Although the Republic of Azerbaijan joined the European Convention for the Protection of Pets in 2007, according to which the government was supposed to adopt possible measures to reduce the number of homeless animals (through neutering) without causing them suffering, pain, or discomfort, stray dog killings in the capital Baku and other regions have never stopped for all these years.

The mass killings are directly ordered and performed by government’s executive authority, but often government’s cruel behaviour towards homeless animals shapes the same attitude among citizens, who feel free to get around shooting and poisoning innocent dogs at night, in broad daylight and many times even if front of children.

No dogs are safe in Azerbaijan. Every day, dozens continue to be exterminated despite being neutered/spayed, notched on ear homeless dogs or roaming owned pets.

OIPA International has been exposing these slaughters for years, becoming the voice of local volunteers and animal activists who have never been heard.

This time, we ask for your help to call on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat to reconsider their decision to host the next 2024 UN Climate Change Conference, commonly known as COP 29, from 11 to 22 November 2024 in Baku.

A country that does not respect and protect its animals and its humans, it cannot be a country able to respect the climate, the environment and a positive example of a global #OneHealth approach.

Read the letter to the UNFCCC Secretariat: Open Letter_Consideration on COP29_OIPA_April17_2024

TAKE ACTION!

Repost and share in groups

Tag authorities, media, influencers, organizations

Tag UN Climate Change on social media and Write a protest email asking the UN to change location for COP29 (secretariat@unfccc.int – press@unfccc.int)

Share what OIPA has done and raise awareness: https://www.oipainternational.org/oipa-azerbaijan/

Less than a month ago, we asked for your support to help our local representative OIPA in Baku include in the autumn sterilization campaign six stray cats left out of the program due to a lack of fund.

Thanks to your prompt response, we finally covered the spaying of seven (not six) female cats.

PS. One of the cats showed in our initial appeal could not be caught (this time!), however she was replaced with a three-colour female and a seventh black and white cat was added to the initial list of “outsiders”.

You can continue to support OIPA Azerbaijan and help us guarantee a regular sterilization program for the feline colonies and abandoned cats our volunteer looks after in Baku.

Today we won’t bother you writing too much. These beauties are just six of the many homeless cats living in Baku, Azerbaijan, which need to be sterilized.

Our local volunteer has been carrying out an autumn sterilization campaign but the lack of donations has left these six tails out of the program.

We’d like to give them the same opportunity and add their names to the list. Our today’s wish is to collect enough donations or find a sponsor that can cover the costs. Each sterilization is about 45 €, we need to collect less than 300 € to reach the goal.

Would you help us?

A terrible incident occurred in the Khachmaz region of Azerbaijan where a dog lost his life after being repeatedly shot with pellets in the head.

The team of a local private shelter had found the animal two days after the episode still alive tied up in a bag and dumped in a remote place to die. The dog suffered in agony for two entire days.

Transferred from Khachmaz district to a vet clinic in the capital Baku after 2 hours of driving, it was too late for him and unfortunately, he could not be saved. In Azerbaijan, there are no equipped vet clinics and not so many qualified veterinarians, who could provide neither first aid nor spaying/neutering service outside the capital Baku. Many animals die with no care, while many of those who have a chance to travel to the capital may die along the way.

The dog had a collar, probably someone had seen the four paws roaming inside his yard and had decided to shot him for unknown reasons. Police are still inactive on the case and the culprit on the loose being a danger for animals and humans.

Despite the country signed the European Convention on the protection of pet animals in 2007, there are no laws to protect animals in Azerbaijan. Not only the population of stray dogs is controlled throughout the country by the shooting of executive authorities’ employees, but many citizens are so familiar with these cruel practise that are used to kill, shoot, poison, stone, hack animals remaining completely unpunished.

Azerbaijan is not a safe country for animals!

Last June, we asked for your help to sterilize 6 cats abandoned nearby one of the cat colonies looked after by our volunteer in Baku, Azerbaijan. Thanks to your donations, we have been able to spay not six but 7 females contributing to avoid the birth of new litters that would have a few chances to survive and would only increase the number of homeless animals on the streets.

Our next goal is to help OIPA Azerbaijan sterilize other 7 kittens in the coming months.

Don’t forget that our delegation is always looking for support. Volunteers feed stray dogs and cats, they care for them, pay for their spaying/neutering and for the temporary homes of rescued dogs and cats while looking for adoption. Donations from local supporters are not enough, so additional support from international animal lovers is highly needed.

READ OUR INITIAL APPEAL

This is the touching story of a brave and wonderful woman who is dedicating her life to stray animals in Azerbaijan. A special person, a person able to give up everything for the love and sake of animals.

