veterinary Service. Then in 2012, following exposés on pet markets and back street animal breeders in Lithuania, the State Veterinary Service agreed to formal talks on our proposals to introduce legislation to address puppy farms and illegal breeders in Lithuania.
Working in Moldova
On 19 June 2012 we were invited to meet with the Deputy Mayor of Chişinău Municipality to discuss how we can support the area in humanely and sustainably managing its stray dog population.
Following the meeting we carried out an official count of the stray dogs and polled 1,037 Chişinău citizens to understand their attitudes towards stray dogs. During our first visit to Chişinău we were told there are 30,000 stray dogs. However, after conducting a count of the stray dogs we found that there are no more than 5,000 in the city.
Based on the results of the two surveys we’re confident that Chişinău’s stray dog population can be managed using a capture, neuter and release programme. For this to be effective, it must be carried out alongside a pet sterilisation programme, backed by responsible pet ownership education.
If Chişinău takes action now to address the growing problem of stray dogs, it can avoid the situation that municipalities are facing in Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.
We’re now in the development stages, discussing how to move forward with the recommended management programmes.
Strays in Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the stray dog population is growing and it needs action that’s quick and decisive, but above all humane, to bring it under control.
Living on the streets, stray dogs are exposed to the constant risks of injury and illness, starvation, abuse and even death. After a member of the public was killed by a pack of stray dogs, we were invited to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Sofia Municipality to reduce the stray dog population.
On 8 August 2012, we conducted a seminar for the Ministry of Agriculture and Sofia Municipality on how to effectively and humanely manage their stray dog population. Later that year we travelled around Bulgaria holding seminars for State Veterinary Inspectors, training them on improving welfare standards in both private and municipality shelters.
Strays in Ukraine
In 2016, we received a call for help from the Melitopol Municipality asking us to advise them on their stray animal management programme, as the city was overrun with stray dogs.
We immediately arranged to visit the city to provide all necessary training and advise on the construction of a new animal shelter and veterinary clinic.
We made fantastic progress and once the shelter and veterinary clinic were complete, the municipality began working with a Kharkiv-based animal protection NGO to spay/neuter the stray dogs – a programme that continues today.
How you can help
There are lots of ways to help with our work, from making a donation through to holding fundraising events or even getting involved as a volunteer. Below, you can explore the different ways to help us continue raising standards for animals.
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