134 SVETOVI / WORLDS leto 1, št. 2, julij 2023 ABSTRACT In this paper, written about the tragic earthquake in Banija (the 2020 Petrinja earthquake, also known as the Banovina earthquake) from a zoocentric perspective, I present several examples based on newspaper materials and conversations with activists from animal rights associations (Friends of Animals and Nature from Čakovec, Friends of Animals Croatia) on the condition and status of animal rescue operations after the Banija earthquake, which occurred during the coronavirus pandemic in Croatia. While the media published reports and photos about the coexistence of the human victims and their animals (both utilitarian animals and pets), animal rights activists came across many cases of previous (prior to the earthquake) neglect of animals. KEYWORDS: Banovina, earthquake, animals, speciesism, utilitarian animals, domestic animals, companion ani- mals, pets IZVLEČEK V prispevku, ki z zoocentrične perspektive obravnava tragični potres v Baniji na Hrvaškem v času pandemije koronavirusne bolezni leta 2020 (imenovan tudi potres v Petrinji oziroma banovinski potres), avtorica na podlagi časopisnega gradiva in pogovorov z aktivisti iz društev za pravice živali (Prijatelji živali in narave iz Čakovca, Prijatelji živali Hrvaške) predstavi šte- A Zoocentric Perspective on Natural Disasters: The 2020 Banija Earthquake Zoocentrična perspektiva naravnih nesreč: potres v Baniji leta 2020 Suzana Marjanić 1.01. Izvirni znanstveni članek DOI 10.4312/svetovi.1.2.134-145 135 V ol. 1, Nr. 2, July 2023 Suzana Marjanić A Zoocentric Perspective on Natural Disasters: The 2020 Banija Earthquake vilne primere razmer in statusa reševalnih akcij živali po potresu. Medtem ko so se v medijih pojavljali zapisi in fotografije o sobivanju v potresu prizadetih ljudi in njihovih živali (tako rej - nih kot hišnih ljubljenčkov), so aktivisti za pravice živali naleteli na številne primere že poprej- šnjega zanemarjanja živali. KLJUČNE BESEDE: Banovina, potres, živali, specizem, rejne živali, domače živali, tovariške živali, hišni ljubljenčki The article presents an interpretation of the Banija earthquake (the 2020 Petrinja earth - quake, also known as the Banovina earthquake) from a zoocentric perspective, looking at the ways in which the media and animal rights activists recorded and documented the fate of animals in that natural disaster. On 29 December 2020, at 12:19 pm, the Petrinja area in Croatia was hit by a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 on the Richter scale and an epicentre intensity of VIII on the EMS scale. The earthquake occurred during the coronavirus pandemic. 1 The Krško Nuclear Power Plant in Slovenia was automatically shut down for preventive reasons, although it can withstand an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale. Seven people died as a result of the earthquake and there was significant material damage in Petrinja, Sisak, Glina and the surrounding towns. 2 My interpretation is focused on utilitarian and domestic animals in the affected area, and I analyse how media captions showed compassion towards non-humans (animals). Right after the Banija earthquake, as well as after the Zagreb earthquake which occurred in the same year, newspaper articles often wrote about how animals have a sixth sense for anticipating earthquakes. 3 One of the first articles on this subject was published in 1914 under the title “ Animals and Approaching Earthquakes” in Scientific American , which docu- mented how earthquakes from the early 20th century proved that animals can sense them: For instance, in Japan horses set up an unusual agitation whenever a seismic shock is near at hand. In Central America, dogs and cats flee from houses, and the inhabitants have become so accustomed to this that they follow the example of the animals and leave their dwellings so as to escape danger. 1 It should be noted that in the context of the pandemic in Banija, considering that it is inhabited by a rural population that li- ves off the lives of domestic animals, no media reports emphasised the possibility of coronavirus transmission from humans to animals or vice versa. However, in general it was noticeable, especially when talking about the daily newspapers and certain websites in the Croatian context, that the first months of the pandemic lockdown were marked by an ambivalent attitude to - wards animals, pets, due to the demonised Chinese bat (cf. V an Beusekom 2020, Marjanić 2021). Further contributing to the demonisation of zoonoses (diseases which can be transmitted from animals to humans), journalist Ana Benačić published a re - solute article on the faktograf.hr website titled “Those Who Live with Cats Do Get Sick from COVID”, with which she almost opened up a narrative of witch hunts. The journalist aimed her critical piece at virologist Ana Gligić, MD, who was the head of the team that isolated the smallpox virus in Yugoslavia in 1972, and began her article with the assertion that the virologist, in the context of the current pandemic, was allegedly “attracting attention with imprecise and unfounded statements” that no one who owns cats got sick from COVID-19, which means, according to the virologist, that feline corona immunised against the latest strain of coronavirus (Benačić 2020, cf. Đurđević, Marjanić 2020). 