Vetnews | Mei 2024 10 « BACK TO CONTENTS Animals have no nationalities The theme of the 39th World Veterinary Conference held in Cape Town in the middle of April 2024 was Resilience in the face of adversity. When looking at the world in 2024 it is not difficult to realise that the world is in great difficulty. The 39th World Veterinary Associations Congress in Cape Town was opened by one of the most soul-destroying presentations I have ever heard. I met with Prof Natalia Klietsova and Dr Andriy Klietsov over a cup of coffee to talk about being a veterinarian in a warstricken country. Andriy speaks fluent Russian, by mine is not so umh, not at all functional. Natalie speaks fluent English, not only with the words but with the passion to match. Please find links to some very disturbing footage at the end of this article. But be warned, it is not for the faint of heart I jumped right in and asked Andriy about the conditions in his country. Andriy looks out the window as if to find the words from outside. “It is very bad. Before the invasion, there were lots of talk. We still went to visit family in Russia a couple of days before it happened. The guards at the border post seemed very nervous about when we were returning. We just laughed. We had a great time celebrating my grandmother’s birthday. Our town Sumy is in the Sumy Oblast province, it borders directly on Russia. One morning we woke up with Russian tanks in our city. The bombing started, and there was no air protection for us. We all ran into bomb shelters. But the animals were still out there. Lots of animals in shelters throughout the city. They had nowhere to go. The people tried to take care of them. The Caretakers took as many as they could into their own bomb shelters. We were quickly cut off from the outside. The people started panicking and went into shops to buy everything they could. We tried to help by not allowing one person to take everything so that the available supplies could last for everyone. Human food and animal food became very scarce. A lot of people died. The air raid sirens sounded night and day. The people of Sumy are very brave. They pushed the invaders out of the city. We had no weapons but we fought them out. The city was completely sealed off. Later on, there were “Green Corridors” but it was never safe, the Invaders did not stick to any arrangement and bombing took place at any time. No human food was allowed in. We took a large grain truck from a farmer and excited the city to collect food for the animals. We were checked and sometimes returned empty to show that we did not want to make trouble. Sometimes we could hide human supplies under the animal food. The truck was very deep and difficult to see all that was in there. We helped a lot of people like this. We struggle with all supplies, even if it can be donated, it is difficult to get in safely. I often drive my car and fetch as much as I can fit in and distribute it to the animals in need. Many Veterinarian hospitals are totally destroyed. I had students who helped in the clinic, but they were too scared to drive there, they would phone and I would go and pick them up. It is dangerous for humans and animals. The reality of being a Veterinarian in a War zone When two elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled – African Proverb
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