Jakub Kotowicz loves animals so much that he decided he wanted to spend his life taking care of them. But the Polish veterinarian never thought that he would suddenly be inundated with animals rescued from a war next door.
Kotowicz is with the ADA Foundation, a no-kill animal shelter in Przemysl, Poland, just 30 minutes from the Ukrainian border.
Since the bombs began to fall in Ukraine, he and the other vets and staff have not slept much because the need to find shelter for homeless animals has not diminished.
ADA Foundation staff are risking their lives by driving to Ukraine to help empty shelters, and are providing space and veterinary services for animals refugees cannot keep or transport across the border. The shelter animals are at risk of being abandoned and starving to death as war envelops them.
Kotowicz lifts a large German Shepherd dog over the table. She was rescued from Ukraine. The tag on her necklace says “number 2”, but the team named her Moon.
“She’s sick,” says Kotowicz, as he tries to draw blood. Moon is dehydrated, so it’s hard to find a vein. But she has much more serious problems. The dog is older and has a tumor coming out of one of her mammary glands.
Another vet keeps her immobile while Kotowicz manages to draw blood from her dehydrated body. So he starts by cleaning her ears, digging up a large amount of wax and mite-ridden dirt.
At all times, Moon is docile and immobile. But when the vet checks her temperature, she whines a little. When he removes the thermometer, she relaxes and caresses her caregivers.
“We have to remove this tumor, so she’s going to need surgery,” says Kotowicz as he pats Moon on the head. “I hate to see them suffering like this.”
At the end of the hall are a series of dogs and cats, most of them brought in a huge truck that has just returned from the war-torn areas of Ukraine.
In normal times, the ADA Foundation cares for any injured or abandoned animal – not just cats and dogs. The shelter not only provides the animals with medical care, but also helps them socialize so they can be adopted and the wild ones released into the wild.
In another room at the foundation, more stories of animals in war. A little girl is holding a small goat named Sasha in a soft, warm bed made for the animal. Sasha had a serious leg problem that the ADA vets took care of. Sasha’s front legs are tied with gauze tape. But her pet is noisy.
“A lady from Ukraine brought it with her. She wanted to save him,” said Radosław Fedaczyńsky. “He would have starved to death if he was left in Ukraine without milk.”
The lady, said Fedaczyńsk, left him when fleeing the war in Ukraine. Packing up Sasha before she left, she said she didn’t have a place to take him because she was looking for a place to stay first. But she left him with an instruction. She will come back for Sasha.
“This lady [disse], ‘I love this animal so much and he is part of the family. We want him back when the war is over,’” said Fedaczyńsky.
ADA Foundation officials said they don’t need food — they have a lot of it — but they need almost everything else to help the hordes of animals they’re saving. This includes medical equipment, medicine and funds to pay for transport.
Network for Animals, a charity with offices in London, UK, and Oldsmar, Florida, is a group trying to help the ADA Foundation and other shelters secure funds, but the number of animals and their needs are great. . The vets are working day and night, with hardly any sleep.
Source: CNN Brasil
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