2 Basic information on the Banija earthquake has been gathered on Wikipedia. 3 In 2021, Mirna Mazija (The Association for Bat Conservation Tragus) also noticed that the Zagreb earthquake (2020) helped colonies of bats find refuge in the cracks of buildings created by the earthquake (Tragus 2020). 136 SVETOVI / WORLDS leto 1, št. 2, julij 2023 In Italy it was observed that birds left their nests and flew up to a great height in the air, but this without noise, before the earthquake took place. However, at the time when the earthquake shocks were produced the birds uttered cries which lasted for all the duration of the earthquake. It is stated that in Sicily cocks crow and dogs howl just before an earthquake. (Nature America, Inc., 1914) Similar situations were reported after the Zagreb earthquake – many people said they noticed loud cawing and agitated flight in birds. 4 Unlike this anthropocentric perspective on the role of animals in earthquake premonition and announcement, which stops at estimates of how much and which animals can anticipate the ground shaking, in recent times, more research is being done from the anthropozoological perspective, looking into the suffering of animals in natural disasters. For instance, Hazuki Kajiwara’s Surviving with Companion Animals in Japan: Life After a Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster is an entire book dedicated to the impact a tsunami and the Fukushima meltdown had on animals. As the introduction points out, based on twenty-five research field trips spanning five years, “this book gives a thorough presentation of the social dynamic between survivors, their companion animals, and the general public, and highlights the emotional and psychological importance of the interspecies bond” (Kajiwara 2020). Of course, in connection to the recent earthquake in Croatia, there were also reports that animals did not anticipate the earthquake with their sixth sense after all, as document - ed by a video from a chicken farm, which actually only proves that these are animals with numb senses, considering that they are industrially raised chickens (A. Ž. 2021). I once again emphasise that this article is written from a zoocentric point of view, and I document the anthropocentric and speciesist (discrimination on the basis of species) perspective to point out the true nature of the situation in these concentration camp-like conditions on indust- rial chicken farms, as highlighted, e.g., by Joan Dunayer (2004) in her book on speciesism. And while the media published photos about the coexistence of the human victims and their animals (both utilitarian animals and pets), animal rights activists came across many previous cases (prior to the earthquake) of animal neglect. THE WHITE CA T ON THE STUMP AND IN THE ROYAL CA T HOTEL The distinguishing determinant of speciesism between petishism (pets) and other (utilita- rian) animals can be interpreted by using the recent example of the tragic earthquake that struck Banija on 29 December 2020. As the television reports showed, the affected people in Banija were already used to a hard life and most of them developed a compassionate attitude 4 In connection to the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria in 2023 (a massive 7.8 earthquake, which occurred on 6 February, killed more than forty-four thousand people in Turkey and thousands more in neighbouring Syria), the media reported that some animals behaved oddly immediately before the earthquake. Sometimes even abnormal behaviour was noted: “The foo - tage appears to show dogs barking and birds flying irregularly in the lead-up to the tragedy, which has killed more than thirty- -three thousand people” (Elton 2023). On 21 February 2023, the Humane Society International webpage stated that animal rescuers in Turkey were still finding injured, frightened animals after the earthquake. 