Rules in the house
Unfortunately, the number of animals in need of help is so large that shelters are overcrowded. There are sometimes fewer people willing to take on and bear responsibility for animals than there are pets who need help and shelter.
For this reason, the homeless cat shelter does not accept small kittens that owners are trying to adopt after their cat has given birth. It is the responsibility of the owners to provide the born offspring with the kind hands of their new owners. The shelter is not able to take on such functions.
Again, unfortunately, there is an unspoken rule in shelters: if an owner is not found for the animal, then after a certain period of time, the cat is euthanized. Therefore, when giving a kitten to a shelter, a person should understand the full responsibility of his actions.
Information about cats
We monitor the health of our pets very closely. We make sure that
- Each of the cats had their own passport
- Vaccinated on time
- the cats have been sterilized
- there were no parasites or insects on them
The state does not sponsor the shelter, we are sponsored by kind people and volunteers. Thanks for any help. All people who want to help our shelter can provide any assistance:
- help buy food
- provide financial support
- become a volunteer
- write texts to attract hosts and sponsors
- photograph cats
Our goal is to help homeless cats, provide them with everything they need, and find them a caring owner. Any person, if desired, can come to visit us. We have great hopes that with the help of kind people we can continue our activities and help cats. Our team is grateful to everyone for any help.
Hostages or rescued animals? What happened at the “Cat House” shelter at the monastery near Minsk
Locks along the entire perimeter of the territory. Why aren't volunteers allowed to see the animals?
What happened to the shelter and why? Ksenia Davydenko explains :
“During conversations with the rector of the St. Elisabeth Monastery, the decision to close the Koshkin House was announced twice. It is very sad for volunteers to see such an end to a good undertaking, but this is the only right decision. With the approach to animal husbandry that exists now and which we have been trying to change for a long time, cats and dogs are better off looking for help elsewhere.”
As Joanna’s sister, who supervises the shelter, explained to the volunteer, at first the conversation was about moving the enclosures and the booth of the “Cat House on the Podvorye” away from the buildings where the “workers” of the monastery live. The fact is that initially there were 10-15 dogs, then the number increased to 60, and this is a noticeable difference. They barked and kept people awake at night.
- The big cat is watching you. How to avoid being cruel to animals?
The cats were planned to be left in the new Cat House, which was built thanks to crowdfunding in 2022 at Talak. Some of the volunteers asked for a meeting with Father Andrey to find out how and by whom the transfer of the “Cat House” would be carried out. Sister Joanna was also present at the meeting.
“Problems were voiced there, in particular, animal overpopulation, disease, and non-transparent spending of funds from Sister Joanna’s designated charity account. After this, Father Andrei gave her clear instructions not to take new cats and dogs into the shelter and to accommodate the maximum number of animals by April 1st. Unfortunately, his words were not heard... Some of the volunteers who tried to reason with Sister Joanna and stopped the “cat plague” and other diseases were actually expelled, access to animals was closed. Let me remind you that the closing date is April 1st. What will happen to the remaining animals and buildings erected at the expense of donors by this time is still unknown.”
Volunteers hope that it will be possible to find a humane compromise solution regarding the animals. Volunteers have no clarity about the buildings that were built with money from crowdfunding, since they are not registered and do not legally exist.
The cat's house at the time of its construction. Photo — Olga Polyanskaya
The problem for some of the “expelled” volunteers, according to Ksenia, is that they cannot get prompt information about the health status of cats and dogs, take photos for PR, and sometimes simply agree that the animal will be handed over and delivered to a new owner .
“We encountered closed enclosures and locks along the entire perimeter of the territory. There is a lack of auto assistance and mutual understanding. However, we try to do everything possible to give animals a chance to be noticed. A large number of people are now involved in PR.”
What will be the future fate of animals that cannot be adopted? The question, according to the volunteer, is still open.
“I would like to believe that they will remain alive and find owners.”
Animals and veterinary care
Volunteers say that they proposed a plan to organize work at the “Cat House”, including regarding veterinary care, and at the time of the conversation with the abbot of the monastery, Father Andrey, the epizootic situation had been stabilized. The main diseases were stopped; all that remained was to resolve issues with regular financing of feeding animals and their veterinary feed. For several months, volunteers, according to Ksenia, covered this expense item with their own funds and the help of donors, for which they kept reporting.
