Wounded animals find home in Russian shelter
RAPPOLOVO, Russia - A lion that escaped from an airport, a crocodile found at a rubbish dump and an elk attacked by stray dogs - all these animals have found refuge in an unusual private shelter in Russia.
Dozens of bears have also passed through the Veles center, just outside Saint Petersburg, since it was opened in 2009 by businessman Alexander Fyodorov, who says he spent more than $1 million on the project.
"Our aim is to treat wild animals and get them back on their legs again in order to release them if that's possible," he said of the center in Rappolovo, 20 kilometers out of Russia's second city.
"Some of the animals were found after accidents, others were abandoned. Sometimes their stories are like the plot of a film," said Fyodorov.
One particularly dramatic story is that of a lioness called Elza, who escaped in Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport in December last year.
"Elza was sent from Grozny (the capital of Chechnya) by a Chechen businessman to his friend in Saint Petersburg as a New Year's gift," Fyodorov said.
Keeping exotic wild animals as pets has long been fashionable among certain rich or novelty-seeking Russians but often ends unhappily with animals mistreated or escaping.
Other animals come to the shelter after incidents in the wild.
Four staff and around 10 volunteers work in Rappolovo, where the animals are kept in huge cages or enclosures around a large stone building housing a medical facility.
Despite Russia's huge size, human activity is increasingly encroaching on the animals' natural habitat and making it harder for them to survive in the wild.
"In Russia, you can count centers like this, where there is real help given to wild animals, on the fingers of one hand," said Svetlana Ilyinskaya, co-director of the Centre for Legal Protection of Animals, a Moscow NGO.
There are around 50 million abandoned pets in the country, particularly cats and dogs, that breed in the wild as owners often do not sterilize them, she said.
Agence France-presse
(China Daily 12/29/2018 page9)
