Emergency Response
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Emergency Response --
Ukraine Emergency Response
Fourteen million Ukrainian people have fled their homes since the war started in Feb 2022.
While some brought their family pets with them, many left their dogs and cats behind. Most of these abandoned pets are now wandering the streets without survival skills, while others have been brought to animal shelters that were already at capacity before the war.
Leaders of Ukrainian animal welfare charities have reported that more dogs and cats are roaming the streets of Ukraine now than ever in history.
Furthermore, Ukraine’s economy has been devastated by the war. Animal shelters that formerly thrived on donations from their local communities are now struggling to cover basic expenses and depend on aid from charities like Wildlife & Welfare. Many people who fed local street dogs and cats for years either left the country or are unemployed and barely able to scrape by, much less able to buy food for the soaring number of roaming animals.
How We Are Helping:
Leveraging our experience with disaster response and managing impactful projects in challenging situations, we have launched a multifaceted program to help address this crisis by collaborating with a broad network of veterinary clinics, animal shelters, and hundreds of volunteers in Ukraine.
Our partners tell us that even after two years of the crisis, dog and cat food for abandoned pets is the most urgent need. While food aid is not a sustainable long-term solution, it prevents animals starving to death and gives them strength to survive the bitter freezing winter conditions. Through our extensive network, we’re able to quickly distribute tons of food donations to hundreds of volunteers and thousands of animals.
To compliment this, we are providing large-scale sterilisations in cooperation with reputable Ukrainian veterinary clinics. This urgently needed project prevents the births of countless puppies and kittens in the streets, many of which would not survive to adulthood. Without an effective sterilisation programme, the kittens and puppies that survive would give birth to even more animals, perpetuating a cycle of suffering.
By enabling animal shelters in Ukraine to rebuild damaged parts of their facilities and protect rescued animals from snow and rain, we help them to continue to provide humane care. We also work with our partners to provide emergency veterinary treatment which helps some of Ukraine’s most vulnerable animals become healthy and be rehomed.
Support Our Work In Ukraine
A donation to our Ukraine appeal will provide urgent food donations and veterinary care to dogs, cats and other animals desperately in need.