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Animal suffering in Ukraine: How cats, dogs and tapirs escaped the war

2022-05-09T06:11:12.321Z


Millions of animals are affected by the war in Ukraine. They roam through ruins, die in zoos or flee with their owners. Some can be rescued by volunteers - at risk of death.


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This video from a rescue operation went around the world in early April: The only tapir family living in Ukraine is rescued from a zoo.

Their home, the Feldman Ecopark near Kharkiv, had repeatedly come under fire.

A group of kangaroos was also evacuated in the van.

Employees, Feldman Ecopark:

"It's been a month today since the war started and we continue evacuating the animals."

Animals are more visible in the war of aggression against Ukraine than in any conflict before.

Because people had to flee the war in a hurry, many abandoned their pets or abandoned them - out of necessity.

Not all people want to leave their charges behind.

Some hesitate to flee the war themselves or take their animals with them.

Of the more than five million people who have fled Ukraine so far, according to United Nations estimates, a striking number have their pets with them.

This is particularly evident at the borders with Ukraine's neighboring countries, such as here in Romania.

Kristin Titunaru, Romanian Volunteers:

“We help refugees with pets – mainly dogs and cats, but also rodents – to get all the vaccinations they need to cross the border to Europe.

We also issue European pet passports.«

The sometimes hastily set up animal sanctuaries on the borders with Ukraine are full of sick and frightened pets.

In Germany, too, one is, if at all, prepared for people, but not for animals with flight experience.

For example, animals are not allowed in group accommodation.

There are now reports from the first federal states of overcrowded animal shelters.

The animal protection organization Peta therefore intercepts animals in need at the border.

Peta employee Daniel Cox spent ten days on the Ukrainian-Polish border along with 80 other volunteers.

Daniel Cox, campaign team Peta:

»We had our camp, our warehouse, on the Polish side and drove to the Ukraine every day, to the city of Lviv, where we work together with various partner animal shelters, sometimes also with private people, and on a daily mission animals in the saved Ukraine and brought them to safety in Poland.«

There they are nursed and given to people who want to adopt the animals.

Refugees themselves can bring a maximum of five pets across the border.

That says an exception in the EU.

Daniel Cox, campaign team Peta:

“And it still applies.

What has become more difficult as the war progresses is, of course, for animal welfare organizations to take larger numbers of animals out of the country and save them.

We at PETA are also appealing to the federal government to relax the rules accordingly."

Just as for people, Daniel Cox has seen a great deal of support for animals on the Ukrainian border.

Daniel Cox, campaign team Peta:

"The people at the border, the border staff, were also very, very fond of animals and understand the situation completely and treat the refugees very, very humanely, but also very empathetically with the animals."

According to Peta, it has been able to save around 1,300 dogs and cats from Ukraine so far.

In addition, the organization has transported fodder to farms.

But the animals could not be saved from shelling and rockets.

In 2021, around five million cattle, almost six million pigs and more than 200 million chickens were still living in Ukraine.

Many animals have already died in the war.

Some wander about in ruins, die in their stables without food - or have to be killed out of necessity.

How many animals have already died in Ukraine due to the war cannot be quantified.

But the fact that her suffering moves is evident in the social networks.

Pictures and videos are circulating there of Ukrainian soldiers who are apparently taking care of abandoned animals and are getting a lot of encouragement for doing so.

The recordings can usually not be checked independently.

Nevertheless, they evoke feelings: many people suffer with the animals and show solidarity with the helpers.

Not only tapirs have been rescued from the now famous Feldman Zoo in Kharkiv in recent weeks.

Also lions, bears, white tigers, alpacas and elks.

Employees, Feldman Ecopark:

“We managed to evacuate the moose from Feldman Ecopark.

It was difficult because they were on the other side of the lake.

The area has been provided with mines by the enemy, which means that we have only now been able to save the animals.

This is the second time you have been rescued.

As juveniles they were brought from the Chernobyl zone.

We raised and nurtured them.

Now we have to do that again.«

The zoo employees put their lives in danger during their rescue missions.

Two of their colleagues were shot dead by Russian soldiers in March, they write on Facebook.

They wanted to stay in the park with the animals.

Still, the team keeps going.

Because only "the humane treatment of animals makes them human themselves," they say.

They could have brought 5,000 animals to safety from the destroyed zoo.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-05-09

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