War is a test not only for people, but also for animals. They are also frightened by explosions and the sounds of missiles flying overhead. However, unlike people, they cannot pick up and go to another city or country on their own. Their life depends solely on volunteers, animal rights activists and people with big hearts who take care of four-legged animals, sometimes even risking their own lives.
Fortunately, there are plenty of such people in the House of Rescued Animals. About the evacuation of exotic animals, the rescue of four-legged animals from the occupation and a new life – within the framework of the SVOI project on Channel 24, employees of the House of Rescued Animals spoke.
In the spring, employees of the House of Rescued Animals made a titanic effort to evacuate 191 animals from the Zaporozhye Children's Railway. Anastasia Muntyanova, together with Orest Zalipsky, recalled all the trials that they had to face during the evacuation of animals.
Volunteers' story about the rescue and evacuation of animals: watch the video
“12-hour evacuation”: how the animals were taken out of Zaporozhye
How did you evacuate the animals from Zaporozhye to Lviv? It must have been very hard.
Anastasia:These animals came to us from the Zaporozhye Children's Railway, on the territory of which there was a zoo. There they lived. Due to the turbulent situation, the employees of the Children's Railways turned to us with a request and asked us to accept these animals. We urgently built temporary enclosures and evacuated the animals. In total, this is 171 individuals.
Evacuation of animals from Zaporozhye/Photo from Facebook House of Rescued Animals
Partly the animals left for Lviv. Among them are such exotic ones as, for example, raccoons, coats, rabbits, foxes and raccoon dogs. They stayed in Lviv (in a shelter on Dovbush Street – Channel 24). Yet others, large, ungulates – moufflons, llamas, ostriches, deer, goats – arrived with the birds in the village of Tychok, Lviv region.
The team of the House of Rescued Animals went to Zaporozhye. Spent some time there. Then came the day of the evacuation. And the actual evacuation lasted about 12 hours. The animals were under stress, because unknown people came and want to, in fact, take them away. There were always sirens, explosions, and then we arrived. Large animals entered the enclosures the hardest – ostriches, deer, llama. There were no problems with other animals.
The process of capturing animals, as Anastasia explained, was very difficult and stressful. Therefore, the team decided to stop in the Dnieper. However, there were also sirens and explosions. Orest Zalipsky remembered that the evacuation was difficult.
Orest:You see, these animals have not seen humans since the beginning of the coronavirus. When the children's railway was closed for quarantine, people did not come there. Most of the animals had to be taken away in a sleeping state, because they simply did not leave, did not succumb. We were very happy when the last chicken got into the car by itself.
Honestly, it was easier for us to pick up a crocodile, although it is two meters high, than, for example, to grab a pony or a goat in an aviary. By the way, we are talking about the Nile crocodile. He has 2 meters and he got to the Zaporozhye Children's Railway once from the Crimea, very small, a little more than a palm. And so he grew up in this enclosure.
The crocodile leaves his home in Zaporozhye/Facebook photo of the House of Rescued Animals
“Orlan Galya rode for 4 days on the Kharkiv-Lviv train”: funny evacuation stories
Are the animals already adapted?
Time and love heal not only people, but animals. Anastasia noted that now all their pets have already adapted.
Anastasia: Animals behave differently now. Previously, they did not approach us, they were afraid. A pony, for example, when the guys entered the detachment to him, immediately turned around with its back to hit. The guys said that for the first time they see just such behavior in a pony. But already upon arrival in Lviv, their behavior changed. They approach, are not afraid, take food from the hands, and in general one can say – they ask to be stroked.
A little time passed and elementary pony trimmed a little tail, a little mane, in the near future a blacksmith should come to put the hooves in order. A certain time is spent with them and they somehow get used to the presence of a person, and this person becomes no longer a stranger to them, but one that can be approached.
Anastasia Muntyanova – an employee of the House for Rescued Animals/Photo of Channel 24 “ltr”>Orestes: Yes, not without it. We had several exotic animals that came to us from the war, these are the same monkeys, exotic parrots. One story that I remember is the evacuation of a white-tailed eagle named Galya, who rode back and forth, Lviv – Kharkiv for 4 days.
There was no way we could get her off the train. She was in a separate compartment, and when the train arrived, he simply got up at the station, dropped people off and left immediately. And the guide who accompanied this animal should call us, but did not. Galya went back to Kharkov. Then, for half a day, my colleagues and I were waiting for her at the station when she arrived. And in the end they took it away.
Anastasia: Animals really already behave a little differently. They come up and want to be stroked, no matter how it sounds, but sometimes they even interfere with cleaning. After all, instead of letting them clean up, they butt in the leg to be stroked, to be noticed.
“Trucks arrived from Irpen, and in them – 300 dogs”: rescue of abandoned four-legged animals
However, the House of Rescued Animals gave shelter not only to animals from zoos and zoo corners. It has also become home to hundreds of cats and dogs whose owners went abroad, got lost or simply threw the four-legged into the street. As the head of the House of Rescued Animals Orest Zalipsky admitted, at the beginning of the war, he had to work non-stop.
