I remember getting my vaccinations at the travel clinic before my first visit to Ukraine about five years ago. In addition to significant presence of tuberculosis, there were cases of polio and lots of stray dogs that could be carrying rabies. I immediately thought of the 1957 film Old Yeller about a boy who adopts a stray dog that, at the end of the movie, he must kill because the dog contracts rabies. Rabies is almost unheard of in the U.S. today. If you go to the CDC website and look at the notifications for Ukraine you will find the following. "Rabid dogs are commonly found in Ukraine. If you are bitten or scratched by a dog or other mammal while in Ukraine, there may be limited or no rabies treatment available." Yikes!
So, when I arrived in Kherson Ukraine the first thing I noticed was stray dogs, lots of them. I have been around dogs all my life so I was not particularly afraid, just careful. Many of the stray dogs were very friendly and came up to me but I resisted the temptation to pet them. After living in Kherson for about four years now I have seen the rather interesting and complex situation with dogs here.
There are three different kinds of dogs roaming around unsupervised. There are the neighborhood dogs. They are the dogs that live in the yards or common areas around apartments and other buildings. They have a territory and people feed them regularly. In fact, many of them are quite overweight. They can be very aggressive if they do not recognize you. Then there are the pack dogs. The video in this post is of a pack that had decided to follow a couple of girls in my neighborhood. They don't tend to stay in a particular area and may or may not be aggressive depending on the pack. They are somewhat of a danger to people but considerably more dangerous for the other stray dogs and cats which can present a good meal, especially in the winter months. Finally, there are the unsupervised pets, rarely leashed and often aggressive if they are protecting their masters. I have found them to be the most aggressive of all the dogs and just as likely not to be vaccinated as any of the stray dogs.
I carry a can of pepper spray just in case I get cornered but I've never had to use it. I used to carry a small collapsible baton but, as I talked about in an earlier post, it got me into trouble with the police here. In general, I find that if I leave the dogs alone they return the favor.
