"All animals were brutalized." Ryazan educational zoocenter due to the pandemic was on the verge of survival

A little more than 100 animals of the Ryazan educational zoocenter “My Little Farm”, saved from the street or from unbearable conditions of detention, will soon begin to starve: excursions that were the only source of income of the Center are prohibited from the end of March. In early April, the Ryazans raised 45 thousand rubles for the zoocenter - this money was enough for a monthly supply of food. A few have already responded to the second call to help. If the ban on visiting educational and entertainment centers will last until the end of summer, animals may not survive.

Two months of downtime

Two raccoons, rabbits, goats, goose, fox, dogs and parrots rush to any stranger in search of communication - they miss visitors. Only Pythonich Lucy, who swallowed a frozen mouse on Sunday, remains calm, and will begin to worry about the next dinner only on Friday. The organizer and director of the Zoocenter "My Little Farm" Olga Zotkin cannot be heard for some time behind a different-voting hubbub and a bang. “My animals were completely brutalized,” she says, cleaning in the cage of Nadoshka's raccoon. Now Zotkina is a director, a utility worker, a cleaner, and a PR man, because because of a number of “coronavirus” problems, only one volunteer remained in assistants. For about two years, Zotkina has been helped by a retired mother, who moved to the city from a small village in the region.

At the end of March, Zotkina published a request for help in which she admitted: such posts are very difficult for her. “ Unfortunately, for the second week the zoocenter has no income in connection with the aggravated epidemiological situation. Our project has no sponsors, philanthropists or guardians. There is only me, mom and raccoon. Therefore, we are forced to turn to you for help. Without you, we simply won’t survive! ”She wrote, and in a short time her account was replenished by 45 thousand rubles. This amount was enough only for feed.

But food is far from the only need for animals. They need vaccinations, preventive veterinary examinations, special additives, sawdust to enclosures - about 100 thousand rubles are required for all this. per month. “The animals need to be walked, you need to clean them - my mother and I do it, but there is no more strength for anything. Most of all, I am afraid that someone will get sick and need expensive drugs, as well as the fact that the feed will still end soon, ”Olga says, closing the next cage. - What then? Selling an apartment and moving here? ”

In early May, the well-known zoopsychologist and zoo defender, the “Raccoon Savior” from St. Petersburg Dmitry Tarasov joined in the collection of funds. He held two paid video seminars, handed over the proceeds to feed for the Little Farm. The 14 thousand rubles were gathered. - This money should be enough for the maintenance of four dogs, which at different times Olga saved from imminent death. Among them is the star of the Internet Bim, who is friends and even divides the aviary with Fili Fili. In December last year, the video with these two heroes in the main roles gained thousands of views and positive comments, and now Olga is in vain looking for a financial curator for at least one of his friends. She is ready to advertise patrons, enterprises or entrepreneurs who would agree to take patronage over some animals, but there were no people who wanted to.

"I have a hat from the same rabbit?"

When in 2016 an unknown girl from the Ryazan Shatsky district opened a menagerie, many questions appeared to her both the supervisory authorities and the zoo defenders. But very quickly they received exhaustive answers: animals here are not means of making money, but the owners who dictate the rules for treating them. If the raccoons went to sleep in her houses, then Olga will either return the money for an excursion, or invite you to come the next time when the animals will be in a more playful mood. When photographing, you can not use a blind eye to the eyes, you can’t grab and squeeze, you can’t give your treats, you can’t wake up and scream. You can buy food collected by the owners, stroke under Olga’s supervision or her mother, you can listen to stories about the life of the inhabitants of the “farm” and the conditions of their content, ask questions. You can buy magnets and calendars with the "portraits" of animals - all revenue goes to their maintenance. At the words “small business” regarding Zotkina, the mistress of the center laughs: “I don’t know how we survive, only we earn on the maintenance of the animals, and we ourselves often“ go into the minus ”. None of us are businessmen. ”

But, according to Olga, she often manages to achieve educational goals - to show people that animals are not toys or fur coats.

“The family came, we reached the next aviary, I began to talk about the rabbit of the Rex breed. I look: the woman was literally bad, he almost cries. He says: “It turns out, I have a hat from it, the same rabbit?” And the child was upset. I am sure that they will not buy clothes made of natural fur and leather, because they saw these things “alive,” says Olga.

On a simple example, she tells why it is important to sort waste. One summer, a mouse came to them in the summer, one paw of which was confused in polyethylene. Zotkina freed him, and since then he thoroughly sorts and packs the garbage prepared for export. Around the same time, I decided to order a batch of eco -drum with animal prints so that polyethylene would become as little as possible.

She “on the remote” continues to enlighten the subscribers of the “My Little Farm” group on VKontakte. In one video, Zotkin clearly explained why it is impossible to start a raccoon in the house if you are not confident in your abilities, love and patience by 200%. Forest is her home raccoon, who goes with the mistress to the zoocenter as a job, but she understood and took all the risks in advance. In the first months of his life, Raccoon defeated the whole apartment and sniffed the housewives, tore and “crossed” all the things with the wallpaper. For which I did not get a bit, but a apartment completely converted under his lifestyle with rope lads, a house and a capacity of water.

Without sun, grass and work

The restrictions on the Covid-19 were already reflected in the behavior and condition of the animals: the Fox rabbit dropped the winter fur coat, and the new wool grows up with the bald spots, the goat Stepan boots with the wall or hugs with the horns into the gate of the corral, always the polite goose of Martin began to pinch Olga at the legs and indignantly gagaka. Every year, at that time, the animals moved “to the summer phase”-to the territory of the suburban park hotel, where they breathed for six months with fresh air, wagged grass and basked in the sun. Now there is no such opportunity, and animals are in a closed room for more than six months.

“The matter is not even in the rent to the hotel, which I are not able to pay now, in addition to this, a lot of funds are required to move. For example, before moving, I must draw up for each beast form A4 - a certificate of his state of health. In that year, one certificate of relocation cost 262 rubles, I have more than a hundred animals. It is necessary to tint and correct the aviary, - Lists the articles of the cost of Zotkin. “Yes, and the hotel itself is also closed for visits, when they open it - there is no understanding.”

Olga is surprised: why were people allowed crowds in shopping centers and public transport, they work in closed offices, and did not allow educational excursions to visit? They never went to crowds to her-there is a schedule of visits to which 3-5 people are previously recorded in groups. This law of “my little farm” was invented for the sake of observing the animals of their usual daily routine: they should rest at any time when they want. Another immature rule, invented long before the pandemic to protect animals from street infection: all visitors wipe their legs on a rug with a disinfectant solution, then put on shoe covers, and then process their hands from the orderlies. Zotkina could provide each visitor with medical masks (“Yes, at least respirators with gas masks!”), As soon as they allowed the visitors again and made it possible to work.

People try to help who can: some cut and brought bundles of branches, whose bark is happy to gnaw rabbits, guinea pigs and goats, others helped with sawdust, hay, carrots. The owner of the premises exempted the rent for April. The state allocated 12 thousand rubles. As a victim of the pandemic and proposed to take an interest -free loan, which is not clear what to give. Olga considered this option, but was afraid that she would not master the payments and her animals would go to the auction to sell bankrupt property.

The other day, through the regional Commissioner for Entrepreneurs, she asked the governor Nikolai Lyubimov to allow individual excursions of 1-2 people, with all measures of protection against pandemic. I have not received an answer yet, but she is waiting. Like a hundred animals, feed for which will be enough only until the beginning of June.