By Irina Wegemer
Many of us ex-pats living in Azerbaijan noticed soon after arrival that there is a serious problem with stray animals in the streets of Baku. Some of us might even wondered, how can we possibly help these homeless cats and dogs, unwanted, hungry, ill or injured?. Then a sudden realisation would come to mind stopping most of us from acting: there is very little we can do within the given time that we are here to improve the horrible situation with stray animals in Azerbaijan. The scale of the problem is truly overwhelming.
I have been trying for months to find any information on the Internet about local animal rescue organisations. The search led me nowhere. Then, by pure coincidence, I met a delightful young lady at the veterinary clinic who was waiting to pick up an injured puppy which she’d brought in for urgent medical care. As I was waiting for our newly adopted one month old rescued Azerbaijani kitten, I introduced myself to the girl and we started talking. Very soon I felt that she was the one I had been looking for all along. An inspirational enthusiast whose determination to save street animals immediately became a driving force for me to help her with anything I could. The lady’s name is Valeriya Garber, aged 23, residing in a sea side village outside of Baku. An architect and restorer by education, she has been recently involved in The Baku White City Project, designing the French Quarter and one of the future roads of the Project.
Valeriya Garber
As we were sat in the reception area, she was telling me about her group’s efforts in saving stray animals’ lives. Here is someone, I thought to myself, who does make a difference in the noble cause of fighting against animal cruelty. I asked Valeriya if we could meet up again for an interview. She invited me to her home in Hovsani which has served as a sanctuary for many injured street animals. Here is what I’ve learned.
Q: YOU WORK HARD SAVING INJURED ANIMALS IN THE BAKU AREA. HOW HAS IT ALL STARTED?
A: It all began when I was a child. My Mum is an animal lover. She would often bring me along to feed homeless cats and dogs in the neighborhood. When I was 14 years old, there was a horrible incident which I will never ever forget. I brought out some food for the stray dogs we‘d been looking after. As they surrounded me in anticipation of a good snack, a few men suddenly approached us. One of them was carrying a rifle. They ordered me to step aside, so that they could shoot the dogs. They just wanted to kill anything for sport. When I refused to leave, they pushed me away and opened fire… A few dogs were killed, and I was left standing amongst their dead bodies, petrified and helpless. That shock scarred me for life.
Rescued lucky dogs
Q: PLEASE TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR GROUP.
A: Our group is called “Friends”. It was founded on October the 4th 2010, on the Word Animal Day. I designed the logo of the group. Even though we are very active, our group is not registered yet due to financial challenges. We are working hard on launching our own web site in the near future. In the mean while our colleagues at www.druq.az (in Russian only) offered us a helping hand by posting the photos of our rescued animals in order to find them suitable homes. We are on the Facebook too. Please check us out at: https://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=183334885010825
Beauty, female puppy, was hit by a car, suffered a broken leg and both hips were dislocated
When I first set upon rescuing animals, I had no volunteers and no income. Only recently I could finally form a nice group of committed animal lovers (mainly girls) whom I can rely on to take some work off my shoulders. My position is the Director of the “Friends” charity. My main responsibilities include co-ordinating everything we do and deciding where the donated money goes. At the moment, there are two administrators in our group: Lyaman Alieva and Ilona Chechyotkina. Evelina Rajabova maintains the database profiles and photo albums of all rescued cats and dogs ready for adoption. Whenever possible, we do our best to make sure our animals are well and happy in their adopted families.
“Friends” predominantly rescue and look after injured street animals. We organised a team of foster parents which take care of our animals until we find good homes for them. We feel satisfied if we can place them with loving families. We don’t charge any fees for the adoption process. Frankly, it’s a double-edged sward. For the local people, if a pet adoption is free of charge, then a new owner’s attitude can become dodgy. Irresponsible owners are more likely to return the pets after their children have played enough with a kitten or a puppy, or if an animal has grown up and he is no longer cuddly and cute. On the other hand, if we decide to set up a fee to cover some of our expenses on vaccination and sterilisation, then the answer from most people whether they would like to give a pet a home would be a categorical “No”.
Pusechka was found in the ditch with paralised hind legs. Happy female kitten, can move on her own now
Q: DOES YOUR FAMILY SUPPORT YOU?
A: It goes without saying. I am fortunate that my parents provide all the help I need to continue doing what I feel so passionate about. My Dad’s daily morning routine is to remove animal waste from our garden, or else the feces would accumulate and leach into the soil, contaminating underground waters. He builds kennels for the dogs too. My Mum helps me with treating ill and injured animals staying with us. She comes out with me on our routes twice a day to feed colonies of stray dogs in the neighborhood. I do realize though how worried my parents must be about their daughter’s safety. My active involvement in animal rescue can get dangerous. They just don’t want me to get hurt… by people, that is, not by animals. Our neighbors are our biggest concern. I was sometimes being threatened if I fed the hungry creatures. My group writes petitions and collects signatures to send to the Azerbaijani governmental officials advocating against inhumane killing of stray animals in the streets of the Baku area. The shooting gets worse now that the 2012 year Eurovision song competition in Azerbaijan is getting closer.
Zack was found in a celler of an abandoned house a week later. He had no food and water in the hottest month of the summer.
Q: HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT RESCUING INJURED ANIMALS?
