Photos: PETA Entities Helping Animals in Ukraine

For Immediate Release:
March 2, 2022

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Families often include dogs, cats, and other animals, and whole families are in crisis in Ukraine. PETA entities have stepped in to help, delivering direct aid in the form of housing, food, and other necessities to those reaching the border; providing food and bedding within the country; and successfully petitioning governments to relax entry requirements for incoming refugees’ animal companions. The latest countries to agree are India and Lithuania, joining Hungary, Poland, and Romania, among others.

With support from PETA U.S., members of PETA Germany are coordinating the delivery of blankets and 44,000 pounds of dog and cat food to desperate animal shelters in Ukraine, as many stores there have run out. The rescue team’s first humanitarian act was to supply food and support for a cat named Crimsee and shelter for the cat and the exhausted guardian who had carried her companion more than 37 miles on foot from the war zone. Immediately afterward, the team picked up six refugees and two cats at the Polish border and took them to a house for rest and protection and responded to a call for help for several weakened and terrified dogs in need of urgent care. Updates and photographs are available here.

PETA entities worldwide have appealed to the EU and the U.K. to temporarily suspend the legal entry requirements for animals, since the current regulations are impossible for refugees to follow in a state of war, and now, all EU countries along the Ukrainian border—and others throughout the EU—have agreed to make entry for companion animals easier. PETA U.K. is rallying its members and supporters to urge Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ease entry restrictions so that Ukrainian refugees can enter the U.K. with their animal companions, too.

“Ukrainian refugees and their animal companions are debilitated and frightened, and they need as much support as they can get,” says PETA U.S. President Ingrid Newkirk. “From vital on-the-ground services to efforts to keep families intact, when disaster strikes—whether it’s an earthquake, flooding, fire, or war—PETA entities are united in helping survivors reach safety.”

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