Environment ministry tells mayors to build animal shelters after bowing to pressure from Naturewatch in UK.
Ukraine has bowed to pressure from western animal protection groups and called for an end to the killing of stray dogs before the Euro 2012 football championship takes place in the country next summer.
The environment ministry said on Thursday that it was urging all Ukraine's mayors to build animal shelters instead.
Thousands of stray dogs have been killed in Ukraine over the past year – often poisoned or injected with illegal substances in an effort to clear the streets before the championship takes place in June – outraging local and international animal protection groups.
"Today I am publicly turning to all city mayors – let us stop the deaths of those poor stray animals for half a year and build shelters together," Mykola Zlochevsky, the environment minister, told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The statement followed a meeting with representatives of Naturewatch, a British group campaigning against animal cruelty in Ukraine. "This is a fantastic victory for Ukraine, its citizens and its animals," John Ruane, the head of Naturewatch, said.
Read more - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/17/euro2012-ukraine-stops-killing-stray-dogs?newsfeed=true