A: Normally, my phone rings and I know that our help is needed. (On the morning Valeriya and I met up for an interview, she had 45 missed calls on her Blackberry). There are two categories of callers: the “sane” ones and the “mad” ones. The latter would try to blackmail me: “If you love animals so much, either take these dogs away or I will shoot them!”. Sometimes, dogs would just appear on my door step in a box. I remember a sad story when I found a large cardboard box at the gate of my house and opened it up. A big dog jump out of it, bit me in panic and ran away, revealing two small puppies on the bottom of the box. I didn’t know at the time that those puppies had a serious infection. The disease spread on to my healthy dogs and many of them died. The majority of our rescued cats and dogs are injured strays. The most common injures they have are either from being run over by a car or from being wounded after dog catchers’ brutal shooting.
Q: HAVE YOU TRIED TO JOIN EFFORTS WITH OTHER ANIMAL WELFARE ORGANISATIONS IN BAKU?
A: Initially, yes, I did just that. Combining good forces of like-minded enthusiasts whose purpose was to rescue stray animals was a worthwhile idea. I did extensive research on how to run an animal shelter. I traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, to learn from the local well-established shelters’ expertise. At first, when we were getting ready to set up a shelter in Baku, all the enthusiasts got together and said: “Let’s get organised, it’s time we did it!”. The only thing we needed was a place – a piece of land – to build an animal rescue centre. This is where my parents stepped in and kindly offered to invest in a piece of land in Hovsani for our future project. To my great disappointment, I soon realised that none of those people who had promised to help actually meant it. The well-intentioned idea fell apart. I was on my own.
At the moment, there are three registered stray animal welfare protection societies in Azerbaijan, and I am involved in assisting one of them, the Leyla Alizadeh’s organisation.
Voltik was run over by a car, his legs, tale, paw were broken, he had no skin on his injured legs.
Q: HOW MANY ANIMALS HAVE YOU RESCUED LATELY?
A: Last year we found homes for 150 rescued dogs (including 100 disabled ones) and 200 cats. Last winter alone we placed 20 puppies with good families. Cats are easier to find owners as they are so self-sufficient. One doesn’t need to walk a cat twice a day, does he? All our rescued cats are kept separately from the dogs. We use the help of Mila Hanum, our cats’ lady, who offered her home and all her time to take care of our kittens until we find loving families for them. The cost of boarding at Mila’s is payable by “Friends” as it would be impossible for her to cope with the cost.
Q: WHAT ARE YOUR CHARITY’S AVERAGE MONTHLY EXPENSES?
A: It’s difficult to say. It depends on how many animals we will rescue that month or how many will be given to us to care for. Here is an example. The cost of multiple operations and further treatment of Voltik, one of our hardest patients, who was run over by a car and suffered broken hind legs, broken tail, an injured paw and massive skin loss, was 500 AZN. He was literary put back together like a puzzle by Alla Hanum, my most trusted vet who’d treated our animals for nearly 13 years. She inserted steel implants into Voltik’s hips so that he could walk again. As far as the food expenses are concerned, I’ll give you an estimate: a well-fed dog consumes about 15 kg (33 lbs) of dry dog food per month. Naturally, a hungry dog off the street would eat much more. I can’t possibly afford these sums of money on my own, so I have to use the “Friends” donations to keep our cats, dogs and multiple colonies well-nurtured. Moreover, we pay for the animals’ sterilisation, medical care and vaccination as well as foster homes boarding services.
Q: WHO DONATES TO YOUR CHARITY?
A: We rely on donations to make our work possible. There are kind people who donate money to our cause. Embarrassingly enough, the generous people who do help us out are forced by the public opinion to keep it to themselves. They are afraid of becoming a laughing stock. The normal reaction is: “In the country where people’s life is too hard why would you help stray animals?!” A few times a year we organise charity events for fundraising.
King, an old dog, was run over by a car. He was in a terrible state, bold, rottening alive, smelly and immobile.
Q: WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE BATTLE AGAINST ANIMAL CRUELTY IN THE PLACE WHERE IT APPEARS TO BE THE LEAST PRIORITY?
A: I’ve always wanted to make a difference. Before I got involved in rescuing stray animals, I was a volunteer of an ecological group named “Don’t Trash Our City”. We carried out a few campaigns, picking up rubbish on the beach and posting “Please Don’t Litter” signs. Eventually our posters would be ripped off and chucked away only to add on to a load of rubbish people leave behind every day. So, that was a lost cause. Nowadays, I do other volunteering type of work at a local orphanage and an old folk home.
Q: WHAT’S YOUR DREAM IDEA?
A: I would like to open a sanctuary for injured and disabled stray animals. But I would only do it with secure sponsorship rather than occasional donations. I need to be certain that animals whose lives depend on me will have a stable financial resource for all their needs. The last thing I want is to have hundreds of ill and disabled cats and dogs living in a full scale rescue shelter and to suddenly find myself without a budget.
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….As we were sat in her living room talking, Valeriya was answering her phone from time to time. She was co-ordinating a pick-up of a wounded street dog hurt by the latest dog catcher’s brutal shooting. When she had it all sorted, she sighed: “It’s a full-on, all-consuming hard work to save stray animals here and I am to co-ordinate every step of the way.”
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Valeriya and Bonechka
Valeriya’s group can’t stand to see animals suffering. Can you? For those of us who are looking for a way to make a difference, contributing to her cause is the most direct help you can give to stray animals of Baku. If you are in Azerbaijan and decide you’d like a rescued puppy or a kitten, then please, think about contacting “Friends“. Please phone Lyaman Alieva at 050 597 6923 (Azerbaijani, Russian and English).