“The plan also included regular/monthly (or as needed) examination of cats and dogs by a veterinarian. It was also assumed that some of the recovered animals would be tested to exclude dangerous viruses. Since our proposals remained unrealized, and new animals continue to arrive at the shelter, it is difficult to talk about the stability of the situation,” says Ksenia. – At the time of our presence at the Compound, a veterinarian came to castration/sterilization as needed. Unfortunately, it is difficult to determine the schedule for visiting the treating veterinarian.”
Photo – Talaka.by
What and at whose expense are the animals fed?
As often happens, the stumbling block, according to the volunteer, was the money issue. There should have been a report on the spent funds of donors - this is the generally accepted practice of the work of a few shelters and conscientious volunteers.
“The volunteers fully accounted for all stages of collection and construction for the funds raised thanks to Talaka. It was also assumed that when creating the OAO (public association for the protection of animals - ed. ), which was supposed to include at least ten volunteers, including Mother Joanna, a new account would be opened. It was planned to decide collectively how the received funds from donors would be spent. I emphasize, with reporting on expenses.”
Until then, 80% of the funds for feeding and treating cats came from the wallets of volunteers. The dogs were mainly fed food from the leftover food of the brothers from the Compound. Sometimes meat and offal were brought by volunteers, sometimes by donors. An importer of a well-known brand of food periodically helped with dry food, says Ksenia.
“We planned to transfer most of the dogs to veterinary dry food so that the diet would be as balanced as possible, following the example of other shelters. It should be noted that the dry food that was donated to the shelter was in the vast majority of cases not suitable for animals and was, as a rule, the cheapest available. Is it possible to feed cats this way if they have suffered from several fairly complex diseases in a row? Personally, I wouldn’t give them to my pet,” says the girl. “We discussed different options on how to get really good feed for the animals, but too few people cared about it. We don’t know what animals are fed now. At the last meeting with Father Andrey, some of the volunteers voiced the idea that blood sausage, liver and canned pork were quite a worthy option. I want to believe they were joking."
Food. December 5, 2019. Photo – “Cat House on Podvorye” on facebook
“We hope our words will not remain a voice crying in the wilderness”
The well-being of shelters for homeless cats and dogs is usually built on three pillars: compliance with veterinary rules, proper feeding and proper PR. As soon as one of the foundations begins to shake, the stability of the entire system is threatened. Now the very existence of the shelter is in big question.
“In our opinion, the very concept of “shelter” is incorrect. If we draw an analogy, this is an emergency hospital, but not a sanatorium, an orphanage or a boarding house for the elderly and disabled. Our absolute priority is to find decent conditions for every animal, young or old, healthy or disabled,” says Ksenia. – In the form in which the shelter exists, it looks like a concentration camp under the guise of a pioneer camp. Constant replenishment of guests, questionable conditions of detention, lack of a system, blurred goals. Can he continue to exist in such conditions - of course, yes. But do people have a moral right to do this?
But a shelter is not only animals, but also people who are nearby around the clock, volunteers and caring donors who come whenever possible, as well as rules for the care, treatment, feeding of animals, with which, according to Ksenia, the “Cat House” had problems .
“We continue to believe that with adequate changes, positive dynamics and rebirth are possible. We remember that this is a monastic undertaking, and we hope that our words, like the calls of Isaiah and John, will not remain a voice crying in the wilderness.”
Sister Ioanna: “Cat House” will be closed or moved to another location
The fact that “Cat House” is closing is also confirmed by Sister Ioanna.
“By the first of April we must distribute all the animals - 29 dogs and approximately 33 cats. Plus, a lot of animals are abandoned, and there is a lot of controversy about this. I hope that we will be able to accommodate everyone, but it is unlikely, therefore, most likely, “Cat House” will be moved. The animals are sterilized, vaccinated and are waiting for their owners, each has a passport. But we really need help with PR and advertising, and finding food. We live only on volunteer help. I buy everything for the animals from the money that people put into the account indicated for the construction of the Cat House on Talak - it is still operational. You can send money for it, everything will go towards food for the animals.”
Now, according to Sister Joanna, several “reliable volunteers” help her.
“There are good young people, they provide employment, there are good IT guys who walk dogs and bring food. A lot of animals were given away: there were 39 dogs, now there are 29. Within a month, ten dogs left. But there aren’t enough people, and we have to constantly, every day, promote animals, everyone takes on five.”