137 V ol. 1, Nr. 2, July 2023 Suzana Marjanić A Zoocentric Perspective on Natural Disasters: The 2020 Banija Earthquake towards their animals in this utilitarian coexistence in rural households. A tragic example was recorded by journalist Maja Sever, who published a video on social media documenting the daily life of Milica Lončar after the earthquake, who “takes care of her cows, hugs and kisses them and talks about how they have to be pampered because they were frightened by the earthquake that left few people indifferent” . The journalist wrote a comment accompa - nying her post: “When you wonder why these people sleep in their yards instead of staying in temporary accommodations somewhere in the city, watch this video” (Index Magazin, 2021a). T anja V adla, a professor from the Viktorovac High School in Sisak, interpreted the relationship between the people and the domestic animals based on the animal husbandry tradition of that region: “The people of Banija refer to their animals as ‘treasure’ [Croatian: blago], 5 and not only because of material benefits. This has always been a pastoral area and its inhabitants have always been nomads. Now there are no animals, no people, and the land itself is disappearing. It has withdrawn into itself” (V adla, personal conversation, 2022). Or, as documented by journalist Davor T omšić: Everyone we found at their homes, next to demolished or semi-demolished houses, when we asked them why they stayed, they were quick to answer – because of the animals. T o them, animals are livelihoods, company, and a reason to live. ‘If we were to leave our livestock, we would have nothing’ , is a sentence that we have heard in different variations countless times in the villages around Petrinja and Glina. The cover photo taken by Index photographer Luka Šangulin tells us everything we need to know about the relationship between these people and their animals. It shows T omo Suknaić from Majske Poljane, perhaps the village that suffered the most, who managed to save his beloved horse from the ruins. (T omšić 2021) One can easily notice that the photos chosen as the most emotional in the collection for Index Magazin’s website are those that show the tragic fate of people and their animals, mostly utilitarian domestic animals, but also pets. These included photos that were heavily featured in the media, such as the photos of Milica Lončar and her cows (two cows of Ms Lončar died in the earthquake, and she managed to save two from the ruins); a photo of T omislav Suknaić and his horse Zekan, also from Majske Poljane, who lost everything in the earthquake (Mr Suknaić managed to save Zekan from the ruins); 6 a photo of the female Pekingese Medena waiting for her owner who died in the earthquake; a photo of a black dog guarding a destroyed house, etc. (Index Magazin 2021b). There is also a photo of a white cat on a tree stump in Majske Poljane, taken in the morning after the earthquake; as an illustra - tion, I provide a photo-example by Davor Pongračić/Cropix (Photo 1). The association that took care of the white cat from Majske Poljane stated: “She has no owners, they died.” This white shaggy cat on a stump can be seen as a metaphor and metonymy of 5 In contrast to Andrew Linzey (2013: vii), an American theoretician for animal rights, feminist Joan Dunayer (2004) considers that blago, bogatstvo (Eng. treasure) are to express linguistic speciesism because we define animals according to their utilita - rian function. 6 Majske Poljane was hit the hardest of all the settlements affected by the earthquake. A twenty-year-old man and his father lost their lives during the demolition of their house. Three more people were later found dead in the same village. 138 SVETOVI / WORLDS leto 1, št. 2, julij 2023 Banija on that fateful day: 7 people dying in the earthquake and a pet left without its guardians and owners. For a time, the white cat on a stump, in an ironic twist of fate, was placed in the Royal Cat Hotel in Dugo Selo (a luxury cat hotel) and was later adopted (Index Magazin 2021c). Photo 1: A white cat on a stump. Davor Pongračić/Cropix: Majske Poljane following the earthquake, detail from the suffering, 29 December 2020 (Pavić 2021). However, activists also came across abandoned dogs chained in yards, which unfor- tunately is a common occurrence even in cities in Croatia. I personally witness such scenes in the neighbourhood of Dubrava in Zagreb, and in that sense, the term pet cannot be used to describe their tragic, utilitarian life. 8 Udruga Prijatelji životinja i prirode iz Čakovca (Friends of Animals and Nature Association) from Čakovec operated in the area of Banija 7 Taken from the title of the academic conference Banija as Metaphor and Metonymy (2022), organised by Renata Jambrešić Ki - rin, Jelena Marković, Ines Prica and Ana-Marija Vukušić, as an example of engaged anthropology. The gathering was held as part of a scientific research project of the same name, Banija kao metafora i metonimija, conducted by The Institute of Ethno - logy and Folklore Research. 