DAM DESTRUCTION LEAVES UKRAINIAN ANIMAL RESCUE GROUPS IN CRISIS

Helen Woodward Animal Center Pledges $35,000 and Seeks Community Match

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif., June 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- It has been nearly a year-and-a-half since the war began in Ukraine and Helen Woodward Animal Center, along with supporters and friends, helped raise over $356,000 to assist with orphan and displaced pets in need. Now, news of destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam has dealt an additional heartbreaking blow. The resulting massive flooding has forced thousands of people and animals to flee their homes, necessitating the evacuation of local shelters throughout the Kherson region. Helen Woodward Animal Center is pledging another $35,000 to support flood relief efforts and is asking the community to match the amount.

In February of 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014. The largest conventional military attack on a sovereign state in Europe since World War II, millions of Ukrainian citizens fled their homes with only their most precious possessions, including their beloved pets. Over the past year-and-a-half, pets have been lost in the scramble to escape the war-torn country; food, money, and warmth have been in desperate short supply; and Ukrainian shelters have faced destruction, violence and the killing of shelter volunteers who have stayed behind to care for orphan pets.

True to its mission of people helping animals and animals helping people, last year, Helen Woodward Animal Center pledged $50,000 to the Ukrainian animal welfare efforts with a heartfelt plea to local animal-lovers to match the pledge. Famous Center friends like Academy Award winning actress Diane Keaton and social media-famous kitten Smush shared Helen Woodward Animal Center's campaign on social media with millions of followers and the donations began coming in an inspiring show of support. In a remarkedly short period of time, the animal-loving community had donated over $350,000, including the Center's original gift. 

Helen Woodward Animal Center facilitated the transfer of these funds to both Ukrainian refugee pet owners, as well as shelters-in-need within Ukraine through both Tallinn City Government Chief Specialist Hellika Landsmann from the Estonia Animal Welfare Society and General Secretary TOZ Danuta Mikusz-Oslislo from the Polish Society for The Protection of Animals. Working closely with UAnimals, a non-profit Ukrainian animal rights organization, the funding has provided food, medical supplies, blankets, kennels, and other crucial needs, in addition to a lifesaving transfer van that has transported orphan pets out of war-torn areas. Only a month ago, Center donor and friend KayBella Cares assisted the Center in supplying a second lifesaving transport van to these efforts. 

Tragically, on June 1^st, video footage showed a massive breach to the Nova Kakhovka dam. Although it is currently unclear when or how the dam was first damaged, the result has been devastating with the dam deemed "fully destroyed." Agricultural land and dozens of villages and towns were quickly flooded with thousands of people from both sides of the river forced to evacuate from their homes. Environmental concerns are even graver, especially surrounding the potential affects flooding may have on a nearby nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia.

"Despite the on-going war, good-news emails and photos of rescues being done, sent from our friends in Ukraine over the past year, have been encouraging," stated Helen Woodward Animal Center VP of Development Renee Resko. "Unfortunately, last week, we received desperate news about the flooding. Homes and shelters are underwater and flooded roads are making rescue trips extremely difficult if not impossible. The photos of orphan animals clinging to the sides of buildings are devastating. We knew we had to do something."

For this reason, Helen Woodward Animal Center is pledging another $35,000 to assist with the relief efforts. Center President and CEO Mike Arms hopes that the community will once again come forward to make a difference.

"I want to make sure that donors understand that 100% of everything received is sent directly to support the Ukrainian animal crisis," explained Arms. "The Center even covers the cost of bank fees charged in the wiring of funds so that animal-lovers donating can rest assured that their money is being utilized to ensure the rescue of pets in need." 

Funds raised will directly support the Ukrainian Animal Rescue Group, Happy Paw, the organization leading the effort to create temporary shelters for animals evacuated from flooded shelters. Supplies such as food, medications, and vaccines lost in the flood will also be replenished. 

To help or for more information head to animalcenter.org/UkraineFloodRelief. You can also call 858-756-4117, or visit Helen Woodward Animal Center at 6461 El Apajo Road in Rancho Santa Fe. 

About Helen Woodward Animal Center
Helen Woodward Animal Center is a private, non-profit organization where "people help animals and animals help people." Founded in 1972 in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., the Center provides services for more than 90,000 people and more than 10,000 animals annually through adoptions, educational and therapeutic programs both onsite and throughout the community. Helen Woodward Animal Center is also the creator of the International Home 4 the Holidays pet adoption drive, the International Remember Me Thursday^® campaign and The Business of Saving Lives Workshops, teaching the business of saving lives to animal welfare leaders from around the world. For more information, go to: www.animalcenter.org.

SOURCE Helen Woodward Animal Center