Ukraine
Animal Charities in the Ukraine
All our thoughts and prayers are with the people and animals of the Ukraine. To those in the shelters and rescues, thank you for doing what you’re doing to look after the animals. Things are changing fast as everyone in surrouding countries and further afield scrambles to help and lend a paw. There are desperately sad reports of animal shelters being hit and animals losing their lives, along with some amazing people who stayed to care for them and also who were taking or had just taken food and supplies to rescues. Please everyone stay safe. We are thinking of you all xxx
If you want to adopt an animal from these charities, please check their Facebook pages/websites to see what help they need. A possible way to help is to adopt a cat/dog from a Romanian and or Polish animal rescue centre, which would leave space for a Ukrainian animal coming in. You would need to check with them what the situation is regarding bringing animals into your home country.
FEBRUARY 2024: URGENT APPEAL from Breaking the Chains:
Since the war started back in February 2022, the Breaking the Chains team have not stopped working, helping animals in desperate need there. They have given aid and rescued animals too. Their vehicles have suffered very considerable damage, because of the miles they’ve travelled and because of the conditions of the war-torn roads. And they are now unreliable. This means a significant risk, both to the safety of the Breaking the Chains team and those they are trying to help. So they've launched a vehicle fund so that they can replace their damaged vehicles and get on rescuing animals and delivering essential supplies without interruption. Please donate at their GoFundMe page to help
Network for Animals are evacuating as many animals as they can to emergency shelters, feeding and treating too. They need to buy fuel for their vehicles, pet food, transportation crates, and life saving help to the animals. You can donate here
Warriors of Wildlife are working to act fast to rescue and relocate as many animals and people as possible. They have rescue vehicles but need funding for fuel, crates, food and medicines and shelter for the animals. You can donate here
Breaking the Chains are working round the clock to rescue animals and deliver vital supplies to the areas where humans and animals need it most, helping the animals and people in the villages under flooding. They have already evacuated dogs from the area. You can donate here
OIPA International are actively collecting information to prepare an action plan and they are looking to support teams from shelters who have gone to Kherson. Find out more here
UAnimals
Please visit their Facebook page to find out what they are doing to help and what is happening on the ground in Kherson. They have a number of ways to donate, they have many contacts and there are lots of people offering help and support. They are also urging people to join in the initiative to #StopecocideUkraine and you can find out more on their Instagram pages and on their website. They also have a petition you can please sign:
Stop ecocide in Ukraine: punish Russia for the crimes against environment
CATS & DOGS & VARIED
These orgnaisations don't just save/help cats and dogs but I had to try to get this page into some sort of order somehow...
Network For Animals have funded the creation of an emergency adaptation centre for dogs and an emergency shelter for cats. They have partnered with 6 organisations in Poland. Donate here Facebook Twitter
Breaking the Chains are working manically to help animals in Ukraine and this week (25 Jan 2023) they were joined by vet Scott Miller who helped the guys delivery food and who also treated animals. Breaking the Chains are saving animals rescued from abuse, abandonment, sickness and injury – they need funds to feed the animals left behind and to get food to them, to buy medical supplies and fuel. They are operating near the front lines, extracting animals and taking them to safety where they can, and they are also caring for over 100 animals at the shelter in Ukraine. Please visit their website and be inspired – they are incredibly brave. Please donate and spread the word.
UAnimals
Since 2016, UAnimals has been promoting the humane treatment of animals and working to protect them from exploitation and abuse. And now, with the war, they are focused on rescuing animals from war zones and temporarily occupied territories. They are bringing food to animals, and evacuating as many as they can, regardless of the difficulties posed by the weather, shelling or destroyed roads. Their Patreon page is here and you can donate through other means including Paypal ([email protected]). Their Facebook page has information on other ways to donate. They take wild animals to Natalia Popova and UAnimals Wild Animal Rescue Center for examination, and where needed, treatment/rehabilitation. They’ve rescued and helped snakes, horses, cats, dogs…. They give regular updates on the work they are doing and it is inspiring.
Naturewatch Foundation
In 2022, the Foundation installed 50 drainpipe feeding stations to help provide food for strays in Ukraine around the year. Drains mean that the dogs can't gobble food, and that reduces the chances of potentially deadly bloat. And locals can monitor them and provide locations for feed to be topped up. £15 can help construct, install and fill a draining station. You can donate to this project and other animal welfare projects in Ukraine here
Shelter Friend is a non-profitable charity organisation & rehab centre for homeless animals in Dnepr City. It’s currently a refuge place for animals in need from Donbass, Kharkov and South occupied territories and also pets who have been abandoned in the local area by their owners who have fled. Visit their Facebook page to find out about donating, including through Paypal (PayPal - [email protected]) They say adoption is possible to NL, Belgium, Germany, Poland.
