With World Animal Day approaching, Campaign Manager, Mark talks of his trips around the world helping to improve the welfare of animals through education and understanding.
Since 2020, we have seen a major change in the way we could reach audiences with our training that, as of this week, has reached:
- 12 countries
- five universities
- 13 Ukrainian cities
It has also featured in over 100 media items. We have conducted 54 presentation and training events because you, Naturewatch Foundation’s supporters, have enabled us.
Our messages are about advancing animal welfare through education and understanding.
Our training spans from East to West across the world
During 2019, I’d spent many hours travelling across Ukraine on sleeper trains and on buses, some of which were well beyond their ‘best before’ date. One bus ran out of petrol by the side of the major road near Mykolyaiv, leaving us waiting for the driver to walk to the nearest gas station for supplies.
I’d also been invited to train the police in Italy and to speak at the Humane Society conference in Toronto, Canada (which I was able to do as, coincidentally, I was on vacation there) . The event in Italy was during the day, permitting me to link up by satellite to an auditorium in Athens, Greece for an evening seminar.
In 2019 too, 21 police stations across Ukraine incredibly took part in a World Animal Day event to show solidarity for animals. The officers in Chernivtsi here were some of those that told us tales of their pets, rescuing creatures from harm and repeating our messages that animals matter.
Often, the police are the thin line that has responsibility to care for the vulnerable and it’s vital they understand that animals can be victims too. That’s what our training has been about.
As the ‘satellite’ training concept took over and we stayed locked down through COVID, a new way of operating emerged, a greener way but one that perhaps lacked the interpersonal connection.
Like everything else, our training went ‘online’. It did mean of course we could reach other countries more easily. For example, we connected with a training event to give a presentation in Australia. (We are now helping the police in New South Wales.)
However, as we were starting to emerge into more regular travel again, the war in Ukraine began, just eight days after we had taken part in an event with the police and municipality in Odesa considering the formation of an ‘animal police’ for the city. (Odesa was the first city in Ukraine to convict someone of serious animal abuse and impose a seven-and-a-half-year jail term.)
So, we returned to online teachings and, in 2021, started a police training project in the neighbouring Republic of Moldova. In September 2022, I was finally able to travel to Chisinau, the capital, to meet the animal volunteers and the SCPA (officials responsible for animal welfare) and get back into a police station to talk stray dogs and the links between animal abuse and domestic violence.
Moldova is a country we will continue to support into 2023 and beyond as they have new plans for stronger legislation, stray animal projects and an incredibly dedicated animal group, plus a police service that seems willing to listen and continue to create a community safe for animals and, therefore, safe for people.
My Moldovan journey enabled me to spend time in Romania too and meet with local firefighters and ‘their’ rescue dogs at the Ukrainian/Romanian border.
Flying the flag for World Animal Day
I had some time off from Naturewatch Foundation ‘duties’ too, so was able to return to Chernivtsi in Ukraine again, meet the rescue dogs and see the veterinary equipment that our Campaign Manager Kate had managed to get from Poland and install at the centre.
Like a relay baton from the police station in 2019, the World Animal Day flag was delivered here and flies at a rescue for those dogs affected by this horrific war. Many of these animals have been abandoned as people had to leave for the front lines.
Written by Mark Randell, Campaign Manager
