Woman feeds stray cats to prevent them starving to death in sealed basements

Описание: (8 Feb 2013) SHOTLIST
AP TELEVISION
1. Wide of 72-year-old Antonina Gayenko, a retiree, feeding stray cat
2. Close-up of cat eating
3. Cat comes out of hole as Gayenko puts down some food
4. Wide of apartment building where cats are located
5. Gayenko calling to cats through metal panel with holes
6. Close-up of cat viewed through hole in metal panel, pan to another hole
7. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Antonina Gayenko, Minsk resident:
"No one has chased me away. No one has got angry. There were only three or four cats before. People just said, 'well if the clinic is throwing them out, we'll come and feed them.' What's so wrong about me feeding the cat? I feed them using my own money."
8. Wide of cat eating
9. Cat sticks its head out of hole, another cat comes along and knocks over food container before going through hole
STORYLINE
A 72-year-old woman in the Belarusian capital of Minsk has been feeding stray cats to prevent them starving to death in basements of sealed apartment buildings.
City authorities have been sealing off apartment block basements to keep out rats, but as a tragic consequence, cats, who have become trapped inside, are left to waste away.
Antonina Gayenko said she couldn't stand the suffering of the cats holed up inside the buildings, and had come to feed some cats through small holes in the metal plates used to board up the basements.
"No one has chased me away. No one has got angry. There were only three or four cats before. People just said, 'well if the clinic is throwing them out, we'll come and feed them.' What's so wrong about me feeding the cat? I feed them using my own money," she said.
Minsk authorities said they have to block off the basements of apartment buildings in line with Soviet-era health rules.
Local residents said authorities do not check to see whether there are animals left in a basement before sealing it.
Concerned citizens have drilled larger holes in the metal plates to allow the cats to escape.
Belarus has no long-term shelters to house stray animals.
An estimated 9,000 strays have been killed in the capital alone over the past three years.
Stray animals in Belarus are placed in shelters for five days and are then put down by injection if they are not claimed by their owners.


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