ROLDA
ROLDA works to provide humane solutions to the huge homeless dog problem in Romania and cares for over 650 dogs in two shelters in the south east. It is using its large animal shelter in Galati on the boarder to send food, money and offers of shelter and vet care to aniamls trapped in Ukraine. Visit their Facebook page
Andrea Cisterino has a shelter in Kyiv with 450 animals Supplies were able to get through because the Russians left the area.
PETA Germany (backed by PETA entities in the US, in the UK, and elsewhere) has worked with a network of committed volunteers and organizations to rescue over1,700 dogs and cats so far. 860 metric tons of food and provisions have been delivered to help dogs, cats, donkeys, and horses still trapped in war zones. PETA Germany say these will continue as long as necessary. Please consider making a lifesaving donation,
Naturewatch Foundation
They have been working in the Ukraine since 1994. They identified a need to get basic veterinary care to the Polish-Ukrainian border and launched a mission with UK based Dogs on the Street to get the supplies to the border. Read about their Operation #UKrainePaws
Smiling Terrier Rescue
There's also a GoFundMe appeal to help Smiling Terrier Rescue in Ukraine. Helena Von Leben runs the rescue with the help of a friend. The dogs need veterinary treatment and of course to be kept fed and warm over winter. Find out more about the appeal here.
ZOOS AND SANCTUARIES
Feldman Park in east Ukraine
Kyiv Zoo Please visit their Facebook page for updates Like many places in Ukraine, they are having to endure a loss of electricity – so they are preparing the animals’ food using a wood stove and hope to plan 3 more such furnaces. They are doing what they can to ensure the animals are warm and comfortable and have nourishing food. Find out how to donate and support the zoo here.
The EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) has an emergency appeal for Ukrainian zoos and updates. Funds raised will be used to help Ukrainian zoos to provide food and care to animals in conditions of relative welfare and safety, and give support for care staff and management at the zoos. The EAZA has direct contact with Myikolayiv Zoo, Kharkiv Zoo and Kyiv Zoo, and indirect contact with other zoos via the Ukrainian Zoo Association and the contacts of its Members. There’s a list of the Ukrainian zoos they are helping here (you need to scroll down)
12 Months Zoo near Kyiv (Demydiv) - help got through and Breaking the Chains have an incredible story about how Tom sat with gorilla John (bars between them) and a keeper gave John his banana. John immediately offered half the banana to Tom
Zoo Poznan in Poland were involved in the evacuation of some animals from the White Bear Shelter near Kyiv and other animals to Spain and Belgium via Poland so please visit their Facebook page for more updates.
For bat lovers, take a look at the Ukranian Bat Rehibilitation Centre and their Facebook page here. Visit them on Instagram
Four Paws Bear Sanctuary Domazhyr - Four Paws have 29 rescued bears at their sanctuary in Western Ukraine and Four Paws say their colleagues there are looking after the bears. The sanctuary is closed to visitors for the winter season, according to its website.. Facebook: Four Paws Bear Sanctuary have taken in the 7 bears from the White Rock Bear sanctuary near Kyiv (read about it here). I gather the bears (or some of them) have now gone on to Germany. And Four Paws stray animal team is helping pets who have been separated from their owners.
This Facebook group Ukranian Rescue Appeal has a whole huge amount of information with help for those fleeing Ukraine and more. They have info about individual animals about needing help, requests for transport (not necessarily within the Ukraine) and people willing to help or help needed requests. Amongst those offering help is Zuzu Express Transport who say they have already contacted 2 big shelters in the Ukraine to see if they can help with animal transport out.
Shelter Ugolyok
This is a rescue farm saving animals from Ukraine’s slaughterhouses. Visit them on Instagram and Facebook
Nowzad are also helping in Ukraine, and you can Find out more and donate here
Please also check out Ukraine Animal Rescue Information which is an incredible network of people needing/wanting and offering help, more on an individual basis per animal/owner, and Help Animals Ukraine
HORSES
There's the Ukrainian Equestrian Federation Charity Foundation who are reigstered in Belgium and who are aiming to help the Ukrainian equestrian community during the crisis. There are over 100,000 horses in Ukraine and many have been caught up in the war with no opportunity to flee and seek safety, and without shelter and care. The Foundation is working hard to help, and give these horses the hope of a better future. Donations of food, hay, bedding, rugs, and all sorts of things to help the horses can be made. Horses are being evacuated where possible and taken to safety but there are heart breaking stories. You can donate here. Their website is here
World Horse Welfare in the UK says on their website "We are raising funds on behalf of British Equestrian and the UK’s equine sector to provide emergency support for the equines, and their owners and carers, affected by the devastation of the conflict in Ukraine. We will be working initially with local partners, including the Ukraine and Polish Equestrian Federations, and with other partners as the situation progresses."
Your gift will help buy desperately-needed feed, bedding and veterinary supplies. Any donation, no matter how small, will make a real difference to Ukrainian horses, right across the country’s equestrian sector, from sport and leisure horses and all other horses who need our help.
I will keep adding more as I find them.
All prayers and thoughts are with the people and animals of the Ukraine, and that includes the wildlife who will inevitably suffer as well as a result of such destruction.