This is the story of our beloved Ilhama – OIPA Representative in Azerbaijan – told in her own words:

“Before I entered the world of protection and rescuing of homeless animals, I seemed to live in another world. Remembering now for what insignificant and useless reasons I used to suffer and cry and I hate myself for this because there is something in this world, I mean in the world of stray animals, that can’t be even compared with the meaningless worries I used to have.

When you continuously see the pain, the sadness and the plea for help of these innocent souls, who anyway wag theirs tails despite the suffering and cruelty of people, nothing makes sense anymore.

I had been a fashion buyer for a long time. I often flied to Italy for work and I also studied Italian. I loved Italy and I still love it, a country where I have never felt like a stranger. However, one day, I finally took the decision. I left my favourite work and all I loved.

I started by feeding stray cats and dogs in 2017. By that time, I left the job and I also underwent a cystoscopy, with carcinoma diagnosis, since I had a tumour removed in my bladder. During that period, I was taking money from my family for the treatment but, from that amount, I was keeping a small part for feeding animals. The deeper I faced the reality, the scarier and more painful it became. I have been in the world of animal protection since 2017. Now I am 48 years old and in the last six years, I have spilled more tears than I had spilled for the previous forty-two.

Animal protection is a world of tears and grief for an animal rights activist and animal lover.

I have been saving, feeding, treating, sterilizing homeless animals with my own money and donations from few people. I sold everything I loved: gold things, favourite watches, bracelets and so on. Even now, I keep selling my things for them. I realized I do not need all this. For me, it is much more important to feed a hungry animal and to save his/her life, than to have tangible properties.

My family still cannot understand why I gave up everything and started doing this, they all think I am crazy and they can’t accept my choice. My father doesn’t even know what I am doing because he would anyway be categorically against my work and the love I feel for animals.

He doesn’t know much, even the fact that a cat lives in our house. I saved in November 2022 from the side of the road, who had a fracture of 5 ribs and a pelvis. Now she lives with a diaphragmatic hernia after an injury, since in Azerbaijan they do not risk doing such operations. I hide this cat in my room in the evenings when my dad comes home from work.

I spend almost most of my life on the streets. When everyone goes to work, I also go out in the morning to feed one part of the homeless cats, in the evening I go to feed all the cats in the area, as well as stray dogs.

A lot of stray dogs, I used to feed for many years, were caught and killed by the employees of the stray dog ​​killing centre, which has been operating under the cover of being a care centre for 4 years already. The excuse for these murders is always the same “many people complain”- they say – so for them it’s easier to kill than save, because in Azerbaijan stray dog population is kept under control by shooting and poisoning animals by local municipalities.

I stand trial for complaining against the employees of the centre and I was fined without my guilty being proved. I’m sure that this was done intentionally to shut my mouth, because in Azerbaijan no one is allowed to actively expose and reveal what happens to homeless animals.

I used to join protests against the killing of stray animals and animal rights. For years, I have been trying to text and appeal to everyone, to complain everywhere, trying to draw attention to the situation with stray animals in our country, but I have not been heard yet. The only thing I know is that I will never give up!

It is very difficult to fight for animal rights in a country where there is no law on the protection of animals. In a country where not only you must fight against government and local authorities but also against rude and uncompassionate people of your own country that hate dogs or cats, kill them and at the same time remain unpunished.

If you want to know more about Ilhama (who is OIPA representative in Azerbaijan), her activity and the cruel reality of stray animals in her country or if you wish to help her, you can follow her social media:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ilhama.nasirova?mibextid=ZbWKwL

IG: https://instagram.com/elzax2001?igshid=ZDdkNTZiNTM

FB OIPA Azerbaijan: https://www.facebook.com/OIPAAzerbaijan

EMAIL: azerbaijan@oipa.org

This summer new abandoned female cats, included mums with tiny kittens, appeared out of nowhere in the area of Baku where our representative in Azerbaijan usually feeds strays. Lost and confused about their new situation, they were shyly looking for food and for lovely attentions. Volunteers are now taking care of them, however to avoid the birth of new litters that will increase the number of animals with uncertain fate who will have a few chances to survive on the streets, OIPA Azerbaijan asks for your help to cover the costs of sterilization for the 6 new arrivals.

Our representative feeds strays, treats them, and pays for spaying/neutering and for temporary homes of rescued dogs and cats. Donations from local supporters are not enough, so she needs international animal lovers support.

Our representative in Azerbaijan has shared a news that left us speechless.

Today, Deputy Tahir Karimli, member of Azerbaijani Milli Mejlis (National Assembly) has proposed to export stray dogs of Azerbaijan to China and Korea as a solution to the issue of homeless dog population.

