WHEN war breaks out it is not only human lives that are shattered.

Hundreds of dogs are thrown onto the street and left to fend for themselves.

But help is at hand for those in Sarajevo after the RSPCA stepped in.

Ben Simms of the Horsham-based charity set up a crisis team to travel to devastated areas and launch a rescue operation to save dogs abandoned when their owners fled the Bosnian capital.

The team trained people living there to ensure the work continued after it left.

Ben, 33, said: "It all started 12 months ago when we were contacted by the British Army and asked if we could go out and look at the plight of companion animals.

"Agriculture is a priority because it feeds the nation and obviously human life is a priority, but companion animals are not."

War leads to an increase in the population of animals living on the streets.

rauma

But the problem facing Ben and his team was not just the sheer number of strays but the cruelty they faced.

The first problem was the cruelty by state dog wardens using wire to catch the animals and harming them in the process.

Those that survived the trauma of being caught were taken to overcrowded kennels without food or water and left to die.

Ben said: "Dog catchers were running round the streets with loose pieces of wire, trying to catch the dogs and half-strangling them in the process.

"We held a seminar for dog catchers and trained them in basic practices and we gave them £5,000 of new equipment so they could catch stray dogs properly.

"By issuing the new equipment we have been able to transform the operation overnight from a totally barbaric and utterly cruel operation to one that is humane."

This has meant better conditions immediately for the 4,500 dogs rounded up in Sarajevo each year.

Ben's eventual aim is to build a sanctuary where stray animals could be adopted on land given by the Bosnian government.

ruelty

The crisis team also had to deal with cruelty to the dogs by children. Some youngsters, traumatised by war, took out their problems on animals.

The RSPCA officers went into schools. Ben said: "We needed to talk to teachers in the hope of getting those who work with traumatised children to get them to respect animals and teach them it is wrong to hurt them."

He says the whole operation has been a great success and he will return to Sarajevo to follow up the initial work.

Ben said: "This is the RSPCA working internationally at its best. It is both promoting kindness to animals and preventing cruelty in very concrete ways.

"We have helped a great many animals who have been through a lot of suffering.

"We have made dramatic improvements on the ground and also sown the seeds for long-term improvements in animal welfare by promoting kindness to animals.

"We have been very impressed by the Bosnian authorities' willingness to admit there has been a problem and address it constructively by inviting us in."

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