SHELTER...

The jet black kitten miaowed piteously. He didn't understand what was happening to him, but instinctively asked for help, attaching himself to an outstretched hand. But this black cat was lucky - someone came to collect him and very soon he will have a family. He won't have to shiver from cold and hunger on the streets any longer. He won't be run over by a passing car or fall victim to cruelty.  

Shelters

"We took him not long ago. I remember that it was raining. He was lying on the street, near the wall of a residential building. At first I thought he was dead. But then the kitten tried to get up. I picked him up and struggled out. He survived because he wanted to live." There are some 15 cats and kittens in the Noah's Ark shelter, though everyone knows that there are far more strays than that wandering the streets. We try not to see them. If a stray cat wanders into the entrance to our block, we don't feed it: God knows he will get used to it and decide to stay - then you will have so much trouble. We even teach our children to do the same. Of course, we're sorry for the stray dogs, but what can we do, there's no room for them with us, though we know only too well the fate of these animals - to be shot, sooner or later. 

The people who run the shelter don't want to advertise their work - they have already faced a lot of problems after the animal shelter lost its main sponsor and ended up with people who had no time for animals. They've managed to keep the shelter - even the chairman of the Society for the Protection of Animals, Azer Qarayev, had to intervene to protect the rights of its residents. They managed to keep a small area but have lost their money just when it is most needed. Stray animals have a lot of everyday problems, just like people. Animal shelters are not-for-profit, public organizations. Premises are not given free of charge for charitable causes, so in Baku these shelters operate on meagre contributions from the public - a bunch of enthusiasts who find animals on the streets and then give them to people who want them through announcements and Internet forums. There is no alternative to registering these shelters at private residential addresses. Such grass-roots organizations mostly cater for domestic cats and dogs. But sometimes budgies and even tortoises are found on the streets. "Of course, all these animals have to be fed, vaccinated, sterilized, nursed back to health," Leyla Alizada, chairman of the Society for the Protection of Homeless Animals (SPHA), said. "Needless to say, there aren't enough funds for all this. So as soon as an animal is better, we try to find it a new home as soon as possible in order to free up space for other animals."

 The society advertises the animals that have been found on the streets on Internet charity forums. "Our organization was created in 2007. In 2008 we tried to create a shelter but without result, the idea ran into a bureaucratic wall of incomprehension .We did not manage to get premises. If the shelter is to be successful, work must be done to keep animals in the right conditions and, what's particularly important, to find them new owners. But all this is difficult to do when there isn't the necessary support and no sign of any being forthcoming."

"Dog coffins"

Creating a shelter is an alternative to the work of the department to deal with stray animals, which is part of the public health directorate of the Baku executive authorities. It is well-known that it's the organization's usual practice to shoot stray dogs, a practice known as "dog coffins". 

"What example are we setting our children?" Leyla Alizada asks. "The 'dog coffin' only comes when they are called. And ordinary people like you and I make those calls, knowing full well what will happen to the poor animals. It's a 'contract killing'. And then we are surprised and wonder why our society and our children have become so hard. Do we justify the killing of poor animals by the fear of infection? But does every dog, every puppy, every kitten automatically carry a virus? Don't poor animals have the right to live? What's to be done? To start with, the dog can be fed, washed, sterilized and we can try to find a kind family. Children who grow up in kindness and love for those around them, including our 'furry friends', certainly grow up better people. Isn't that so?"

The society's chairman said that in its short lifetime the organization had not achieved a great deal but did have some results to its name. "We're a group of 15 enthusiasts and continue to collect cats and dogs, we get them veterinary treatment with our own money, nurse them back to health, give them the necessary injections and when necessary sterilize them and, most important, find a good family for them. We are people from different professions, opinions and ages but what unites us is love for animals and a desire to help them. We don't do this for any benefit, we simply save the lives of stray cats and dogs. Thanks to our volunteers and Internet forums we have found homes for dozens of puppies. Azerbaijan has a population of more than eight million. But unfortunately only a handful of people want to draw attention to the inhumane way in which the city is cleared of stray animals. We have not managed to set up a shelter, but today I appeal to everyone who cares about the fate of poor animals. There are enough businessmen and wealthy people in our country and plenty of kind people too. Help us to clear the city of stray animals - we need both volunteers and funds. If 100,000 people contributed one manat to the cause, we would have the funds to open a shelter and spare the public the cruel scenes of dogs being killed and that will make us all more humane and kind," Leyla Alizada says.

