war story
Kup`yansk, Kharkiv region - Nov 7, 2023
The ray of mercy. Оccupation
The ray of mercy.
Оccupation
aiIn the summer of 2022, shops and a local market in the city of Kup'yansk were opened. The Russian occupation authorities began a bus service to the occupied territories.
aiThe animals were no longer threatened by hunger. But new, unsterilized dogs began to appear in the city! They gathered in large packs. This meant uncontrolled reproduction which leads to killing in order to control the size of the stray population.
aiUkrainian laws that protect animals did not apply. Everything was a complete mess. And we could expect harsh actions against the animals from the new (occupational) government.
aiI understood. It was necessary to resume sterilizations urgently! So once again we started to set things up. At that time, there were no communication, no Internet.
aiAt first, I spayed animals individually at a local veterinary clinic. But they charged very high prices and did not accept many animals at once. I started looking for a solution.
We gained time, then our troops came and the lives of the dogs and cats were saved there as well.
aiAnd, despite the obstacles, it was possible to find a very good veterinarian, a woman from another city of the occupied territory, who before the war conducted subsidized mass sterilizations in her city. Many thanks to her! She agreed to sterilize our animals! Yes, we have sterilizations in our city!
aiEvery week we sterilized up 14 animals. Mostly dogs. It was possible to keep order in the city (that is, without incidents of dogs attacking people, which is always possible when there are many animals and they are not sterilized). So the lives of animals were saved.
aiWe even went to sterilize dogs in the village of Shevchenkovo (35 km from Kup`yansk)! Because the new (occupation) local authority decided to kill them. In Shevchenkovo, before, no one had ever sterilized street dogs.
aiBy starting sterilization we gained time, then our troops came (Ukrainian forces liberated the city in the fall of 2022), and the lives of the dogs were saved there as well.
aiThus, during the occupation my organization arranged for sterilization:
aiFemale dogs - 99
aiMale dogs - 12
aiFemale cats - 111
aiMale cats – 22