“Saving animals is like fighting a blockade”
The courtyard is a unique place, says Sister Ioanna, but not everyone thinks so.
“Unfortunately, there are people who say that we have a concentration camp, a place of death for animals, and not a place of salvation. Without knowing me, they say and write nasty things. Of course, animals die, just as people sometimes die. But if you consult with a competent doctor who has long experience in treating animals, the doctor himself says that it is unrealistic to save the animals. It's like fighting the siege of Leningrad.
So they threw out the cat and kittens and took them to the forest. Until they are found, they eat earth, grass, and carrion. Anorexia occurs in any organism in such cases. Food is no longer digested, the body becomes weakened, and immunity decreases. I take such an animal, but it happens that the body does not recover.
They also demanded that I not take new animals. But imagine how they take and throw a box of puppies or kittens to you three times a week. Should I kill them, drown them? How can I live after this! It’s one thing if I go and consciously take it, but I haven’t done that for a long time.
The other day we went to work, no one was there. We came home from service and a cat was already sitting with a kitten with anorexia. The kitten is scared, not at all, I don’t know if it will survive. The cat is still okay. And so on all the time. At half past twelve at night the brothers called and said, come over, the dog was tied to a tree near the house.
You see, those people who are not here and do not see all this, they do not understand and judge. I tell them, come and see how they bring in beaten, broken animals with broken spines. Animals that are literally eaten by fleas. I see these terrible pictures every day and do everything I can. But I cannot command an animal to live.
It's not about the animals, I'm disturbing a lot of people with this place. People make money. Volunteers who are motivated by love would not behave this way, I have no other explanation. People don’t come for at least one day to work hard and understand what it is.”
Volunteers, December 15, 2022. Photo – “Cat House on Podvorye” on facebook
There are people thanks to whom the shelter can continue to exist
According to Sister Joanna, the conflict over the condition of the animals in the shelter “brought about” the abbot of the monastery.
“If people do not have communication and understanding, then such a place is not needed,” says Sister Joanna. – Imagine, I hung up the locks. People come here and take pictures. Should I take a machine gun and shoot at them? I went to the monastery to attend the service, my assistant Lyosha told me that they had brought opposition journalists without permission. Actually, this is private territory and permission is required. They brought journalists who are against the government, against Russia, against Putin, who are racists. They came with cameras and were filming. So what to shoot? That animals run and eat. These are misanthropes, how can they help animals?”
And he adds: “If a person lives in love, he will sow goodness everywhere. So I tell them, if I’m gone, if you destroy me, what will happen to the animals? The priest tells them, take the animals with you. They are silent in response. I have hope that the shelter will continue to exist. The fact is that the place for animals is located next to the building where people live. Dogs bark at night and barking disturbs people.”
Sister Ioanna still hopes that if the shelter can be moved, the “Cat House” will be preserved. According to her, there are people willing to buy land to locate the animals so that barking will not disturb them.
“The most important thing for me is to save and give homes to animals,” emphasizes Sister Joanna.
Veterinarian: It is important that the shelter does not become a hotbed of infections
Animals need not only warmth and food, but also conditions in which they can remain healthy, says veterinarian Sergei Sas.
“I know about Mother Joanna. When everything is really bad, she brings animals - such a terrible thing. Let's look at the disease histories of the animals she brought. Look, I brought a cat with terrible dehydration, problems with the spine and problems with the central nervous system. The cat has an almost fatal outcome,” recalls the veterinarian.
In June of this year, a cat was brought to the clinic from the “Cat House” for an ultrasound and tests.
“The animal is incredibly dehydrated and in critical condition. The medical histories of all animals from the farmstead show severe dehydration, in which 10% of cases usually end in death. But in the courtyard - 7%. Panleukopenia also appears, it is called feline AIDS,” says Sergei Sas.
The veterinarian confirms that things are really bad at the shelter, there are too many animals there. From time to time, an employee of the veterinary center goes there and sees the situation with her own eyes.
However, in fairness, it should be noted that issues of keeping animals concern not only the farmstead, but also all animal rights activists, the veterinarian notes.
“We try to explain to all of them that there are veterinary and sanitary standards, we explain how important ventilation and quartz treatment are. It happens that we give them our old quartz lamps to hang for ourselves,” says Sergei Sas. – There is a concept of quarantine, in which new animals must be placed separately. He is treated for parasites, vaccinated and released to the others no less than twenty-one days later. Separate ventilation is important both in the quarantine area and in the general holding area. If these norms are not followed, there will never be any sense.”