They sent an open letter about creating an SPHA shelter to the Baku executive authorities and the head of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Mehriban Aliyeva. "We met the head of the department to deal with homeless animals that is part of Baku's public health directorate and suggested joining forces. But we were turned down. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation has promised to consider the matter," the SPHA head said.

Law needed

Commenting on the situation, the head of the State Veterinary Service of Azerbaijan, Ismayil Hasanov, said that the steps taken to combat stray animals are often temporary and do not achieve the desired result. "On the basis of a decree of the Cabinet of Ministers all district veterinary services have to organize and manage abattoirs. Today there are abattoirs in 35 districts of the country. However, the techniques of capturing and shooting strays often upset the public. As a result, legislation needs to be adopted that will allow the number of stray animals to be kept down by more humane methods." Ismayil Hasanov acknowledges that the creation of a shelter for stray animals as a special structure could be a successful way to solve the problem. It could coordinate the effective management and control of urban animals and also draw up a normative base.

The chairman of the Society for the Protection of Animals, Azer Qarayev, says that Azerbaijan needs to introduce new legislation on cruelty towards animals. "With the help of our lawyers and volunteers we have drawn up a law 'On the protection of animals'. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources pretty much initiated this and were a great help. The draft law applies to livestock-rearing, including pedigree stock, fisheries and fur-farming; the treatment of animals in state nature reserves; hunting; keeping domestic animals; the use of animals in circuses, zoos, exhibitions and in other entertainments; and also the treatment of animals used for scientific, research and other academic purposes. The law applies to all treatment of animals, irrespective of the right of ownership."

The draft law has been sent to the presidential administration and Azer Qarayev hopes that the administration will send it on to the relevant authorities. For example, to the Health Ministry, as the document applies to animals used in experiments, to the Agriculture Ministry, as it concerns the rearing and transport of animals, to the Education Ministry, etc. All these organizations should give their assessment.

"Realizing that is simply impossible to change the legislative base concerning the problems of stray animals in a short period of time, we asked the government in 2002 to ratify the European Convention for the Protection of Animals. In 2003 Azerbaijan signed a document on adhering to the convention. This means that a shelter for stray animals should have been opened long ago in our country. It is already time to change the work of state structures that deal with this issue and to change the public perception of the problem of stray animals," Azer Qarayev said.

How do other countries handle it?

The main method of dealing with stray cats in the West is to capture them and put them in shelters. The shelters also operate as collecting centres for animals, whom their owners no longer want, and as centres to give animals to new owners. After a compulsory period during which the dogs and cats may be returned to their owners, the animals can be given to new owners or to public shelters where they will be kept. Unwanted animals are put down. Putting them down is considered unavoidable as the shelters have to fulfil municipal programmes - unrestricted entry shelters have to be sure that they always have sufficient capacity and are ready to receive new animals. The major animal protection organizations think that putting an animal down is more humane than leaving it to the will of fate on the street and condemning it to a harsh, early death.

Preventing the reproduction of stray animals is the most important preventative measure to reduce the number of homeless animals and, consequently, the number of animals that have to be put down. When 70-80 per cent of the animals are sterilized, the number of animals rounded up begins to fall significantly. Yes, it's possible that stray dogs could become a real problem: they roam in packs, attack passers-by and become a source of rabies. This has happened. But first of all, all the methods of reducing the population of strays should be humane. Cruel killing causes suffering to the animals. They die in terrible pain. Unwitting witnesses of these "contract killings" are traumatized. Is it any surprise after this that children often grow up cruel and bitter? How could it be otherwise if before their eyes sometimes their only loyal friend is brutally killed? We need to understand that helping stray animals is noble and useful and an important indicator of a civilized society.