The International Foundation for the Protection of Animals IFAW together with the public organization URSA started a campaign to sterilize homeless cats and dogs in the front-line areas of Ukraine.
Zoo activists have already successfully completed the first stage of the project on free sterilization of 300 animals and vaccination against rabies in Kharkiv region, the project's press release says.
The message noted that the project was implemented by doctors of the "Veterinarians without Borders" association in three settlements of the Kharkiv region:
- the city of Lozova;
- urban-type settlement of Buda;
- the city of Kharkiv.
"With the beginning of the war, the issue of homeless animals became acute for Ukraine. After February 24, hundreds of thousands of animals were left abandoned on the streets of cities. This gave an impetus to the increase in the population of homeless cats and dogs. Therefore, sterilization, even in the conditions of war, is extremely important today relevant. We decided to start the implementation of the project from the Kharkiv region. The next step of URSA will be the sterilization of animals in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions," says Nataliya Kovalenko, a member of the supervisory board of the NGO URSA.
URSA
The authors emphasized that sterilization of animals is an important step in reducing the population and aggression of homeless animals. And vaccinations against rabies, made within the framework of the project, make street animals safe for coexistence with humans.
"Half of our neighborhood left when the invasion started, and there were scared, abandoned cats and dogs on the street. I feed them, cook porridge, sometimes bones. Today, thanks to URSA, all 23 of my foster animals were sterilized. This is a gift I never dreamed of", said a retired woman from Lozova.
URSA
As EcoPolitic reported earlier, in Kyiv, pensioners will be able to sterilize pets for free in three city veterinary clinics.
