Photo EXCLUSIVE

Thousands march for animal rights in Kyiv (PHOTOS)

Prev 01 16 Next
A woman and her cat attend the annual Animal Rights March in Taras Shevchenko Park on Sept. 5, 2021.
Photo by Volodymyr Petrov

An annual animal rights march, organized by an animal rights movement UAnimals, was held all around Ukraine on Sept. 5.

Thousands of people in thirty Ukrainian cities, as well as on the Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base in Antarctica, took part in the march.

In Kyiv, several thousand people have gathered in Taras Shevchenko Park and marched through the downtown to the parliament shouting slogans to forbid animals in circuses and animal abuse in general. Even heavy rain didn’t scare off activists.

Protesters demanded the government to ban circuses with animals, fur farms, dolphinariums, pickling stations, and contact zoos, as well as enforce harsher punishments for animal abusers.

“We are sick of the parliament ignoring most animal protection bills. We are sick of the fact that animal abuse is still sold as entertainment. We are sick of the fact that animal abusers are acquitted by the courts,” the organizers wrote on Facebook.

“Ukraine’s future depends on us. And we must fight for a humane future. Protecting the weak is a matter for the strong!” they added.

This is the fourth year the animal rights march is organized in Ukraine.