Deputy Tahir Karimli declared: “There should be a solution to street dogs. Let’s export the dogs to China, Korea, or find a solution in some other way. We are tired of stray dogs, let’s feed them to the Chinese and Koreans.”

Our representative commented: “Today when the whole world, all compassionate people from all over the world, many deputies and members of Parliament from all over the world, as well as all international organizations for the protection of animals are fighting the dog meat trade in China and Korea and they are trying to stop the terrible torment of dogs slaughtered for food consumption, our deputy came out with this declaration! He said that there are a lot of stray dogs and they make people nervous and he never mentioned as SOLUTİON TNVR (trap, neuter, spay, release)! The deputy publicly affirmed this, despite the fact that Azerbaijan is one of the first countries to have signed the European Convention on the protection of Animals. I would like to underline that, in my country, stray dog population is controlled by shooting and poisoning animals by official employees of executive authorities of Azerbaijan. I think now you all understood why there is no animal protection laws in my country reading all this.

Animal rights defender Farid Mansurov replied the deputy and demanded him to apologize.

Read the news:

https://1news.az/news/20230531043525124-Takhir-Kerimli-Mozhet-soberem-bezdomnykh-sobak-i-prodadim-Koree

https://1news.az/news/20230601103734963-Farid-Mansurov-otreagiroval-na-predlozhenie-Takhira-Kerimli-prodat-bezdomnykh-sobak-v-Koreyu-On-dolzhen-byt-lishen-mandata

(*source photo: 1newz.az)

READ MORE ABOUT STRAY DOGS IN AZERBAIJAN :

https://www.oipainternational.org/oipa-azerbaijan/

While feeding stray dogs in the suburbs of Baku last February, some volunteers made a sad discovery: another mum abandoned with her litter of five puppies.

They fed and gave water to the mum and transferred the litter on a fluffy pillow placed under a bush to keep puppies warm and safe from possible dangers. In Azerbaijan, stray dogs are shot and poisoned by employees of the executive authority and heartless people, no matter if they are only puppies or mums who just gave birth.

The five little tails have been monitored and looked after by volunteers for weeks, however some days ago our local representative got a call asking for help. Unfortunately, one of the puppy died and the other four needed urgent recovery. Taken immediately to a vet clinic to check their health conditions, they all tested positive for canine parvovirus (CPV) and sadly, for one of them it was already too late.

Only three survived. These little angels have started the treatment against CPV and they are now fighting for their lives.

OIPA Azerbaijan is asking for support to cover veterinary costs for the three puppies, which include exams, treatment, specific food and hospitalization.

We wish them a full recovery and we hope they will find a loving family and a warm house where to spend their life.

❤ Make a donation, specifying “OIPA Azerbaijan – Puppies with parvo” ❤

👉 For direct info or adoption: azerbaijan@oipa.org

The daily routine of our OIPA’s representative in Azerbaijan is feeding and taking care of neglected stray cats and dogs that invisible live on the edge, in a country that unfortunately represents one of the worst examples in terms of animal welfare and animal rights.

Not only municipalities do not pay attention to homeless animals, but also citizens contribute to worsen animals’ living conditions by refusing to sterilize their pets and then dumping pregnant cats and an incredible number of kittens on the streets.

Recently, our representative Ilhama found an abandoned mother cat with 3 female kittens and other two nearby the area where she usually goes to feed and care of strays every day. She carried all of them to a vet clinic for some health check and for scheduling their sterilizations, as it was urgently needed considering their critical age.

A few days later, other two little kittens, not even two months old, were found abandoned: LUI and LIYA.

💙 LUI was roaming crying in search of food on the side of a road, while Liya was thrown into a yard in a terrible state. Examined by a vet, the condition of Lui was luckily good after all. He was treated from fleas and worms and got his first vaccination.

❤️ LIYA’s condition was visibly more serious. She couldn’t walk properly with her left paw, her eye was inflamed, her nose clogged with blood, she had wounds on both ears and a head injury. It wasn’t sure if Liya could have been able to see and walk again, but…after 10 days of treatment she began to walk again and her sight restored completely. Only a little part of the right ear rotted and fell out because of trauma, but this little warrior princess is recovering fast. She is now in good condition, she got her vaccination and with a new passport, she is now ready to be adopted together with his little friend Lui.

With your support, we can help OIPA Azerbaijan cover the cost of sterilizations, vaccinations and vet treatments for these little kittens and for all those are yet to come!

💙 Even a few euros can make the difference in the life of a stray 💙

Info adoption: azerbaijan@oipa.org

SEPTEMBER 2022 – UPDATE

NOVEMBER 2022 – UPDATE

Liya has been successfully adopted ❤️ One more stray kitten rescued! Congratulation to the family and we wish Liya the best life ever!