8 For instance, Emily K. Crawford, Nancy L. Worsham and Elizabeth R. Swinehart use the term “companion animals” and view the relationship between humans/caregivers and domestic animals in the context of affectional attachment. However, Cristi - ne Overall points out that although the term “companion animals” seems to be an alternative to “pets” and does not carry the hierarchical connotations of that word, in human interactions, a companion is usually someone who has chosen to be with us, but dogs and cats, as the most common “pets”, do not have this choice, which means that maybe this term misleadingly implies a kind of equality between humans and animals that does not exist (Overall 2017: XXII). 139 V ol. 1, Nr. 2, July 2023 Suzana Marjanić A Zoocentric Perspective on Natural Disasters: The 2020 Banija Earthquake from 6 March to 31 May 2021, where, as stated in the association’s project report, volunteers lived in Gornji Viduševac, a village near Glina, during the project, in a house owned by Slavica Maršanić who provided accommodation free of charge. In addition to being used for everyday life, the house also served as a place for animals to recover after castration, as a hospital for rescued animals until they were taken over by project partners, and as a ware- house for donated food. In total, the volunteers from the Friends of Animals and Nature Association from Čakovec, active in the area from 6 March to 31 May 2021, visited 494 households in Banovina. As part of the visits, awareness of animal rights and appropriate care for them was promoted through conversations, distribution of leaflets, and education. V olunteers compiled a detailed list of dogs and cats for free castration, and transport for animals to the veterinary station and back after surgery was organised for owners who could not provide transport themselves. Furthermore, food for animals, doghouses, and other necessities for pets were donated. Of the 494 households visited, 425 (86 percent) required a repeat visit, and 221 house - holds (52 percent of those) required another three to five repeat visits. The reason for the follow-up visits was to check whether the living conditions of the animals had improved, to inspect the animals in the castration rehabilitation process, and to donate food and supplies. In their report, the association mentioned that 92 percent of the dogs seen in Banovi- na were permanently chained, and a large number of them were born and died in chains. With this in mind, the association Animal Friends (Zagreb) published an article on 13 Janu - ary 2021, titled A Devastating Truth: The Earthquake Brought Salvation to Many Animals : Photo 2 and 3: The report of the association contains many tragic examples – I list two above. 140 SVETOVI / WORLDS leto 1, št. 2, julij 2023 This tragedy has shown how hard it is not only for people living in this area but for the animals as well. Bad living conditions for the animals, many animals not castrated, neglected puppies and kittens only show that local communities ignore the law and avoid controlling microchipping the dogs and castrating abandoned dogs and cats. The situation found in the field, especially in villages, is utterly shocking and only shows long-term bad treatment of animals and neglect of the Animal Protection Act. What is encouraging is that there are some people treating animals like members of the family and taking care of them even in the toughest situations. On the other hand, it is devastating seeing neglected and abandoned dogs tied up in ruins to die in horrible pain, while rescue dogs are saving people from the ruins. Dogs are regularly tied on a chain, in cold weather, snow, and rain, in the mud without shelter, or ruined and damaged doghouses. (Animal Friends Croatia 2021) Glina, 12 May 2021, volunteer Brigita Knežević notes: “Female dog permanently tied with a chain one and a half meters in length, closed in an improvised box and fed dry bread. Carry- ing hundreds of ticks. The owner gave her up, and the Vis Vitalis association took her in. Has a microchip, but not vaccinated for 2 years.” And the following case: Glina, 21 April 2021, volun - teer Nina Rosić notes: “Female dog adopted by project volunteer Fiona Müller. She lived perma- nently tied to a trailer, without shelter, no microchip and not vaccinated.” (Hampamer 2021). 