From October 28 to November 4, the UAnimals team conducted a veterinary mission in the frontline area of Zaporizhzhia. Veterinarians Natalka Sokolova and Lolita Polishchuk vaccinated, sterilized, and treated animals there.
They set up a mobile clinic in Huliaipole, but due to shelling and drone activity, they had to work in a basement. Over six days, the mission provided assistance to 260 animals. Among them, 186 were sterilized, vaccinated against rabies, given a comprehensive vaccine for infectious diseases, microchipped, and treated for fleas. An additional 54 animals were vaccinated against rabies. The veterinarians also offered consultations to local residents with pets and distributed medications. Some complex surgeries were performed as well.
One of the animals treated was a shepherd dog with a neck wound caused by a chain. During surgery, her wounds were stitched. The dog was taken from her previous owners and is now living with a volunteer, Nataliya, in Zaporizhzhia.
The UAnimals team also distributed 200 kilograms of dog and cat food.
Project manager Andrii Kharchyshyn explained: “People here have been living without electricity since 2022, relying entirely on generators. Every home is damaged. We worked with stray animals; few animals were brought to us by people. Because of the shelling and drones, people are simply afraid to get into vehicles.“ Catcher Roman Bidnenko brought cats and dogs from Huliaipole, Verkhnia Tersa, Zelenyi, and Tsvitkovyi.
Driver Sasha Pohrebnyi and the project manager stayed in Zaporizhzhia to evacuate an additional 24 animals and one elderly woman. Thus, the medical mission also became an evacuation mission. From Stepnohirsk, they evacuated an elderly woman, her goat, four cats, and twelve dogs, transporting them all to the Dnipropetrovsk region. On a second trip to the city, they evacuated four more cats and four more dogs.
This is the second veterinary mission to Zaporizhzhia by the team. Their previous mission took place in September, when they visited Kharkiv with nearly the same team. You can learn more about the first mission in a report by UAnimals media.
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