Commitment and Support: the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation Collects Stories of Animal Rescue During the War

The 4th of October is the Animal Protection Day. The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has prepared a collection of stories about the rescue of animals, which is timed to this date. Some of these stories also tell readers about how pets save their owners too.

You can find the above collection at the link.

The collection includes some stories told from first person by well-known animal advocates Nastia Tykha from Irpin town, Olha Chevhaniuk from UAnimals, Oleksiy Surovtsev, known as the Bearded Catmummy, and other volunteers who have dedicated their lives to saving animals. The collection also contains some amazing stories from Ukrainians about how they help both their own and other people’s pets to survive the war. Here are just a few of them.

Kateryna Bohdiazh has got two pets, Yorkshire Terrier girls. Both had puppies... at the beginning of 2022. Kateryna had to escape with 11 puppies from Mariupol engulfed in flames. Her story can be found here.

In April 2022, Mariya Fomintseva from Horenka in Kyiv region and her dog Bonya became famous on social networks. The 80-year-old woman put a scarf on her dog during the shelling to save Bonya from shell shock. Their story is available here.

Before the full-scale war, Anastasia and Vladyslav from the area near Hostomel had more than 150 goats on their farm. One third of their animals died as they could not stand the horror [of the war]... Their owners were shattered by the death of each one of them, and at the same time they kept helping people - link.

A disabled husband, four dogs, who were like children to her, and medicine that almost ran out. Svitlana from Kharkiv described how their dogs saved her family when the air alert signals operated with delays - link.

Valentina Lytvynenko stayed in Visokopillia, Kherson region, all the days of the temporary occupation. During the evacuation, not everyone was able to take their pets with them, and the woman fed the dogs and cats as much as she could. Once she saw how cows were crying... Link.

You can find these and other stories about the war, told from first person, in the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s Museum of Civilian Voices. Share your story on the Museum’s portal or via the toll-free hotline 0 (800) 509 001.