9 Photo 4 and 5: Photos published on the webpage Friends of Animals Croatia on 13 January 2021, in an article titled A Devastating Truth: The Earthquake Brought Salvation to Many Animals (Animal Friends Croatia, 2021). 9 According to the report, from the date of the earthquake, 29 December 2020, to 16 June 2021, more than a thousand animals that were living in inadequate conditions were taken from the Banovina area by various Croatian associations and shelters. Due to their participation in such extensive and numerous animal rescues, associations and shelters incur significant financial costs and require many hours of volunteer work, provided by, among others, Martina Briški, Aleksandar Hampamer, Brigita Knežević, Fiona Müller, and Nina Rosić. 141 V ol. 1, Nr. 2, July 2023 Suzana Marjanić A Zoocentric Perspective on Natural Disasters: The 2020 Banija Earthquake AN EPILOGUE TO THE ZOOCENTRIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE BANIJA EARTHQUAKE, OR TERRA BANALIS Even after the earthquake, Banija was left to its own devices, as one would say in drama terms – its actantial helper is itself = BA-BA-NI-JA, Banski kraj, Banska krajina, Ban- ska granica, Banal Grenze, Banija, Banovina, etc. all the way to T erra banalis, Babanija, as defined poetically and ethically by writer Miroslav Kirin (2021). Only when it was realised that the reconstruction after the earthquake had not started as it should have, following many political promises, the media started to report that “Babanija” was deliberately not given financial support. V asilije Zinaja, the commissioner of Majske Poljane, has publicly addressed this issue in the media, stating that “not a penny was invested in Banija after the war so that the Serbs would not return” (Bartolović 2021). Consequently, the situation today (1  April 2023) is almost unchanged, with many victims of the earthquake still living in temporary housing. On 27 March 2023 (three years after the earthquake), it was decided that construction would soon start on 35  wooden prefabricated houses for temporary housing on Matija Šiprak Street in the Sisak neighbour- hood of Zeleni Brijeg (the emphasis is on temporary housing, I repeat, three years after the earthquake) intended for the victims who were placed in mobile units following the earth- quake (IMP 2023). Sisak does not have a renovated theatre, theatre rehearsals can only be held outdoors, or, as director Silvija V adla critically points out: We o n l y h a v e a s i n g l e h a l l , w h i c h i s t h e h a l l o f t h e INA refinery, and it also houses the music school. This means there are no rehearsals. W e hold workshops for children on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Y ou can’t do any serious work with only one or two meetings that come at the weekend. I would not wish such non-conditions on anyone. And then people say, the theatre is searching for an audience and ... an actor ... but it is also searching for a building. At least a stage. W e do not have that. And it doesn’t seem likely that there will be one. I mean, the next play we are preparing is Little Red Riding Hood; I will prepare it and we are planning on showing it in a grove because I know that the hall will not be finished. It’s a disaster. It’s all so sad. After seeing what happened, it turns out that socialism was a true mother, and this ... Especially now, with the European Union and so on, when we should be at a really serious level. And mind you, our local government is leftist in name. As far as there being some sort of leftist politics in Croatia ... they have no interest. And the natural interest of the left should be culture, education, healthcare, these kinds of things ... Business, that’s for the right. Business, the car industry, the rich, such things ... Even some kind of position of power, meaning the judiciary, the police, the repressive apparatus, the army, those things lean to the right. And culture is a matter of the left. However, we don’t see that. (Silvije V adla, personal conversation, 2023) In an article which systematically documents the Banija earthquake, connecting “several disciplinary perspectives from which it is possible to interpret the extraordinary, complex, and paradoxical consequences of a natural disaster – autoethnography, disaster anthropology, affective anthropology, and folkloristic theories of narration and intersub - jective communication” ( Jambrešić Kirin 2022: 71), among others, cultural anthropologist Renata Jambrešić Kirin posed this very compelling ethical question: 142 SVETOVI / WORLDS leto 1, št. 2, julij 2023 Have the countless reports about ‘the ordinary people’ from Banija, in the contentious media ‘domain of representation where