Fundraiser to support animals rescued from the war and human cruelty at Rifugio animal shelter

Chubarek is a little seven-month-old pony who was blinded by a drone explosion in Kharkiv. The debris damaged the animal’s eyes, and even two surgeries did not restore his sight.

Because Chubarek could not see, he was nervous and ran in circles all the time. Andrea Cisternino, the head of Rifugio animal shelter, saw the animal in this state on a video. He took Chubarek under his care.

After a while, 10-month-old Caramella joined him. These two ponies are together all the time. Caramella serves as Chubarek’s eyes. She does not leave him for a moment, because he is immediately very nervous when his friend is absent.

Kabachok was evacuated to Rifugio by soldiers. They saw this small banded pig while performing a combat mission—the animal was heading towards russian positions. Ukrainian defenders rescued the pig. At first, Kabachok lived in an ammo box, and later he was taken to a shelter.

This is just a small part of the animals taken care of at Rifugio shelter in the Kyiv region. There are 40 animals living there, such as horses, cows, sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits, geese. The shelter also helps 200 dogs and 60 cats. Many of them were rescued from the war zone or from human cruelty.

The shelter has been taking care of its animals for over 10 years. Rifugio survived the occupation at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Then, the staff did not leave the animals and took care of them no matter what .

Now we want to help the shelter by buying 60 tons of hay. This way, we will provide the animals with food for a year, and they will not be hungry during the particularly difficult autumn and winter period. The shelter will not have to worry about the lack of money to feed the animals, and it will be able to take care of their other needs.

Please support this cause with a donation. It will help us to feed the animals in the shelter!