The specialist is confident that farmsteads like the one in the monastery definitely help animals, because animals do not spend the night on the asphalt. But they can also become the cause of an epidemic.
Illustrative photo – “Cat House on the Podvorye” on facebook
Animals have become hostages of human ambitions
The situation with the farmstead illustrates systemic problems in the animal protection movement in Belarus, says Anastasia Zhavrid , lawyer and director of the Animalex animal protection center. These problems, according to her, did not start two or even five years ago.
“In this situation, first we observed how a certain citizen, aka Sister Ioanna, took in cats and dogs for foster care and kept them, it seems, until adoption.
But the number of offers for foster care - a temporary home where an animal is kept until it is adopted by a permanent owner - was limited, and the number of stray animals was growing. Because of this, Sister Joanna’s farmstead became popular among people who call themselves volunteers.
And at this stage, as far as I know, the situation is out of control, since there is no legislative framework for keeping dogs and cats, the “volunteers” have nothing to show other than fraud with money, and the animals continue to suffer in terrible conditions, being held hostage situation and someone’s ambitions,” says Anastasia.
She suggests understanding the concepts. “Volunteer”, “animal protection” and “charitable activities” - they are not in the legislation at all. You can only be guided by established practice and analogies.
Let’s say a “volunteer” is a person who, free of charge, takes on the responsibility of caring for an animal until it is adopted. The law does not prohibit this, which means you can take care of animals for free. The main thing is to comply with sanitary standards and rules for maintaining residential premises, Anastasia emphasizes.
The current rules for keeping dogs and cats (changes will be made to them soon, Animalex is currently working on this) establish only a rule obliging them to be delivered to veterinary centers for vaccination against rabies; there are also shelter standards.
Photo — tut.by
Such shelters cast a shadow on the entire animal protection
“Now let’s return to the situation with the farmstead: in fact, we have a place where large numbers of animals are kept without proper care and mandatory veterinary care (quarantine, treatment, vaccination).
Is this type of animal assistance humane or animal welfare? In my opinion and from the point of view of international law, there is definitely no European Convention on the Treatment of Animals,” the interlocutor says and explains.
- It is impossible to provide proper care and ensure the five freedoms with such a number of animals (it is simply impossible to recognize the symptoms of diseases in a particular animal and prevent an epidemic).
- Freedom from disease and suffering is also not ensured, since in large concentrations animals not only get sick, but also suffer from lack of proper attention from humans (and sometimes even run wild and cannot be adopted due to this).
- It is unknown and there are no official statistics how many animals in the farmstead have already died. But judging by the situation, a lot. Again, everything is too opaque to track this situation. And it may be that dead animals were much more likely to have died on the street or in a temporary detention center.
Last but not least, financial reporting and fundraising, the specialist concludes:
“Such shelters, without registration of the organization and non-transparent financial reporting (not only checks, but also statements from cards where funds are received), cast a shadow on the entire animal protection community as a whole.”
The story of the rescue of the cat Spiridon
The cat Spiridon lived a happy life for 10 years. He was looked after by his owner, who loved her pet very much. He is a thoroughbred, everyone loved him, he was always the center of attention.
The kitten lived in the warm embrace of its owner for 10 wonderful years. He was not afraid of old age. But something went wrong...
One day, her owner was taken to the hospital and he was left unattended. In the first days, he ate everything that was at home, but gradually the food supplies ran out. Spiridon began gnawing everything to find food. There was no water in the apartment. The poor cat was completely exhausted. It seemed that this was already the end, his last days were near. Nobody remembered him.
Fortunately, the apartment was evacuated, and the kitten was given to our shelter. Everyone already understands what a cat looked like when he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for several days. The condition was deplorable. We took him to the hospital and it turned out that his kidneys were not in good condition, he had an eye injury and heart problems. And we started treating the kitten.
Due to her age, we were unable to fully treat Spiridona. However, his condition improved greatly and he found happiness in his new home. Spiridon's new owner fell in love with him at first sight.
“As soon as I saw this little, cute kitten, my heart skipped a beat. I definitely decided that I would take him with me and give him a new, warm life. I’m very glad that I did this!” says Spiridon’s new owner.