humanisation and dehumanisation occur ceaselessly’ […], really empowered their voices against the hegemonic discourses of political players who blindly abide by the guidelines and demands of the EU […]? ( Jambrešić Kirin 2022: 52) I do not intend for the photo documentation in the second part of the article to hurt people involved in cases of animal neglect, but I repeat, I am presenting the Banija earth- quake from a zoo-perspective, where, in humanitarian strategies, animals are mostly perceived in a second-class position in the ethics of care. Although I should have perhaps used the anthrozoological terms humans and non-humans (animals), I have kept the usual human– animal dichotomy because it is a very strong factor in the fate of these animals, much like the chains around the necks of some dogs in the area. I will present the meeting of an activist, volunteer Nina Rosić (Friends of Animals and Nature from Čakovec), with an abused dog in the area of Glina, which she described as the most tragic sight of animal neglect: And when we got behind the house, there was ... W ell, their house is surrounded by some kind of improvised, very soft fence and ... There was a dog with a wire wrapped around its neck, wound up in that entire fence. I guess she was tied there, started squirming, and coiled herself up like some kind of ... sausage, with that fence, and she lay motionless. I don’t know for how many days she laid there motionless... (Rosić, personal conversation, 2022) An equally tragic example from the collection of works Prijatelju, ispričaj moju priču. Dirljive ispovijesti o životinjama koje su promijenile ljudske živote (English: Friend, T ell My Story. Moving T ales about Animals That Changed People’s Lives), edited by Aleksandra Hampamer (2015), is a documentary story called Gunja, written by a volunteer from the Udru- ga Pobjede Osijek association. The story relates to so-called animal rescues during another natural disaster – the floods that affected eastern Croatia in May 2014. The author conveys the story of a diver, who said that the water in Gunja was like hell. This is only a fragment of the horror of the animals’ lives that were saved from floods only to end up in slaughterhouses: On the third or fourth day, the army started helping the villagers pull out large animals. They were brought straight to a hangar across from us (most of them were taken straight from the hangar to slaughterhouses, and some large Croatian butcheries profited handsomely from the flood by buying them, almost for free.) They were hungry, thirsty, and wounded. The soldiers (with gleeful help from the locals) kicked them off the amphibious vehicles while their screams rang out day and night. (cf. Hampamer 2015: 139–144) From a conversation with activist Nina Rosić from Friends of Animals and Nature in Čakovec, who was active in Glina after the earthquake (data on the humanitarian work with domestic animals – dogs and cats – undertaken by the association was provided in the second part of this article), I learned that the situation with domestic animals in the area was even worse – as the area was poor and, furthermore, was hit by an earthquake, the attitude towards domestic animals (dogs and cats) does not come from the ethics of care, a consequence of the difficult existential situation in that area. According to the 2021 census, 143 V ol. 1, Nr. 2, July 2023 Suzana Marjanić A Zoocentric Perspective on Natural Disasters: The 2020 Banija Earthquake the cities of Glina and Hrvatska Kostajnica in the Sisak-Moslavina County, located in the demographically devastated Banovina, have lost almost a third of their population (Nović 2021). In the words of animal rights activist Nina Rosić: Y es... The situation after the earthquake is worse because, the last time I was in Glina and Petrinja, when the project ended on 31 May 2021, if I’m not mistaken, my heart was beating so hard for Banovina that I kept coming back at my own expense. The Animal Friends association took over the castration project. So, after the end of the field part of the project, I led the castration effort for a few more months, it must have been 5 or 6 months, while we still had money – answering the phone and counselling people, people are constantly calling about neglected animals, female dogs they do not want, puppies they do not want. After that, Animal Friends continued the project with a donor. Nata, who lives in Glina, is the only volunteer in the Glina area. She is a primary school teacher and teaches art. There are two associations in Sisak. One is primarily concerned with posting classifieds for dogs, that is Patronus, on their site, and the