置き去りのペットを救済　ウクライナの動物シェルター

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナ西部の都市、リビウの動物救護センターに次々と運び込まれる動物たち──。ロシアの侵攻に伴い、国外へと避難する人々に置き去りにされるペットだ。（写真はウクライナ西部リビウの動物救護センターに収容された犬）
　動物救護センター「Ｈｏｍｅ　ｆｏｒ　Ｒｅｓｃｕｅｄ　Ａｎｉｍａｌｓ」ではこれまで、ペットとしてはあまり一般的ではない動物を主に保護してきた。目の白濁したオオカミがおりの中にいたり、春の光を浴びて顔をくしゃくしゃにするヤギがいたりする。日陰の止まり木ではフクロウが数羽、周りをのぞいている。そして今、放置されたペットが同様に保護されている。
　敷地内の離れには、首都キエフからやって来た十数匹の猫が入れられている。悲しそうな声を上げてボランティアに散歩をせがむ犬がいるのは作業小屋だ。
「ハリコフ、キエフ、ミコライウから来て、リビウ経由で国外に逃れる人々が置き去りにしていった動物がたくさんいます」と管理人のオレスト・ザリプスキさん（２４）は説明する。
　珍しい動物の「保護区」として運営されてきたこのシェルターは、１３世紀にさかのぼる歴史的都市リビウを見下ろす丘にある。「この戦争でさらに忙しくなりました」とザリプスキさんは言う。
　ポーランド国境まで７０キロの地点にあるリビウは、国外脱出する多くの人にとって、国内最後の中継地だ。これから難民となる人々にとって、ペットを一緒に連れて行くことは難しい。
　ザリプスキさんによるとロシアの侵攻開始以降、ウクライナ東部の「紛争地域」の避難民やシェルターから引き取った動物は、約１５００匹に上るという。
　すでに戦火にまみれている東部から来たある犬は２週間、犬舎から離れようとしなかった。７年間連れ添った飼い主に捨てられた猫は、ひどく打ちひしがれている。
　ボランティアのメンバーは「みんなかまれたり、引っかかれたりしています」とザリプスキさん。「動物たちは大きなストレスを感じています」
　だが、ここに残された動物が放置されることはない。すでに約２００匹がリビウ市民に引き取られ、残りの大半はボランティアによってドイツ、ラトビア、リトアニアの受け入れ先に運ばれている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/04/04-08:42）

At the Home for Rescued Animals in the city of Lviv, exotic creatures are now sheltered alongside everyday pets -- those left behind in the rush of refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
A milky-eyed wolf prowls in its enclosure. Boris the goat bathes his bedraggled face in the spring sunshine. A parliament of owls peers out from the perches of their shaded roost.
In a side building around a dozen cats from Kyiv are lodged. Dogs yowl from an industrial barn, courting volunteers arriving to walk them round nearby parkland.
Migrants who come from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv and go abroad via Lviv leave animals en masse, said 24-year-old shelter manager Orest Zalypskyy.
His hilltop sanctuary in the 13th century city of Lviv was once a haven reserved for exotic animals, he says.
This war has made us more engaged.
- Left behind -
The UN estimates more than 3.7 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the war began a month ago.
More than two million of those crossed the border to Poland, where AFP has witnessed droves of animal lovers ferrying dogs, cats, parrots and turtles to safety.
Lviv -- just 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the border -- has been the final stopover on Ukrainian soil for many making the journey out of the war zone.
Some soon-to-be refugees felt unable to take their pets further.
Zalypskyy estimates his shelter has taken in 1,500 animals since the war began, from migrants and shelters in hot spots to the east.
Between 10 and 20 were collected from Lviv's train station -- the locus of chaos in the first days of the war, where carriages and platforms heaved with desperate passengers.
There's been no system, says Zalypskyy. We just have many volunteers who head out and fetch them.
One dog from a war-torn region in the east did not leave its pen for two weeks. A cat abandoned by its owner of seven years is distraught.
We are all bitten and scratched, said Zalypskyy of his volunteer teams. The animals are very stressed.
- Onward travel -
However the animals left here do not languish. Around 200 have been adopted by the locals of Lviv, while most of the rest are taken onwards by volunteers to Germany, Latvia and Lithuania.
There are currently no cats available for adoption -- they are all bound for Poland.
By noon Zalypskyy has already signed his third set of dog adoption paperwork for the day.
Meanwhile the shelter is inundated with couples, friends and families arriving to borrow dogs for a weekend stroll.
Ukrainians really adore animals, says 36-year-old Kateryna Chernikova. It's just in the DNA.
With her husband Ihor, 36, and four-year-old daughter Solomiia, Chernikova fled Kyiv a week before war broke out.
The young family plus their two guinea pigs Apelsynka and Lymonadka (Orange and Lemonade) -- now live in the relative safety of Lviv, which has been largely untouched by violence.
On Saturday morning they leashed a pair of boisterous hunting dogs and set out through the shelter gates, under a fluttering Ukrainian flag.
We're not in the war conditions itself, but it's psychologically very hard, said Chernikova.
When you have a walk with a dog, it just feels as if you're living a normal life.