From fighting the consequences — to a systemic solution

Mass sterilisation is recognised worldwide as the most effective and humane way to reduce the number of stray animals. The key word is accessibility: owners and volunteers must be able to book an operation within the shortest possible time, not wait for months.

This can be achieved without building new municipal facilities — it is enough to involve private veterinary clinics through contracts with local self-government bodies. This quickly scales the number of operations using the city's and region's existing capacity.

Volyn's biggest gap is its remote settlements. Elderly people and low-income families often have neither a car nor a way to bring an animal to a clinic. For them veterinary help is effectively unavailable.

The solution is a specially equipped vehicle (a mobile vet team) working on a schedule across the region's communities. The vet arrives, performs the sterilisation on site, and the owner or volunteer takes the animal home to recover. This brings the service closer to people and covers even the most remote villages.

Over four years of work we have become convinced: a large share of owners do not sterilise their animals not out of cruelty, but because of a lack of information and persistent myths. And, importantly, even people who can well afford it do the same. Accessible sterilisation is not enough: it must be accompanied by constant, consistent explanation of why it is needed.

The campaign must be a permanent part of the work of local authorities, not a one-off action, and use every available channel: local media and TV, community and city-council social networks, schools, vet clinics, village heads and councils, clinics, administrative service centres, notice boards.

Important: an awareness campaign without accessible sterilisation only irritates people, while accessibility without explanation does not change habits. Only the pairing of “I understand why” + “there is a place and the means to do it” works.

Controlling the problem without records is impossible. The gradual introduction of registration and electronic identification (microchipping) of dogs and cats would allow us to:

• return lost animals to owners faster;
• identify the owner of an abandoned animal and hold them accountable;
• monitor vaccination and keep reliable statistics;
• plan sterilisation programmes more precisely where they are most needed.

Most stray animals were not born on the street — they became strays through human irresponsibility. Responsibility should therefore be strengthened for abandoning animals, uncontrolled free-roaming, systematic uncontrolled breeding and improper keeping.

Separately, the question of encouraging the sterilisation of owned animals deserves discussion — through local programmes compensating the cost of the operation or other economic mechanisms. Such decisions must be taken strictly within current law and after broad public consultation.

Every sterilised animal that finds a family frees up space to rescue the next one. In 2025 alone we placed 98 animals in families — a result that can be scaled with proper support.

We need to support NGOs and volunteers in finding owners, create a single information resource on adoption, hold themed events and promote responsible adoption of animals from shelters.

For animals already on the street, life should be eased until they are sterilised and rehomed. A practical step is to set up, in agreed locations, feeding points with constant access to water.

This is not only humane — it is a matter of human safety. A dog's aggression almost always arises from hunger or fear, not from “natural viciousness”: a hungry animal defends territory and resources; a fed, calm one does not.

Our 4-year experience: not a single dog has bitten us. In the rare cases when an animal tried to defend itself, the cause was fear of humans, not aggression. Feeding and water work for community safety.

Today Lutsk has no accessible mechanism for the civilised cremation of owned and stray animals. Because of this people are forced to find a burial method themselves, leading to spontaneous cemeteries and burials in forests.

The city and region should create an official mechanism for cremation or disposal of animals — the region's first dignified farewell service. Only once a lawful and accessible alternative exists can we speak of effective enforcement of the rules.

No single NGO, municipal enterprise or volunteer will solve this problem alone. Likewise, no local self-government body will achieve results without cooperating with NGOs, vets, philanthropists and active residents. Only constant dialogue between all sides will allow us to build a system that works for decades.

The stray-animal problem is not only about humanity. It is about public safety, sanitation, health protection and the effective use of budget funds. Under the improvement programme alone, in 2026 the city is allocating over 120 million UAH.

36M UAH is earmarked for landscaping Lutsk in 2026 — part of this sum would be enough for several mobile veterinary vehicles for community visits.

10.2M UAH is set aside for the overhaul of public squares — part of these funds could create the first municipal crematorium for animals and expand sterilisation, vaccination and microchipping programmes.

We do not propose abandoning city improvement. We propose balancing priorities so that, alongside landscaping, long-term systemic solutions are funded too.