An aid worker has returned from the war-torn Balkans to tell of the ill-treatment and suffering of animals caught in the crossfire.

Trevor Wheeler, from Bowers Gifford, was part of a two-man team from the World Society for the Protection of Animals which travelled to Albania to see the problems first hand, meeting with representatives from the country's agriculture ministry.

He admits the scale of the human suffering he witnessed at first hand in the eyes of the refugees has put the plight of the country's animals in the shade, but insists trying to repair some of the damage done to the animal population of Kosovo is a key to the country's future.

He said refugees told him their pets were being used as target practice. He added: "It's not just domestic pets which are suffering, it's farm animals which are essential in what is largely an agricultural economy.

"I went into one tent in a refugee camp close to the Albanian border to talk to a woman who had lost almost everything.

"She told me that the Serbs came into town and shot three of the men in her family. She was then told to leave, and she went to take her dogs with her, but they were shot. Her three cattle from the back of her house were then brought to the front and machine-gunned in front of her.

"As she was leaving town she then went round the corner and found a small herd of cattle which had had their legs cut off and were left to die in the field."

"One man told me the entire village of Strellci-Dehah, containing 274 houses, had been destroyed, together with barns and outhouses.

"Seventy people had also died as part of the ethnic cleansing, and then, as he was leaving, he saw that a herd of 2,000 cattle and sheep had been slaughtered with machine guns in the fields.

"A herd that size could have helped support the village on their return, but when they go back now they will have nothing."

He also explained how refugees forced from their homes had turned their dogs loose, as they would be killed if they took them on the journey out of the country.

The dogs have since formed packs, feeding off the carcasses of other creatures killed in the Serb onslaught.

With the information provided by Trevor's trip the WSPA is now readying itself to go in, if and when the situation in Kosovo is resolved, taking veterinary supplies and animal experts with them, to try and help the region recover.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.