Treating animals humanely

Members of the city’s School No. 23 Tourism and Excursions Society come to the woods every winter bringing generous gifts for their inhabitants. At first, the kids brought candies, bananas and apples for the forest animals, but they have already learned by now that the boars like corn grains and potatoes, the wisents and the moose prefer beets, the titmice eat pig fat and millet, while the deer appreciate wheat grains. The young tourists usually hold their “A Treat for a Beast” event near Lutsk, on the land of state-owned entity “Zviriv Hunting Farm.” Despite its proximity to the city, the park’s wildlife population is among the largest in Ukraine.

Ruslana Melnyk, director of the children’s Tourism and Excursions Society and Tourist Club “We,” said that the children had seen a few deer herds, boar sounders and even a wisent, the patriarch of the forest. The latter beast was seen for the first time in three years, because it only rarely crosses the human trails. These impressions, without doubt, were very memorable and exciting. All students of the Lutsk School No. 23 joined the society’s members in collecting treats for the beasts. They bought some with their parents’ money and brought some more from home, while foresters took the kids by sledge across the snow-covered forest to feeders, where the students laid out the treats on their own. Of course, the foresters provide food supplement regularly to the animals, but Melnyk sees such activity as the best kind of lesson on the local environment. She often goes on nature outings with the society’s members. The kids have visited the Cherem Nature Reserve, gone along the Horyn Slopes Environmental Trail, been to the Vorotniv Botanical Reserve and even the Prypiat and Stokhid National Nature Park, where they saw the village of Svalovychi, converted into an outdoor museum. They plant trees, remove garbage from the woods, and harvest birch sap every year, thus learning to be nature’s friends, respect and appreciate it. They have learned to kindle fire and cook porridge over it. They did this very thing after working as a volunteer forester team in Zviriv. It should be noted that buckwheat porridge tastes especially great when it has been cooked in a pot over an outdoor fire on a frosty day!