What can you tell about the first months after the invasion? Are there more abandoned animals?
Orestes:There were a lot of animals. They were right on the streets, at the station, and even under our gates. It has been thousands of phone calls to adopt an animal because people are going abroad. And even then, in the first days of the war, we stayed at work, worked around the clock, despite curfews and everything else. Then it was necessary to go to the station every 2-3 hours. Volunteers at the station collected animals and handed them over to us, and we were looking for a new family for them. Sometimes people responded even from Poland and Germany.
In particular, foreign shelters volunteered to help us. That is, they brought humanitarian aid, food and took away these animals, which we took out of the hot spots to Lviv in the first week of the war. We had such a base: we brought them here, gave them water, fed them, provided veterinary care if necessary. And then they drove on.
Volunteers from Poland, Germany and the United States/Photo from Facebook House for Rescued Animals
You can you figure out the numbers? How has the number of animals that came to your shelter changed before and after the war?
Oh sure. Let's say, if in peacetime we got 1 – 2 animals a day, then after the invasion it was approximately 50 to 200 animals. It happened that cars, 2 trucks, came from Irpin, and there were 200 – 300 dogs. And all of them had to be immediately taken away, fed, watered and given first aid.
“Dogs haven't eaten for weeks”: about the life of four-legged animals in the occupation
Then we built temporary enclosures for dogs that function until now, because there are dogs that were brought from the war. We got dogs from a shelter in Borodianka, they were simply left in cages. Most of the animals died. Some of the dogs from Borodyanka came to us. They survived. They needed urgent help because they haven't eaten in weeks.In addition, they had a difficult road, and upon arrival they had permanent veterinarians, who also came from Poland and Germany.
Now we have 60 evacuated dogs who are still waiting for their families. Due to the fact that now adoption has dropped to zero, very few dogs find new homes. If we adopt one dog a week, this is already happiness. We had a pasture and arranged for 3 dogs, we were very happy.
And usually dogs don't attach at all. There are also constant requests for us to adopt a dog. For example, from the military, but we simply do not physically have a place to place them.
One of these days we are planning to launch another project – the construction of a Cat House in Lviv, because now there is physically nowhere accommodate so many cats. Their insane amount. Just imagine: 20 phone calls to get us a cat.
Cats are looking for new owners/Photo from Facebook of the House of Rescued Animals
In general, volunteers and employees of the House of Rescued Animals visited Kharkiv, Severodonetsk, Irpen, Bucha, Zaporozhye and Zaporozhye region. That is, in all the hot spots where, unfortunately, the foot of the occupiers has set foot. And in addition to the fantastic story of salvation, there were black pages with the loss and suffering of animals.
A few weeks ago, there were cases when 30 puppies came to us from Kharkov, and they all went to the clinic. Just everything. Due to the fact that they were in a shelter, they caught an infection. We tried to save them. We had very insane clinic bills for all the dogs. We paid more than 300 thousand hryvnia. Fortunately, most of them managed to get out. Although there were dead ones.
Puppies that were saved/Photo from Facebook House of Rescued Animals
“People Burn Out Little by Little”: Why It's Important to Keep Helping
Are people helping less now?
At the beginning of the war, everyone had this passion. But now people are slowly burning out. We can see this even in the number of people who come to walk our dogs. At the beginning of the war, we had queues, we did not have enough dogs. And now – one or two people come, and most of them are the same people.
How can I help you?
Anyone can come to us, we will be very glad to see you. And especially people who want to help, for example, come and walk our dogs. They are constantly in cages. Our regular volunteers walk them every day, but it's very hard to walk 60 dogs twice a day. Perhaps people who come to visit us will take some kind of animal: we have dogs, cats, a lot of rodents of various kinds – rabbits, chinchillas, degos, who are looking for their families.
< strong>Rodents are also looking for a home/Photo from Facebook House of Rescued Animals
Financial assistance everyone is in need all the time. Winter will come soon, you need to buy Lots of animal food. And we have a huge number of them, as you understand. The food that was brought by our foreign colleagues is not being delivered now, it is running out. In addition, we are building a new shelter to comfortably accommodate the animals that we have.
Important!You can help the shelter financially using the details: Bank in Monobank: https://send.monobank.ua/jar/PhMvm35uB Privatbank card: 4149 6293 8110 7192 Monobank card 5375 4141 2734 0015 [email protected] PayPay let the furries survive the winter together!
Also, everyone can help directly with food, in particular, vegetables and fruits.
From the very beginning of the Russian invasion, the House of the Saved evacuated animals, fed, sheltered, treated and found a new home for hundreds of animals. The people who work there have proved that they have a very big, kind heart. This is what makes us Ukrainians. We save, protect and care not only for ourselves, but also for those who are close to us and cannot do it on their own.
Even despite the cruelty our eastern neighbor and a bloody war, goodness in the world should not become less. If you feel the strength in yourself to shelter a four-legged one, by all means do it. After all, animals also need a home and care.