other one is Bijeli očnjak (White Fang). These are the only two associations active in Sisak-Moslavina County, and then there is Nata, the only individual that is trying to help as much as she can in the areas of Glina and Petrinja. W e continued to bring food and donations for animals, continued to visit households and everything for months, as much as our circumstances and finances allowed us to... It costs a lot, Nata and I took these dogs in, as temporary accommodation... But then you can’t do it anymore, it’s a never-ending story, a vicious circle. And now the situation is a disaster, there are stray dogs, as if nothing good ever happened after the earthquake, that little light in Banovina for those poor animals. Never …” (Rosić, personal conversation, October 2022) There is also the issue of missing animals. As veterinarian Bruno Beljak believes, these kinds of disasters unfortunately lead to an illegal trade in “missing” animals, as happened, for example, with Hachi (Akita), who disappeared during the earthquake in Petrinja, much like how more animals than inhabitants disappeared in Croatia during the Homeland W ar. Bruno Beljak ironically and wistfully says: “Opportunity makes the thief.” And another ironic comment from his veterinary perspective: “Maybe there’s a silver lining in the fact that there aren’t many animals living in Banija today, both in the wild and with humans” (Beljak, personal conversation, 2022). With this double Janusian story about the white cat on the stump as one of the meta- phors and metonymies of the Banija earthquake, I end this article with many thanks to the great activists and associations mentioned in the acknowledgments. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This article was written as part of the project “Cultural Animal Studies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Traditional Practices (ANIMAL)” (IP-2019-04-5621). I want to thank Bruno Beljak from the Institute for the Culture of Animal Health, Nina Rosić and the team of Friends of Animals and Nature from Čakovec, Tanja V adla, a professor from Vikto - rovac High School in Sisak, and Snježana Klopotan Kačavenda, a project coordinator at Animal Friends in Zagreb, for their participation in the research. T ranslated by Juraj Šutej 144 SVETOVI / WORLDS leto 1, št. 2, julij 2023 CITED REFERENCES A. Ž. 2021 ‘Prisjetite se fascinantne snimke potresa s farme pilića: “Nisu ništa predosjetili” . ’ Internet source: , 1. 4. 2023. Animal Friends Croatia 2021 ‘A Devastating Truth: The Earthquake Brought Salvation to Many Animals. ’ Internet source: , 13. 1. 2021. Bartolović, Sandra 2021 ‘Zaboravljeni smo jer nisu htjeli da se Srbi vrate. ’ Internet source: , 1. 4. 2023. 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Medtem ko so se v medijih pojavljali zapisi in fotografije o sobivanju v potresu prizadetih ljudi in njihovih živali (tako rejnih kot hišnih ljubljenčkov), so aktivisti za pravice živali naleteli na številne primere že poprejšnjega zanemarjanja živali. Kot so pokazala televizijska poročanja, so bili v potresu prizadeti ljudje v Baniji vajeni težkega življenja, pri čemer jih je večina razvila sočuten odnos do svojih živali v utilitarnem sobivanju ruralnih gospodinjstev. T ragičen primer je zabeležila novinarka Maja Sever, ki je na družbenih omrežjih objavila posnetek, ki je prikazoval popotresni vsakdanjik Mili- ce Lončar, ki »skrbi za svoje krave, jih objema in poljublja ter pripoveduje, da jih razvaja, ker jih je potres, ki je le malokoga pustil ravnodušnega, prestrašil.« Novinarka je napisala spremni komentar k svoji objavi: »Če se sprašujete, zakaj ljudje spijo na dvoriščih name- sto v začasnih namestitvah, poglejte ta video« (Index.hr, 2021). T anja V adla, profesorica s Srednje šole Viktorovac v Sisku, je interpretirala odnos med ljudmi in domačimi živalmi z vidika tradicije živinoreje regije: »Ljudje v Baniji govorijo o svojih živalih kot o ‘zakladu‘ (hr. blago), a ne le zaradi materialnih koristi. Banija je zmeraj bila pašno območje in prebi- valci so bili nomadi. Sedaj tukaj več ni živali, ni ljudi, in sama dežela izginja.« Iz pogovora z aktivistko Nino Rosić iz društva Prijatelji živali in narave iz Čakovca, ki je po potresu delovala v Glini (v drugem delu članka so predstavljeni podatki o humani- tarnem delu z domačimi živalmi – psi in mačkami – ki ga je opravilo društvo), sem ugoto- vila, da je bila situacija z domačimi živalmi na omenjenem območju še slabša. Ko ga je prizadel potres, se namreč odnos do domačih živali (psov in mačk) na tem tudi sicer revnem območju ni razvil v smeri dodatne skrbi. T o lahko vidimo kot posledico tamkajšnjih težkih preživetvenih okoliščin.